Mail delivery to recipients taking 5hrs plus

[#1]

I sent six test emails this morning to a Gmail friend, using the @googlemail.com version of his address, and all six delivered more or less instantly.   He reminded me though that I should have sent them all simultaneously to his @gmail.com address, as a comparison.  I might still do that as another test.

Well done to the person who spotted this workaround.

[#2]

I agree entirely. It does make you wonder at Google's logic.

[#3]

I too have tried the work around suggested by Redtux and it worked for me, many thanks.

Im by no means an authority in email protocol but surely Plusnet have got to identify and resolve the underlying issue with their email system or sort things out with Google via whatever industry body ensures all adhere to the rules.

There is an earlier mention about email security which I have also had flagged up to me when establishing my email account with plusnet via Thunderbird.

I think we need a definitive comment from Plusnet on the Google issue.

[#4]

There are earlier posts on this thread from Plus Net but I am left with the impression that PN wants to use its limited resources on other projects such as the Billing System which worked perfectly well before it was 'upgraded', and that this problem has a very low priority. Perhaps less trite TV advertising and the concentration of resources on this problem might be a way forward.

[#5]

Sorry, I haven't been here to update for a little while but i just ant to let you all know where we are at.

• The dependant engineering works we were waiting for are now complete.
• We've changed our outgoing mail servers so that all active email addresses now have access to our outbound mail servers, regardless of if they're a Plusnet customer not. 
• If an email address falls into inactive (not logged into for 6 months) it can be reactivated by logging in, access to the outbound mail servers will be granted within 24 hours.
• We've created an email, advising customers that if they're not using our outbound mail servers they'll need to change their client's settings.
• We're aiming to get a test batch of about 50k emails sent out on Tuesday 5th Feb, we will then measure over the next few days the propensity to contact us off the back of the email.
• Once we know how likely customers are to contact us off the back of the email we can look at the volume of emails we can send daily that the contact centre can handle. 
• We will then email every email address that we supply with this information (circa 2m)
• Then we can deploy SPF records 
• From this day forward customers who use their own outbound server risk having their mail flagged as spam by the recipient. 

We know this has been a long road, but we are working on how to end this delay its just not a straightforward solution.

Thanks for your patience.

[#6]

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@JHA1E wrote:

There are earlier posts on this thread from Plus Net but I am left with the impression that PN wants to use its limited resources on other projects such as the Billing System which worked perfectly well before it was 'upgraded',

No, we had a change freeze whilst we launched billing, its sensible to do that and is common in business because of that we know that anything that's broken is likely to do with something that came in the billing engine release and that helps us troubleshoot and prioritise.

and that this problem has a very low priority. Perhaps less trite TV advertising and the concentration of resources on this problem might be a way forward.

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This has a P2 rating, that's not low at all, internally we've taken this very seriously but it's not as straightforward as you believe and emails go to everybody else perfectly fine, we're having to deploy resource to change how we operate when we're operating within the standard email protocols. 

[#7]

To amplify the above

• If you only use Webmail, there is nothing you need to do
• If in your email program you use any of the Plusnet "family" of outbound (SMTP) email servers there is nothing you need to do

The need to act now largely applies to those users who after leaving Plusnet had free email accounts and previously could not use PlusNet's SMTP servers.  I recommend that such users check and if necessary change their SMTP server configuration - help is available here - https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/How-to-change-your-outgoing-server-on-a-mail-client/m-p/1606155#...

If you need further help, please post here in the first instance rather than calling support.

[#8]

I'm grateful to JonoH and Townman for the above posts.

It seems to me that PlusNet are doing everything possible to rectify what is a very tricky problem - and at long last it sounds as if there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Personally, I doubt if Google are even aware that PN emails to @googlemail addresses work fine while emails to @gmail.com addresses don't. They're clearly not the all-seeing, all-knowing powerhouse they'd have us believe!

Townman: you mention in your post a "family" of PN outgoing SMTP servers.

I'm only aware of relay.plus.net.

What are the others?

[#9]

Townman implies that using Web mail is OK, agreed, and people who have left Plusnet are having a problem.  I am in Plusnet and use Windows Live Mail and do still have a problem.  However the work around of using @googlemail.com does work OK.

[#10]

I gave up 5 weeks ago and am slowly migrating everything to my gmail address.

[#11]

Webmail - no I am not implying that webmail users are not encountering this problem. I am though advising that the consequential constraints of the attempt to mitigate gmail’s behaviour (implementation of SPF) does not give rise to any need for Webmail users to do anything at all.

Plusnet family of SMTP servers - PlusNET provides service branded email services for other (virtual) ISPs - they each have their own SMTP servers as listed in the linked topic. Plusnet users can only user relay.plus.net

[#12]

Congratulations to Redtux for the Googlemail solution - give that man/woman a year's free PlusNet subscription and don't tell Google. 

I first posted here last autumn. My work round up to now has been to get my dad to set up a Gmail account for email to me and other Gmail users.  This has been a nuisance for him to have to check two email accounts.  Last week I was getting cross at a friend for not replying to an info request -  but of course she had, from a PlusNet account and her response took 40 hours to reach me.

Plusnet's recent updates here are useful but my experience is that those with PlusNet email accounts tend to be less sophisticated users and any instructions on changes necessary should be very simple with minimal technical jargon.  I recommend step-by-step with screen shots

[#13]

To be fair I think plusnet users can be very technical but not all as with any broadband service.

[#14]

JonoH and Townman, thanks for the updates.

Townman, you say if we are using any of the Plusnet "family" of outbound (SMTP) email servers there is nothing we need to do:  I am a force9 customer - can I confirm with you please that "relay.force9.net" falls into this category?  Thanks. 

[#15]

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@stumped wrote:

I am a force9 customer - can I confirm with you please that "relay.force9.net" falls into this category?  Thanks. 

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It's absolutely fine, you'll need to do nothing.