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autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

jch
Dabbler
Posts: 21
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

I have SMTP enabled and the MX records for my plus.com domain look like this:
<name>.plus.com has address <address>
<name>.plus.com mail is handled by 20 mx.last.plus.net.
<name>.plus.com mail is handled by 1 mail.<name>.plus.com.
<name>.plus.com mail is handled by 5 autoturn.plus.net.uk.
The mx.last.plus.net and autoturn.plus.net.uk entries will go away and all I'll be left with is the direct entry.  The email that I just got and the FAQ both helpfully suggest using a third party MX redirector for mail.<name>.plus.com.    That's all very well, but I can't add entries to the <name>.plus.com domain can I?
This is particularly worrying because the important messages that go to <domain>.plus.com are messages from plusnet and I don't want to run the risk of losing those and I don't really see what else I can do, other than, of course, stop sending messages to my SMTP listener.
125 REPLIES 125
SimonHobson
Rising Star
Posts: 190
Thanks: 41
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Personally I couldn't have been happier when PlusNet finally bowed to customer pressure to allow the automatic mx.last.plus.net to be removed from mx records. After several years of lost emails etc thanks to multiple problems, not to mention all the spam it let through, having full control of my own server was a relief. Actually, at one point it got so bad I moved my main domain away from PlusNet and hosted my DNS elsewhere. Unfortunately, a couple of other domains were held hostage since you can't host a website using the included (on my package) website hosting unless the DNS is held by PlusNet.
If this sounds bitter, then you'd be right - it was "frustrating" being unable to persuade the so called experts that what was a very obvious problem existed.
In practical terms it shouldn't be anything to worry about unless your server or connection is particularly unreliable. If your connection or server is down, then any inbound mail will queue up elsewhere (at whatever machine is attempting to deliver it to you) and this queue should last for several days before the message is bounced as undeliverable. Once your server or connection recovers then the mail will get delivered.
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
Fixes: 169
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

As the above posts suggest, we sent an email this morning to customers who are using our autoturn service, the content of the email can be seen below:
Quote
Your username: username

Dear Mr First Name,

You are receiving this email as our records indicate that you have your plus.com, force9.co.uk, free-online.co.uk and/or domain email delivered to you directly using SMTP. You can read more about SMTP email on our website here -
http://www.plus.net/support/email/smtp_mail.shtml
We strongly recommend that you read this message in its entirety as it contains important information about some changes that we will be making that may affect the delivery of your email.
When using SMTP delivery all email to your Plusnet email address (and any domains you have hosted with us) is routed directly to a mail server of your choosing. This is normally a machine connected to your broadband-enabled telephone line, and is typically located using the 'static IP address' that we assign to your modem, router or one of the machines on your local network.
One of the features we currently provide with this service is access to a backup MX server we call 'Autoturn'.
Autoturn is a machine on the Plusnet network that is used for storing SMTP email messages when your own mail server cannot be reached. Examples of this include when your broadband service develops a fault, or times during which your modem, router or email server is powered off.
Messages are typically de-queued from Autoturn by issuing a 'finger' command from your mail server as follows:
finger postmaster@autoturn.plus.net
Once issued, this finger command causes Autoturn to attempt to redeliver queued messages to your mail server.
Whilst we recognise that some customers have a legitimate use for this service, the number that are still using it is few, the support overheads are significant, and the platform is built on old architecture that is no longer scalable in its current environment.
For the above reasons, we have taken the decision to fully decommission the platform as part of a data centre consolidation exercise that we will be carrying out in approximately 90 days time.
As part of the same work we will also be decommissioning our mx.last.plus.net platform. Whilst these servers behave slightly differently to the Autoturn platform, there may still be some customers who rely on them for SMTP email delivery.
At the time of writing, a typical customer using Plusnet for SMTP email delivery will have the following DNS entries for email:
MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = mail.yourdomain.co.uk
MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = autoturn.plus.net.uk
MX preference = 20, mail exchanger = mx.last.plus.net
Once the Autoturn and mx.last.plus.net platforms are decommissioned, these customers will only have a single email delivery record.
MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = mail.yourdomain.co.uk
This means that there's the potential for your email to bounce or fail to arrive if you run your own email server and it's ever offline.
If you're dependent on our SMTP email delivery service then there are a number of ways that you can prepare for this, one of which is to subscribe to a third party backup MX service. In order to help you better understand the implications of the changes we're making we have created a support article over on our Community Support Library that you may be interested in reading -
http://community.plus.net/autoturnmx-last-decommission-faq-july-2011/
If you have any further questions about the contents of this email then please don't hesitate to get in touch over on our Community Forums where we'll be happy to offer our guidance -
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/board,65.0.html
We will send another reminder in just over a month's time to remind you again of the changes that we'll be making.

