No Email Access

[#1]

I do not know anything about ports etc, I only use WEBMAIL just basic things like ebay ,tesco and family connections

as of today 12 nov @ 9am I even struggle to get login page to open , then ages to connect , then all the webmail usual  problems, missing folders , imap server error , cannot open emails after sitting watching it buffering for ages, i have noticed every time i attempt to do anything it goes into refreshing mode ,the speed of webmail reminds me of good old days of dial up,

i must say i do not have fibre i get an average speed of 9/10 mbs with my connection its enough for what we do .

[#2]

Cannot send but download OK.

[#3]

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@mikeb wrote:

Ditto with all the other 212.159.9.xxx servers that are similarly not accessible and/or just not accepting connections

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How would removing failed servers from DNS lookup help? Would it mean that the email client failed immediately (can't resolve domain name) rather than trying for several seconds until a server is deemed to have failed to respond?

For the record, it looks as if incoming mail to Plusnet is now being received in a timely manner. Emails sent yesterday were taking around 6-9 hours to be delivered to a PN mailbox, but one sent this morning arrived within a few seconds. Maybe, just maybe, the POP side of things has been fixed. Webmail is a bit slow but seems to be working. Now we just need them to fix SMTP.

Just to make life "interesting", Gmail are now having problems. As of about 0700 today (12 Nov) their POP/SMTP/webmail servers have been down. When I turned on my PC this morning and started Windows Live Mail, it connected perfectly to the Plusnet POP server (though not the SMTP one - no great surprise) and then it failed to connect to the Gmail POP server. Some computer deity "up there" is having a big laugh at our expense 😞

[#4]

Hallelujah deux!  I too can send emails!  But for how long?

[#5]

No e-mails since Wednesday for me:

"Sending of password for user... did not succeed. Mail server mail.madasafish.com responded: Temporary problem. Please try again later.

Webmail login is taking ages to connect then comes up: Service unavailable.

I'm using the ports and incoming/outgoing mailservers that I was advised to use last time there was an e-mail outage. If this needs to change could one of the mods please pin a clear, concise topic response with instructions please?

[#6]

Nope 😠

[#7]

So now today the email system seems to be running smoothly again. Better than it has for quite a few weeks in fact with none of the usual timeout disconnects from the IMAP server which I’ve become used to, and my Apple and Outlook clients syncing almost instantly. Hurrah! My emails from the last 2 days have mostly turned up too, some of them well over a day since transmission.

Not so good though is that there’s no outbound service. No connection to relay.force9.net. Still unable to send anything despite the assurances from several support staff! 3 days without effective email!

What’s pretty obvious though is that this has been the culmination of a long period of decline in the email system. More or less the same as happened a few years ago. PlusNet simply seems to spend the least in can on any infrastructure or support while BT sucks it dry. What a decline in such a once-great ISP!

[#8]

Thanks for this post, just downloaded Thunderbird and now have emails and what's more I can read them without them disappearing, happy days.

[#9]

This morning, as for most of yesterday, I am still unable to send emails.
Yet, all we have on the Status page is that there is a problem.

Please come out from under the stone, and answer the following questions:

What is the "problem" and how was it caused?

Why is it taking so long?

What is happening now to resolve the issue?

This is causing all of your users serious issues: email is, these days, regarded as important in all manner of activities, so when access is denied we should receive sensible prompt explanations, so let's have them now.

Kenneth Spencer

[#10]

FWIW, my BlackBerry/Android phone is now receiving emails in a timely manner. However, my desktop client (Outlook) hasn't downloaded a single email since Tuesday night, and the PlusNet webmail portal is not working for me.

[#11]

Still no emails from Wednesday and I cant send anything either.

SO NOT FIXED

Webmail not working either

[#12]

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@quelquod wrote:

PlusNet simply seems to spend the least in can on any infrastructure or support while BT sucks it dry. What a decline in such a once-great ISP!

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Agreed. When I chose them in the early 2000s to be my broadband supplier, they had a reputation for excellent technical support staff with whom you could have a proper conversation (they listened to your report of what worked and what didn't, and didn't just work from a script), and they spoke (and more importantly, understood the nuances of) English as a first language.

Gradually things have got worse. They started making it more difficult to raise a support ticket, especially if it didn't fall into one of their pre-defined "noddy" categories, and started taking longer to fix them. Now they seem to have removed the ability to raise tickets offline, and you have to phone them (and get stuck in a long queue) or else chat to them online (during the few hours when chat is actually enabled). For low-priority problems, you want to be able to raise the problem in your own time, lob it over the wall to them and then get on with your life until they get round to fixing it. You don't want to have to stop what you are doing and wait (and wait) until they get round to answering your call.

I used to recommend Plusnet, but I'm not sure whether their technical support is significantly better than anyone else's for this to be their USP. They certainly have their fair share of problems like the current email one, though I'm not sure whether they are better or worse than anyone else, because I don't notice problems with other ISPs' systems that I don't personally use.

[#13]

Outgoing / Send just worked for the first time since this mess began..

[#14]

"How would removing failed servers from DNS lookup help ?"

When anyone does a DNS lookup for sending mail (e.g. for relay.plus.net, relay.force9.net etc) or when accessing any PN hosted websites (e.g. homepages.force9.net, homepages.plus.net etc.) either locally or from anywhere in the world, one of two possible IP addresses is currently being provided.  However, only ONE of those server IP addresses actually performs as it should do !  The other is either not accessible at all or just not working sensibly in any way, shape or form.

You therefore typically have a 50% chance of getting a 'duff' server IP address. If you do get provided with a 'duff' server IP address then not only does nothing work at that particular time but the address is also cached for some period of time in various places as well so nothing works until all of that cached data expires. Another DNS lookup is eventually performed which then has another 50% chance of getting a working IP address to connect to. Rinse and repeat until problem is fixed in one way or another   That's why all these problems are intermittent.

With the 'duff' IP address removed and no longer being provided, everyone receives a working server address every time. Performance will obviously be significantly reduced due to the extra traffic being handled ... assuming said server can actually cope sensibly with the increased traffic of course and doesn't just fall over and die completely mind you.

[#15]

@quelquod glad your email is running smoothly again, as mine sure ain't.  And absolutely no update this morning on the Service Information thread 😩