No outgoing email this evening

[#1]

Good evening,
I have no outgoing email this evening across devices and apps. Is anyone else afflicted?

[#2]

Please clarify; do you mean you are unable to SEND?

[#3]

Yes, this was the case last night, however the issue seems to have cleared this morning.

I did restart our router late last night as when I switched off our EE signal then I could send via Vodafone on my Mobile. So it was possibly an issue with that.

Thank you for responding to me.

[#4]

That reply hints at some potential complexity.

What did you mean by "switched off our EE signal"?

Do you have a router which has EE 4G back up in the event that the (Plusnet) broadband fails?

Was the sending issue encountered on a device (computer) connected to the router?

Was the mobile previously connected via wifi to the router and did it THEN have issues sending?

If your computer connected to the router was trying to send to Plusnet's relay.plus.net SMTP service has not got AUTHENTICATION enabled, then it can only send emails when connected to the internet via your Plusnet broadband.  See the SMTP (outgoing) server settings in your email program.

[#5]

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply.  I cannot remember which date that problem occurred.  To answer your questions, we do not have Plusnet Broadband.  It was so bad that when the contract ended we didn’t renew.  There is no fibre in my area  - that is the problem.  So we have EE4G.

The issue seemed to resolve itself overnight, I have no idea what it was.

Thanks again.

Hazel

[#6]

Ah that explains a great deal.

Not connected via Plusnet broadband.

Unable to access the SMTP servers via EE’s 4G service. Switch it off for a few hours switch it on again … and it all works.

That very much suggests you were previously using an abused IP address from EE.

[#7]

Thanks, but why would that happen out of the blue like that?

I understand switching off the router and on again will change the game - but how did it go rogue to begin with? 🤔

[#8]

Internet connections are transient, they can drop at anytime due to explicit action such as you turning the router off, a glitch or network maintenance which causes a drop of the connection. Unless you are on a fixed IP service (unlikely) each time there is a reconnection there’s a fair chance you’ll get a new IP address.

If you get one which has been abused, you might encounter the issues you’ve experienced.

[#9]

Ah, for example then if the signal even dips momentarily, say for even 5 minutes, when it comes back up it could give us a dodgy IP address?

We have had issues with this before, but I didn't realise it could happen like that.

[#10]

... and then of course, on mobile networks, many users will share the same true public IP due to CGNAT. If another user on the same CGNAT group has caused a poor reputation then all others are affected.

[#11]

That's awful ☹

[#12]

Yesterday, some customers experienced problems accessing their emails and accounts in Plusnet Member Centre and connecting to their broadband service. We worked quickly to resolve this and we’re very sorry for the inconvenience caused.

[#13]

@SammyM 

@Hazel74 's issue has been going on for months and this is a legacy email account, connected to via a third-party internet connection.  That being the case, it is unlikely that yesterday's issue had any bearing.  None the less, it is interesting to learn of the confirmation that there was a significant issue yesterday.

[#14]

Yeah, I had no issues yesterday, I simply got around to replying to the post last night, and am interested to know why these issues reoccur. I now know 🧐