Broadband

[Buzz Billsberry]

At last after problem after problem after problem with BT I have now migrated over to Pipex (thanks Blatman)

Since May I have had nothing but dropped connections approx 8-15 day when I've bin working from home, plus the support is kin useless cos' its not GB based they all speak English but don't understand English! I think the customer service division is in Holland where I think they've all bin on the 'smokes' all day. plus the constant apologising during the many, many times I've had to ring them. Phone call generally were lasting anything from 20-45 mins!!

I've been with Pipex about a week now and no dropped connections!!(despite it coming thro’ on a BT line!)Their  based in Welwyn Garden city I believe and they have bin so helpful plus the connection speed is tons quicker!

I will issue my new email address to those whom I deem worthy   in the next few days!  

Let’s see how long the honeymoon period lasts

Buzzi

[Terry Everall]

What is cost of Pipex  and can you keep an existing email address

terry.everall@virgin.net?

[Blatman]

www.pipex.net

No you can't keep an email address I don't think as you use your ISP's servers for your mail. Once you switch from Virgin, I imagine they will close your email account as well. This (among several other reasons) is why I use Yahoo Mail. No matter where in the world I am, or who's servers I am sitting on, I can always get my mail...

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Unless you use something like Virgin, or similar, you can only take your email address to another ISP if you own the domain name bit of the address, (the bit after the @ symbol). Even then, with some ISPs it's not that straightforward.

On the upside though, changing your email address every so often helps cut down on the spam you'll get for a while.  

[adhawkins]

if you own the domain name bit of the address, (the bit after the @ symbol). Even then, with some ISPs it's not that straightforward.

The ISP doesn't necessarily have to know anything about your 'domain based' e-mail address. That's down to the company that hosts the domain for you.

There's no reason to pay (for example) BT just so that you can have fred@bloggs.co.uk. All you need is a hosting company with POP3 (or similar) and SMTP e-mail access and you're sorted.

Other domain hosts simply 'forward' the e-mail on to an address you specify (so fred@bloggs.co.uk would just get forwarded on to fred.bloggs@someisp.com)

The really good ones will be able to handle it either way

Andy

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I know, I was just trying not to complicate it tooo much; fwiw these days we tend to avoid using the isp for hosting/dns or mx purposes. Using them purely as an access point, plus possibly as an SMTP host to send mail out through. (If the client isn't running Exchange or similar)

As we don't generally deal with clients above a "small business" level, we generally have used Easy DNS over the years to look after the domain names etc. Generally we've used Pipex as the ISP and host of any web space, though as Pipex won't seem to let us use custom cgi scripts or asp/php software, we're currently looking at alternatives. (I feel a pm to Andy coming on, now I come to think about it)  

[adhawkins]

I know, I was just trying not to complicate it tooo much; fwiw these days we tend to avoid using the isp for hosting/dns or mx purposes. Using them purely as an access point, plus possibly as an SMTP host to send mail out through. (If the client isn't running Exchange or similar)

Yes, good point. I just thought it was worth pointing out that using a domain name shouldn't necessarily exclude any ISPs.

As far as SMTP servers go, there's no reason why someone just using Outlook (or whatever) can't use the SMTP server provided by a domain host as opposed to their ISPs own (unless the ISP transparently proxy SMTP connection like Freeserve do, or at least used to do).

PM replied to by the way

Andy

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Cheers Andy,

I think, though I admit I've not come across it diectly, that some ISP's, I guess to combat relaying, are blocking sending through any but there own SMTP server, and using username/password to logon to the SMTP side, not just POP boxes. IIRC I think BT might have been doing it at one point.

[adhawkins]

You're probably right, I don't have experience of any ISPs bar Demon and NTL.

Outlook can provide SMTP authorisation though I think, and it'd be a bit crap of an ISP if they were to block access to external SMTP server and refuse to relay mail just because it wasn't from a (say) btinternet.com address.

Andy

[Arm]

Gibberish to me

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Gibberish to me

It happened to one of our clients a few years ago, (though, it wasn't me that was dealing with it, so I'm a ibt hazy on the details), POPing there own Exchange server from the remote offices was fine, but the remote offices that wanted to SMTP through the server couldn't with BT. The individual Outlooks had to be configured as you say.

Problem was solved in the end with Exchange 2003/Outlook 2003 and the connect to server over HTTP option.

[adhawkins]

Gibberish to me

Well, it's good to get my own back every now and again

Andy

[Boomy]

I took my old freeserve mail addy with me and a virgin one iirc when i first joined Blueyonder.

I just had to log back into those free accounts now and again to reactivate them.

This (among several other reasons) is why I use Yahoo Mail. No matter where in the world I am, or who's servers I am sitting on, I can always get my mail...

I always assumed you could just enter your password etc on any pc anywhere in the world and get your mail from your regular isp?.

Then again Blueyonder has web page based mail for users anyway.You just enter the web page addy, enter your password and all your mail is there to view/edit/send just as you would on your own PC.

Is that something that is available with all ISP's?.

[adhawkins]

I always assumed you could just enter your password etc on any pc anywhere in the world and get your mail from your regular isp?.

Not all ISPs allow for remote access to e-mail (i.e. outside of their dialup / broadband pool)

Andy

[Boomy]

No, you didn't. You just kept the Freeserve and Virgin accounts open. If those accounts were truly 'closed' those e-mail addresses would stop working.

That's what i meant.I didn't mean "took" them as in i owned them!.

Simply that you could still use your virgin/freeserve email addy but would have to reactivate your account after around 90 days or something.