Another cannot send email

[#1]

These are the details for the ongoing problems with my Globalnet.co.uk email address.

Connecting with Plusnet router.

Email problems since Tuesday afternoon (9th November), started to get login failures and timeouts.

This is not very unusual, but usually resolves after about an hour. I normally check Globalnet email with Mailwasher and leave the mail on the server for a few days before downloading with Thunderbird. So I first noticed the problem with Mailwasher failing to login.

As the problem got more persistent I checked webmail and found that gave a login error. Also login failures with Thunderbird, ipad email app and Android phone app.

I had no email access on any device until this weekend when email started to come back intermittently on random devices.

So my current situation is still intermittent email access.

As of now for example I can login with webmail (slow and frequent fetch errors), there is no access with Thunderbird on PC, ipad or phone apps.

Suggestions I've read here for changing server details, restarting devices etc. haven't working. Access is just completely random.

[#2]

#GlobalSteve

I feel your pain conducting a change of email address.  Have you thought of creating your own domain ?  While there is an annual charge most domain providers provide email redirection meaning that you can change email provider at will and never have to tell the world that you have made the change.

For example in my father's case I just pointed his published email address HisName@MyDomainName.net to the new email server.  The whole process took less than a minute.

Just a thought.

[#3]

Well I have been out and about and my Phone android email still gets and error that the passwords wrong (it's not), but my PC email (thunderbird) is now working!! However as I'm not always at my desk I need it to work on my phone.  Arrggh.

[#4]

@John9256 I am exactly the smae as yourself. Started with Callnetuk, then Globalnet, then Madasafish etc etc finally leading to Plusnet.  I feel sure I recall the name Brightview somewhere in the mix as well.

I feel sure that we havent specifically been forgotten and that this present ongoing outage effects pretty much everyone using the PN email services.   In fact my own tests over the years have proved that no matter which login server you use in your email settings i.e. mail.globalnet.co.uk vs mail.plus.net etc etc etc generally seem to point to the same required authorising server needed to verify account credentials.  So it just seems that until PN actually sort out their technical issues that we are all in the same park.

Just wanted you to know that we are in the same situation, don't feel alone.

[#5]

@Skids thanks for your comment.  Indeed THAT is exactly what I have done.  I have now purchased and registered my own domain and have created two brand new email accounts attahced to my new domain, the cost can be less than £20 per/year.  One of the new email addresses I use for the non-critical contacts and that at the moment is on a FORWARD RULE to my Gmail account.   My second new email address is now my main one for all critical and important communications, and I can either accept emails direct into it, or forward the emails to wherever I wish.

For those who may not understand what this means, it is as follows.  You buy and register your OWN domain name using a reputable company.  Then you can create a fresh new email address that you register with your suppliers and companies.  You can then choose to simply set up a FORWARD RULE to whatever other email address your have at present . . . . . . the advantage of this means that if your normal email address fails to work SUCH AS THESE PN SERVER FAILURES AT THIS TIME, then all you need to do is login into your domain providers website and change your FORWARD RULE to another email addres that is working OK. That way you can for sure alway get your emails ok in the event of a future simulair issue such as these PN problems.

[#6]

A propos of these latest comments, I ask this question here in case it helps others in a similar situation.

I already have a domain name that I acquired for free when Plusnet took over my previous ISP.  I use that domain name in my primary email address.  I sometimes use that email address also as an alias to send from Gmail or Hotmail (Outlook) accounts, and I can get emails to the primary address automatically forwarded to those accounts.  BUT I think in each of those cases the traffic it routed through Plusnet's servers, so while it's a good device for presenting a particular desired identity, it's not a solution for bypassing the Plusnet server debacle.
So if I transfer the domain to a paid-for hosting service (which I'm interested to do to do, to get away from Plusnet), will emails directed to the email address that includes that existing domain still pass through Plusnet?  If so, it would negate the value of the move.  Thoughts welcome.

[#7]

@DEP I am not too sure, however knowing the manner the system functions I would think that unfortunately NO the email are still unlikely to reach your target if (under the present type of PN outage) if you still rely on using any email address that needs use over the PN domain and server services.    I hope I am wrong, but will be very surprised if your propsal worked under the present outage situation even using a hosted domain service.