Best regards,
Bob Pullen
Plusnet Customer Support
http://www.plus.net
This email has been sent as it contains important information about your service from Plusnet. Please do not reply to this email as it has been sent from an unmonitored address.
Email ref: DC018
--
Plusnet plc
Registered Office: Internet House, 2 Tenter Street, Sheffield, S1 4BY Registered in England no: 3279013
Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Topic made sticky - please post further discussions here
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Anyone looking for a free mx backup I have been using http://www.rollernet.us/ for the last 6 months without any problems for 3 domains. There are limits over a 7 day period so only suitable if your email server is run 24/7.
jch
Dabbler
Posts: 21
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

That's all very well, but there is no way to define an MX record for <domain>.plus.com is there?   Soon my  plus.com domain will have a single MX record and while my server is up and running almost all of the time and reachable for almost all that time, there is no backup server.   Mostly, as the first reply affirmed, this is not an issue as most places will queue mail for several days before rejecting it.  But not everywhere.  Some sending domains won't queue mail for very long at all or have poor connectivity or both.
The suggested solution (unless you don't care about the odd e-mail going astray) simply doesn't work.   Can we either have a secondary MX for plus.com domains or the ability to add our own MX records for <domain>.plus.com?
adie:quote
SteveA
Pro
Posts: 1,847
Thanks: 106
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎17-06-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

My domain (tty.org.uk) is hosted through JTN and my mail is forwarded to pemmaquid.plus.com (which has SMTP forwarding set).
My JTN account has backup4 in its mail entries set to mail.just-the-name.co.uk.
So the question is... do I need another backup server, and if so where do I set it?
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Why do you forward to pemmaquid.plus.com then set SMTP? Why not have a MX entry at JTN set to pemmaquid.plus.com
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

In fact looking up tty.org.uk point at the same address pemmaquid.plus.com so could use tty.org.uk in the MX record.
SteveA
Pro
Posts: 1,847
Thanks: 106
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎17-06-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Quote from: itsme
Why do you forward to pemmaquid.plus.com then set SMTP?

Because its something that has changed over time - it used to go the pop3 postbox but then I changed it all to smtp forwarding and given the problems I've had with JTN and email forwardingc(which was to do with JTN/PN internal configurations) I didn't want to touch anything in case it all went wrong again
doctorh
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎09-11-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Quote from: jch
The mx.last.plus.net and autoturn.plus.net.uk entries will go away and all I'll be left with is the direct entry.   The email that I just got and the FAQ both helpfully suggest using a third party MX redirector for mail.<name>.plus.com.    That's all very well, but I can't add entries to the <name>.plus.com domain can I?

Completely agree .. PlusNet should give us some way of manually setting the MX records for our email domains so we can add 3rd Party secondary MX handlers (and RollerNet does look good).
Having a static IP address and being able to have the ISP domain email delivered to my SMTP server is the ONLY reason I stay with PlusNet (almost 10 years now since joining Force9) removing Autoturn and NOT providing a mechanism to edit MX records would make me consider moving.
vc91
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎12-07-2011

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

I am an IT consultant who has been recommending plus.net to my clients for many years now and am very disappointed that plus.net are removing the smtp mail backup service.
They say it is costly and not many customers use it (surprised about that one). But surely if current SMTP customers changed to POP (to guarantee no lost emails) this would cost plus.net even more due to the increased email storage requirements rather than just being able to forward the emails through their servers to the end users email server.
It seems as though plus.net have just decided to remove a service to save themselves associated costs. But do they realise that this service may have helped customers decide to enter into a contract with plus.net, it certainly was part of the reason I have been recommending plus.net.  I do not think this is fair on clients to remove a service that was included in the contract when it was agreed.
I would be very interested to see a response from plus.net to this post.
Paul Hollings.
bobpullen
Community Gaffer
Community Gaffer
Posts: 16,869
Thanks: 4,950
Fixes: 315
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Quote from: jch
The mx.last.plus.net and autoturn.plus.net.uk entries will go away and all I'll be left with is the direct entry.   The email that I just got and the FAQ both helpfully suggest using a third party MX redirector for mail.<name>.plus.com.    That's all very well, but I can't add entries to the <name>.plus.com domain can I?

This is true, and in retrospect I should probably have factored this into the comms that went out!
Quote from: vc91
They say it is costly and not many customers use it (surprised about that one). But surely if current SMTP customers changed to POP (to guarantee no lost emails) this would cost plus.net even more due to the increased email storage requirements rather than just being able to forward the emails through their servers to the end users email server.

It would cost us comparatively less.
Quote from: vc91
But do they realise that this service may have helped customers decide to enter into a contract with plus.net, it certainly was part of the reason I have been recommending plus.net.

Excepting the odd case, I think that's probably one of the only instances it would happen though (word of mouth/referral). The fact that we offer inbound SMTP delivery isn't something we advertise overly prominently.
Quote from: vc91
I do not think this is fair on clients to remove a service that was included in the contract when it was agreed.

I'll see if there's any case-by-case exceptions that can be made for back-up MX provision but I can't promise anything. If the fact that we're removing it is something that's inclined to make you look elsewhere then it's unlikely that we'd hold you to any contractual obligations.

Bob Pullen
Plusnet Product Team
If I've been helpful then please give thanks ⤵

jch
Dabbler
Posts: 21
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Quote from: Bob
Quote from: jch
The mx.last.plus.net and autoturn.plus.net.uk entries will go away and all I'll be left with is the direct entry.   The email that I just got and the FAQ both helpfully suggest using a third party MX redirector for mail.<name>.plus.com.    That's all very well, but I can't add entries to the <name>.plus.com domain can I?

This is true, and in retrospect I should probably have factored this into the comms that went out!

Any chance of factoring it in now?  What I'm most concerned with is a protracted outage causing messages from plusnet to be lost.
jelv
Seasoned Hero
Posts: 26,785
Thanks: 971
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎10-04-2007

Re: autoturn decommision and *.plus.com domains

Change the contact email address on your account to gmail or something similar - you'll get two copies of the emails, one to postmaster and one to gmail. That will cover any protracted outage.
jelv (a.k.a Spoon Whittler)
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