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Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

wstephenp
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎13-06-2007

Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

I have twice recently had mail refused by new contacts, both friends who want my mail, and suspect it is because of the recent security problems at plusnet. Very hard to continue to recommend plusnet in the future as a reliable hassle free provider if other ISP's are treating messages from users as spam?Huh
Your mail to the following recipients could not be delivered because they are not accepting mail from ****@w*******p.plus.com:AOL (I edited the **s for privacy)

    SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:<*********@ms**.co.uk>:
    host mailgate.ms**.co.uk [195.11.99.251]: 550 Rule imposed as *****@w*******p.plus.com is blacklisted on SpamCop (see www.spamcop.net)
19 REPLIES 19
Mark
Grafter
Posts: 1,852
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Hi there.
Interesting question and my answer would be no (well I'd say that anyway wouldnt I) Smiley
In reality we are much better than we were last summer. Support has come on leaps and bounds, call wait times are averaging about 4 mins and customer satisfaction levels are sitting at 63% either extremely satisfied or very satisfied, with the remainder spread over 5 other options. We'll get some detail on those stats out to the community quite soon.
In terms of your issue. This is down to how AOL deal with blacklists and is a frequent problem not just for our customers but for others.
If you would like to raise a ticket including the email headers to our support team we'll investigate this and speak with those responsible for the blacklist to have the IP address removed.
Hope we hear from you soon.
mmsni
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎16-06-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Sorry Mark, I would have to agree with wstephenp.
I have also had e-mails rejected and they were not AOL based.
To add insult to injury I am now getting alot of spam - yes they are marked as spam but they are not being directed to the spam folder. I know you had problems and that is why you changed to Squirrel Mail. Previously I had NO spam and was confident in referring Plus Net to my friends, but there is no way I would do it at the moment. I could not inflict my friends with the disadvantage of spending so much time each day "cleaning" their inbox.  Cry
You have a good point about your support and the openness of the plus net site which lets us know of problems and how they are being resolved. Replies to tickets are also answered quickly - it is just the SPAM that really irritates me!!!
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Hi there,
We have a few things lined up to resolve these issues for you, including:
- Better Spam protection, and more advanced features and configuration options
- A free .uk domain, which combined with the option of turning off email sent to  @username.plus.com, which should solve the issue for most users
- A change of username, if you want to start afresh as it were
You can find more info here and here.
Anyone joining since the webmail incident would not be affected by this specific spam problem, but we do appreciate the issues you are having as a result of this, and are working as hard as possible to sort these out for you.
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Quote from: mmsni

To add insult to injury I am now getting alot of spam - yes they are marked as spam but they are not being directed to the spam folder.

Hi there,
Just to add to my previous reply, have you set the mail to be delivered to the spam folder if marked? You can do this via the 'Manage my mail' settings in the Member Centre.
If you are getting mail which should be marked as spam but isn't you can forward it to spam@despamchecker.plus.com and it will be used to further train the spam filter.
By the same token if you are getting mail marked as spam which isn't you can send it to notspam@despamchecker.plus.com.
The spam filter will take training, and we rely on examples from customers (as well as our own mailboxes) to make this better on an ongoing basis.
The problem with other mail servers rejecting your mail can be down to many reasons, but will not be related to the spam incident.
Some mail servers use blacklists to determine whether mail is accepted or not, which is a little heavyhanded to be honest. Our relay servers do occasionally get blacklisted but in most cases this shouldn't and doesn't prevent the delivery of mail (it may however increase the chances of your mail being marked as spam).
If you can give us a little more information I'd be happy to get our networks guys to take a look (please PM me a copy of the bounce message and headers) and we'll see what we can do for you.
mcclim
Grafter
Posts: 111
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Quote
- A free .uk domain, which combined with the option of turning off email sent to  @username.plus.com, which should solve the issue for most users

Mand, is there any news as to when this will be available ?
Ianwild
Grafter
Posts: 3,835
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Yesterday - Login to the member centre and you should see the option.
Ian
Mand
Grafter
Posts: 5,560
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

