Update on Plusnet email migration to Greenby

[#1]

Having trouble logging on, could mean anything from cannot log on through to can log on but find doing so irksome!

[#2]

...Trouble is, we don't even know what the "on" is that is being logged to!

[#3]

Regarding Thunderbird:

There's a thread at https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Has-anyone-discovered-how-to-modify-Thunderbird-to-access/td-p/2... and I added a couple of messages at https://community.plus.net/t5/Tech-Help-Software-Hardware-etc/Switching-to-EE/m-p/2039154#M98800.

[#4]

> Is the error when validating incoming or outgoing server?

Outgoing. Receiving email works fine.

[#5]

Try these settings, require sign in ON, full email address and mailbox password, port 465, security SSL/TLS

[#6]

This Greenby business really is turning out to be 'complicated'...

No clear prior info on the distinction between the Greenby Account portal and Greenby Webmail...
Some people are using Greenby Webmail, some client programs...
There are two types of client programs (POP & IMAP)...
Some using clients are sending via Plusnet servers some via Greenby (possibly?)...
Some using client programs are receiving via Plusnet servers, some via Greenby (possibly?)...
Contradictory info regarding the above, and also wrt port settings and log on credentials for same...
There seems to be a coincidental(?) outbreak of Spam emails...

And, to cap it all, I have just found out somebody is using a Greenby webmail account where the UI setup looks like the old Plusnet one and totally unlike the current Greenby webmail UI I am using! 🤣

Have a nice day! 

[#7]

@pvmb wrote: This Greenby business really is turning out to be 'complicated'...

Usually happens when not enough planning or testing is done. Would be interesting to know if this is the first mass migration from one email provider to another in history. Email is only 60 years old and the Internet 70 years old after all.

[#8]

@redsox9 I may be horribly wrong, but I have a feeling your dating of the internet is slightly out. It didn't appear, in any useable form until 1994/5, and was not really publicly useable for a while after that. 

[#9]

@jab1 wrote: I may be horribly wrong, but I have a feeling your dating of the internet is slightly out. It didn't appear, in any usable form until 1994/5.

Wikipedia says:
-The Internet is roughly 55–57 years old, depending on which milestone you count as its true “birth.”
It began as ARPANET in 1969, and the modern Internet took shape in 1983 when TCP/IP became the standard.

[#10]

OK  - Its original arpnet inception was that far back  -- as an experiment, but 'the internet', as it exists today, was only available to consumers in the mid-90's.

I appreciate that Tim Berners-Lee had been working on it in the 80's at CERN, but that was not as a commercial idea. 

[#11]

What I would really like to know is if the Plusnet-Greenby scheme is the first mass migration in history.

[#12]

I don't think so, @redsox9 . BT outsourced their email service - to Yahoo, IIRC - quite a while back, and I understand Virgin also outsourced theirs some years back too.

[#13]

@jab1 wrote: BT outsourced their email service - to Yahoo, IIRC - quite a while back

Then BT, Plusnet's owner, should have plenty of experience to fall back on. Or is Greenby just not up to Yahoo's level?

[#14]

---

@redsox9 wrote:

Or is Greenby just not up to Yahoo's level?

---

I have no idea, and am making this my last post on the subject. Although I have paid for a further year of my email-only accounts hosting, it is only to ensure I have informed all my contacts of my move. Come August next year, I will have severed all ties (possibly excluding this forum) with BT Group PLC.

[#15]

I asked Microsoft's AI Copilot if the Plusnet-Greenby mass email migration is the first in history. It replied:
Plusnet’s migration of its email and legacy brands to Greenby is significant, but it is not the first mass email migration in history. It is, however, one of the largest UK ISP driven consumer email migrations in recent years, especially because it includes multiple legacy brands (Force9, Free Online, Metronet, Madasafish, etc.) being moved simultaneously.

Large scale email migrations have been happening for decades. Hundreds of millions of accounts were migrated when Microsoft replaced Hotmail with Outlook.com (2012–2013).
In the UK multiple ISP email platforms were merged or retired over the 2000s–2010s.
Virgin Media has migrated or retired email systems multiple times.
BT has historically absorbed and migrated email systems from ISPs it acquired.
So in the global or even UK historical sense, Plusnet’s move is not the first but it is notable for several reasons:
1. Scale across many legacy brands at once. Plusnet is migrating not just Plusnet email, but also Force9, Free Online, Metronet, and other inherited brands to Greenby. This multi brand consolidation is relatively rare in 2020s UK ISP operations.
2. The migration includes webspace and domain hosting. This is broader than email alone — it’s a full retirement of legacy hosting infrastructure.
3. It affects long standing accounts dating back to the 1990s
Some Force9 and Free Online accounts are 20–25 years old, making this a deep legacy cleanup.
4. It’s happening during Plusnet’s strategic retreat from non broadband services. Plusnet has already shut down mobile, TV, and home phone services. Email is the next casualty.
5. It’s one of the largest UK consumer email migrations in the mid 2020s. While not the largest ever, it’s certainly one of the most impactful for UK consumers in recent years.

Impactful? You can say that again!