Latest Email Problems

[#1]

Hi @Polaris1 

Can you please expand on exactly what issues your are still encountering?

For me, Plusnet email delivery continued to be slow until late last night / early this morning, sending email being very problematic.  I have just ran a couple of tests sending emails from addresses which would not work yesterday and received the delivery within one minute.

Logging on to webmail has been very problematic.  I have not been able to logon to my account (starts with "T") but have been able to log on to another (starts with "B"), but having logged on, email remains slow.

There appears to be two issues (a) account log on and (b) email server responsiveness.  Knowing which issue you have might help offer a solution.

[#2]

It's not Plusnet practice (nor is it normal for any large company) to go into detail about network issues and or outage causes. 

I'm sorry but we probably won't be posting information about the cause, or the remedy.

@pfindlater really sorry you're still experiencing issues. I hope service returns to normal for you soon. 

[#3]

Why is this thread showing status Fixed?

Service is even worse than Thursday - cannot connect at all with Outlook client, just get server connect errors.  Webmail will login and show headers, but then loses the server connection.

On the positive side, emails from Wednesday are now appearing in the Inbox.

[#4]

Fact is, the PN email system is inefficient, to say the least.

Webmail has had issues for years, yes I know there are other means of access, but I want and use webmail in addition to other apps.

PN do not address the issue of webmail and its constant error messages.

They don't want to support it, despite offering it, and seem happy to frustrate people that need it.

PN are winning the battle of forcing me to another provider, but if you have used PN email for many years, as I have, it is nigh on impossible to make that change as every attempt to access the platform is thwarted by system errors.

PN want users to keep inboxes tidy, try and do that when the emails you delete reappear after doing so!

Rubbish.

[#5]

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@MG56 wrote:

Why is this thread showing status Fixed?

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The OP marked this as a fix to his/her query, it doesn't have to mean that service is restored. 

[#6]

I have just sent an email through Plusnet (something I never normally have occasion to do) on Mozilla Thunderbird on my Windows computer.  It sent OK and was received.

Settings:

SMTP: relay.plus.net
Port: 587
Password submitted insecurely

[#7]

I cannot send emails. Getting a connection to server failed or dropped message

Most incoming emails seem OK though difficult to know if all have come through

[#8]

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@jonnyfriendly wrote:

I welcome the PN response/update but really, this does not attempt to explain the nature of the problem.

Maybe the responder has been kept out of the loop by PN techies.

Apologies to Adam945 if he has been given as little information as we have, but as has been suggested elsewhere this is now serious and affecting peoples lives/livelihoods The least PN should do is communicate regularly, effectively and with real information. If PN do not treat their customers with respect they cannot expect any back and many will ultimately leave.

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Yup, as always, don't shoot the messenger and all that

I have little doubt that what can and, more to the point, cannot be said in public is *very* much under someone else's control rather than being the personal choice of those with their heads even slightly above the parapet !

However, it's all been a typical PN response so far from where I'm sitting. Some nice words but no real information and significant on-going problems still not being referenced at all.  Been there, done that, seen/heard it all many times before and have several tee shirts from numerous previous occurrences of quite similar PN problems various.

I rather suspect that the underlying issue(s) will be rolling on over the weekend and into next week as has most often been the case before

PS: I've finally remembered how to do quotes so I hope you're all suitably impressed

[#9]

For a brief moment this AM, it all looked okay, but now can't send emails again (Thunderbird - not using web interface).

[#10]

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@mikeb wrote:

"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.

Ah, I hadn't realised that some SMTP servers were working and others weren't. I thought they were all down. In that case, yes, I can see that you want to make the dead ones invisible, either at DNS level or at a steering / traffic-levelling server, so all requests for relay.plus.net go to one of the working servers.

[#11]

I only use Plusnet for sending email via relay.plus.net.

This stopped working for me yesterday afternoon from a PC that uses my Plusnet broadband connection, and is still broken.

However I can send email (also via relay.plus.net) from my mobile phone (which has no relation to Plusnet).

[#12]

Things have improved very slightly for me this  morning.

I am receiving emails more promptly than yesterday and the Inbox in Outlook on my PC is syncing with my phone and iPad.

But sending emails is a no-no.

It's not that sending is delayed.

All sent messages are blocked for good.

And the Sent items in Outlook are not syncing with mobile devices.

[#13]

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@Harold1066 wrote:

Looking at the Service status on the plusnet website tells me that for webmail "they may experience a delay when sending and receiving emails" and that "Plusnet emails can be accessed using an email client as normal" - it doesn't mention the fact that customers may not be able to send emails using an email client. Are they aware of this I wonder?

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Goodness knows. Given the noddy, talking-to-a-retarded-five-year-old level of the official reponses, I have my doubts that the people who write them have a clue what precise symptoms people are (and are no longer) experiencing.

There was a time (10 years ago) when Plusnet technical suport would treat us like adults and would describe what the problem was, what they were doing to remedy and would describe the exact symptoms that people were experiencing.

I'd like to see a report which said "x% of our SMTP outgoing servers and y% of our incoming POP/IMAP servers failed. This is typically causing POP and IMAP servers to refuse connections and/or give "bad password" errors. We have adjusted the mapping of mail.plus.net and relay.plus.net to exclude those servers, which means there is exceptional load on the remaining servers. We have brought into play our backup servers which will take z hours to become fully synchronised with the working servers, after which time you should see normal response times. The problem is thought to have been caused by server failure / hacking / DNS failure / malevolent fairies (delete as applicable)".

[#14]

Thanks @Townman I thought everything had been resolved.

I'll give it a while longer to see if my problem has been resolved too.

[#15]

@bazzer 

Be assured that all of those points have been raised vociferously with Plusnet in the SU boards, by several of us.  Personally I have discussed little else in that space for the last two weeks.