The free domain was launched today, not yesterday.  Smiley
You should have an alert on the front page of the Member Centre.
mcclim
Grafter
Posts: 111
Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Thanks Ian + Mand... Smiley
Andrew_Wilkins
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎28-06-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Yes I find Plusnet is no longer as reliable as a few years ago. I have and am still having messages returned by some of my contacts with similar messages as reported by other plusnet customers.
I have contacted these people by other means and some have investigated and then told me that other internet companies are having trouble with PlusNet messages and have blacklisted them. This has come from several internet companies - not just AOL.
I cannot therefore recommend PlusNet with confidence and as charges for services are falling I may myself reluctantly have to migrate to another supplier.
Nicodemus
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎28-06-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

I would have to agree with the premise that Plusnet is becoming less reliable.
I would state this not just because of the email problems (plusnet is effectively an open relay smtp server, plusnet got hacked and spam went through the roof and is still quite bad) but because of the poor reliability of the Elacoya traffic shaping and other load balancing network equipment.
I have tested the Plusnet connection from four separate telephone lines on three separate exchanges and all confirm that line speed (and the acid test throughput) on the  BT download test is between 1.5 to 2 times higher than the same tests on the Plusnet network either from the Plusnet speedtest or via independant tests across the plusnet gateway irrespective of the time of day.
Plusnet however can not be bothered to either investigate or admit they have a problem.
You may have noted I have not refered anyone for some time as a result.
I have a £40 a month business connection and my neighbour on a £19.99 AOL connection is getting 2 to 4 times my best download speed every single day.
I have over £300 pounds worth of Cisco Router sitting on BT installed master socket and filter as the only piece of equipment on the line and it still does not perform like my neighbours cheap belkin router and his cheap AOL connection.
Plusnets response was to tell me, following a computer generated email stating that my line speed was 0 and that this was considered acceptable by BT for my product (obviously a pre-generated fob off irrespective of actual test speed), that I should stay at the shop till after midnight or come in at 6 in the morning to run some of their tests following dropping the firewall for my entire corporate network.
There are too many script kiddies on the support tool and not enough engineers is what I think. I know that the average punter hasn't got the brains he or she was born with when you put them in front of computer because I do the support thing with my customers every day. However it would be great  if when you do get a technically qualified complaint that it made it straight through the dross filters and actually got to someone who
a) understood the complaint
b) had the power to do something about it
what do the rest of you think?
Kelly
Hero
Posts: 5,497
Thanks: 380
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Quote from: Nicodemus
I would have to agree with the premise that Plusnet is becoming less reliable.

Great post Nicodemus.  I need to get someone to convince you otherwise.  I'll pick this up tomorrow.
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
Mark
Grafter
Posts: 1,852
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

Hi Nicodemus.
Thank you for that valuable feedback. there is a lot for us to work with there and as kelly has already stated we'll get one of the team to address your concerns tomorrow.
I would do so myself, however I'm about to pack a case and head off for a couple of days.
I really appreciate your feedback and look forward to resolving your concerns.
Rikaitch
Grafter
Posts: 212
Registered: ‎08-06-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

A couple of things I have noticed to throw into the cooking pot...
Firstly, the CSC seem to think the problem is always the customer now. You have to convince them otherwise. A good example of this is a faulty line, whereas a few years ago you could send a ticket along the lines of "slow connection, loss of sync a lot" and they'd say BT will look into it. Now they ask for you to complete 3 independant tests on BT's speed test facility (which I note is not very reliable when you have a 150kbps connection).
Another example is email problems seemingly fixing the spam problem. A customer's email was blackholing all her emails, because she was sending email to another account name that hadn't had a mailbox set up. Yes, I agree catch alls on email being switched off is a good idea, but it would have been nice to notify the customer. Another customer is constantly getting password rejected errors, and the next time she checks, it works. A ticket was raised, and they basically said "check your password." Well how does it work at all?
prichardson
Grafter
Posts: 1,503
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Is Plusnet becoming less reliable?

If you have any ticket numbers to go along with these, it will be excellent. We can use these to feedback accordingly and any things happen appropriately.
Raising a ticket regarding an authentication problem after the fact is of little or no use. You can no longer fix what is not problem and you cannot locate a fault that no longer exists.
That is if I am reading the pattern of events correctly.
I can only assume by such a response, that we had good reason to say so, otherwise, we can only ever give general information on what can be done.
The email one is the main one I want to know about. It depends on what was requested and the response, however I am concerned we are simply changing settings without informing the customer properly.