Poor support question response times

[#1]

Well that tells us that the mail server is working and can successfully accessed from your PC. It also tells us that there are 1270 messages sitting waiting to be collected. Do you have your mail client set to leave a copy on the server? I'm wondering if you are experiencing some sort of timeout because it is taking too long to retrieve all the headers of the messages.

[#2]

Yes, I do leave messages on the server. I've cleared one email client, but the other needs to be sorted out.
Would this cause this trouble I have accessing mails during waking hours on weekdays?
I DO have access at weekends, it is weekdays when I am in trouble, but, of course, if I don't get emails during the day, I can't reply to posts easily, and I am not at my computer all the time.
I don't understand how all this works. Once the messages are downloaded to my inbox, does each header have to be accessed and downloaded again?
I have been leaving messages on the server as a sort of backup(!?)

[#3]

If you want to leave messages on the server you would be far better off using IMAP instead of POP3. I'm not sure what madasafish offer and whether you have access to an IMAP webmail utility (Plusnet's webmail used IMAP). When using IMAP it fully synchronises all the mail folders, so that for example if you reply to a message using webmail it will appear in the sent items folder on your PC and vice versa (it therefore gives you a backup of your sent items). When you delete messages they are deleted from the PC and the mail server. You can also create extra folders to file your archived messages which means that you can keep the number of messages in your inbox to a minimum. IMAP will cope quite happily with you have multiple PCs access the mailbox and it will keep them all in sync.
A problem you can get with POP3 is that sometimes your email software will forget which messages it has already downloaded and will download them all again. If you are going to leave a copy on the server I'd suggest that setting it for something like 3 days would be appropriate.
I'm thinking that with the number of messages and the network and mail servers being busier you are getting timeouts.

[#4]

Thanks jelv.
I'll need to sort out the server backload - it is just that I have been doing everything else and Madasafish tech people have not said this may be the problem!
I don't think they do IMAP and if they do, they have not offered that as an option.
I am now getting confused with who runs who because I keep getting replies from Plusnet and with Plusnet links, but I can't access a lot of them because the drop down menu on the customer sign-in doesn't offer the option to say I am Madasafish. (Starting to live up to this name --- mad!)

[#5]

I found this: http://www.madasafish.com/support/email/setup/setup/creating_imap_oe6.shtml
and then this http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/freenetname/t/3593851-imap-when.html which looks more promising.

[#6]

jelv - you really are working hard on this thanks --- much harder than Madasafish Support whose only response to my tickets since Saturday 3.25am is to tell me off about adding tickets!!

UNFORTUNEATELY:-
Support > Email > Setup and configuration > Email setup > Creating your IMAP account - Outlook Express 6
Creating your IMAP account - Outlook Express 6
Note: IMAP email is only available to customers who originally used the Totalise (www.totalise.co.uk) service.
I did a telnet using port 143 to see what happened
Connected to mail.madasafish.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE ACL ACL2=UNION] Courier-IMAP ready. Copyright 1998-2008 Double Precision, Inc.  See COPYING for distribution information.
and they would not let me login!
telnet is connected now, but Mail not receiving - error message
"There may be a problem with the mail server or network. Check the settings for account “***@madasafish.com” or try again." which is my usual weekday daytime service!
The server error encountered was: The connection to the server “mail.madasafish.com” on port 110 timed out.

[#7]

Quote from: v3a

I did a telnet using port 143 to see what happened Connected to mail.madasafish.com. Escape character is '^]'. * OK [CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 UIDPLUS CHILDREN NAMESPACE THREAD=ORDEREDSUBJECT THREAD=REFERENCES SORT QUOTA IDLE ACL ACL2=UNION] Courier-IMAP ready. Copyright 1998-2008 Double Precision, Inc.  See COPYING for distribution information.

Actually, that does look pretty hopeful. Did you try login with the full email address as per Bob's post on thinkbroadband?

[#8]

yes, but got
login***@madasafish.com
login NO Error in IMAP command received by server.
Connection closed by foreign host.
the post in 2008 said IMAP only available to previous Totalise customers tho'
I can't find more recent info on MadAAFish site

[#9]

[me=jelv]wonders where Bob Pullen is hiding when you need him[/me]

[#10]

Bob's doing some digging into this as I'm getting timeouts when trying to access your mailbox. We've seen a couple of other reports of the same issue too.
Sorry for this issue, we'll get back to you when we know more.

[#11]

Re where is Bob - so does v3a!!
Re getting timeouts - so does v3a --- a LOT!!

[#12]

Well 6 days with Plusnet and its failed me.......Speed is just sinking........Thomson Router does not seem to work so
using a old Netgear........I had hoped that Plusnet would be better than Tiscali but no its not.......I also hoped that speeking
to Sheffield would be better than overseas call centers.......In the end does not matter......So poor service from Plusnet..
Roger

[#13]

G3YBO,

Quote

So poor service from Plusnet..

As per my reply to your comments on this post can you let us know about the issue in more detail and what speeds you are actually receiving.

Quote

Sheffield would be better than overseas call centers.......In the end does not matte

Have you tried contacting us about your issue?
I'm happy to help out and look into this, please run a speed test on http://speedtester.bt.com/ and come back to me.
http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,91507.16.html

[#14]

Bob is working and writing to me - thankyou jelv.
Still no daytime emails, but following some of your suggestions.

[#15]

JUST TO UPDATE.
I had a couple of answers from Bob.
The server move is progressing. I had emails at the weekend as usual, and this morning, I am back to the usual Monday with no emails being delivered! There are 11 on the server.
I registered with Plusnet notification for the migration and have had DOZENS of centrally generated emails all weekend saying service is fixed -- - OH no it isn't --- Oh yes it is, etc. -- Pantomine season after alll :-}