If you do go for your own hoisted domain, which I highly recommend, then remember that you will only gain the big advantages if you  bite the bullet and register your new hosted domain email address with all your service companies.  YES it really is a lot of work, but the ongoing future gains are tremedous as well as being fully under YOUR control regading where your decide to  forward/taget your emails to.

[#8]

@DEP just to added to the above.  Does your present own domain name you have with Plusnet, have the ability to be transferred to a different hosting company.  If YES then you are sorted, if Plusnet dont allow you own domain name to be transferred then not so good.  Good luck.

[#9]

@GlobalSteve Thanks, I'm not sure - the only quick look into it I took just now seemed to need me to be almost buying the new thing before I found out the answer to that question.  But I'll investigate further.

[#10]

This has been going on for a few days now and I find myself checking here as the official PN response is useless, with no end in sight.

I am affected exactly the same as the rest of you, with an on/off email service. I have been managing though, as one of my three methods usually produces my inbox emails.

I am using Gmail through an Android tablet, eM Client through my PC and Plusnet Webmail through the browsers on both devices. Usually one of them connects at some time during the day.

It is worrying that PN have not identified the problem, presumably because it is random. In my experience, it makes little difference if you try to access emails through a client or Plusnet webmail.

I am using PN fibre broadband and that has been working normally the whole time.

[#11]

OK, on reading old threads here about not being able to connect via a mobile device (I have an old dialstart email, but this seems to apply to all) because the IP address has been blackballed by Plusnet on Mobile devices (my PC workstation on the same ISP gets and sends ok at the moment).   I decided to test this theory and turn on a VPN service on my phone (giving me a different IP address) and low and behold I received emails again!   I turned it off... no more receiving emails and the password error message. 

So Plusnet seem to be fiddling about with their settings somewhere at the moment in regard to this email fiasco.  Without me touching a VPN service, my ability to send and receive emails has been going on and off for the past 3 or more days.  I'm off to get me a new domain address and start swapping all my mail.  What a pain in the ****!!!  At least, with a VNP service, I can now see my email on Samsung Email App.

[#12]

@Fes  I too am on a dialstart email (pre madasafish) and have had no problems (prior to this week, obviously) with my mobile devices. I did have problems with my IP address a while ago, these are traded by all the ISP's, which made me unable to use *some* UK websites.  I swapped to another, new UK *fixed* IP address from Plusnet & have had no problems since. Maybe you could request a new, fixed, UK IP address from Plusnet ?

The current email problems are moving amongst all my methods of acessing emails. PC email client just burst back into life having not worked all afternoon. Gmail through my android tablet is also working currently as is webmail through my PC browser. Happy days!

Let's see what happens tomorrow.

[#13]

@Fes

Thank you for the details - that IS interesting - it supports my uninformed as yet unfounded suspicion that this could be user IP address related as opposed to the email service itself. I’ve highlighted your observations.

[#14]

Well whatever they've done my Thunderbird/Freenetname account which has been open throughout automatically logged on about 20 mins ago, and (almost) all my emails back to the start of this fiasco on 9th Nov have downloaded. All 296 of them (I've just counted!).

Hopefully this saga has now ended, but I would really like to know what happened/went wrong and why it has taken so long to fix.

I would also give thanks to the techies who have been working to sort it out - but a little info would have been worth -while.

[#15]

"I would also give thanks to the techies who have been working to sort it out - but a little info would have been worth -while."

I think you may be jumping the gun there. Things seemed to be back to normal last night and then this morning we were back to square one. By Saturday night I could download all my email to Thunderbird and send email too. And I haven't been too badly affected since then.

But a major problem has been accessing P/N's webmail. Up to 2 hours ago it's been virtually impossible to login for most of today, although that was working properly late last night. Now I see the login web page is loading reasonably fast again, and emails are loading almost at reasonable speed. I'm willing to bet that situation won't last by tomorrow mid-morning.

[#16]

"I would also give thanks to the techies who have been working to sort it out - but a little info would have been worth -while."

I think you may be jumping the gun there. Things seemed to be back to normal last night and then this morning we were back to square one. By Saturday night I could download all my email to Thunderbird and send email too. And I haven't been too badly affected since then.

But a major problem has been accessing P/N's webmail. Up to 2 hours ago it's been virtually impossible to login for most of today, although that was working properly late last night. Now I see the login web page is loading reasonably fast again, and emails are loading almost at reasonable speed. I'm willing to bet that situation won't last by tomorrow mid-morning.