Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I beg to differ, the E-mail is flagged with a red ball on the server status page from 14may :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Yeas it's working but very haphazardly.I know this because I keep getting email notifications from here all out of order. :rolleyes:

Incog.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

apologies let me be a little more precise in what i meant. there are no issues sending emails on SMTP at the moment although POP3 is still intermitent with server timouts

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Let you off then. :D :D :D

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I think its called "attempting to upgrade the service so it works better" :D

I think they should upgrade the senior management at the same time as well, get rid of all the money grabbers and put people in place who care. :)

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

hee hee - didn't check really - but as i recalled the problems were pop3 :D

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

threadbare I doubt ntl not announcing a problem means the service is fine, my email hasnt worked since I signed up 9 months ago.

On average I would guess 33-50% authentication attempts fail when downloading emails
Average 2 days for emails to get to me
Average 5 days for emails to arrive elsewhere when I send
Never successfully sent an attachment

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Apart from the national outages which occasionally affect me - my e-mail works fine.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

my email has been the pits all afternoon i blame the government :D

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Came home and found my little pink Spampal brolly swizzling because it was stuck trying to authenticate with the POP server and The Bat was reporting a broken connection (to Spampal) :rolleyes: The funny thing is that email worked fine during the time the status page said there were problems :D

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

ntl e-mail has been iffy for the last two or three weeks down here in Portsmouth.

Sometimes it times out or can't access the mail server when downloading messages and uploading often takes *ages* or requires multiple attempts :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I was getting timeouts on Friday morning. Then they put up the 'email problems' item on the status page, after which time the problems went! All was OK over the weekend, but from this morning I get a timeout about 95% of the time. The status page now mentions problems sending, but strangely that's the only thing which is working for me every time :rolleyes:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I cannot send or receive e-mail at the moment, I keep getting this error message= The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'pop.ntlworld.com', Server: 'smtp.ntlworld.com', Protocol: SMTP, Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E

any ideas anyone, thanks :)

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Keep trying. Whenever I get a failure I just retry, the current success rate is about 1 in 20. :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Having intermittent problems here in Stafford.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I've now started receiving 2 copies of every email :rolleyes:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

It's borked down here too :rolleyes:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

...and I'm now getting repeat copies of everything I received this morning

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I have been waiting over 25 minutes for the webmail page to download as I thought I would try that as unable to get anything through OE.
It is still showing a blank page with Web site found.Waiting for reply at the bottom.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Forgot to mention that Broadband Medic is a fat lot of use as according to that there are no problems.
Update on webmail the page now says Done but is still blank.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

hmmm

Have total SMTP server failure in the Reading area..

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

At least that indicates that it's not my copy of Outlook playing up, not that it's any consolation for you.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

smtp is out in the Manchester area, and has been for most of the day.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

if you have a constant problem with email then you need to call tech support as there is most definately not a constant problem with ntl's email servers

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

That's not my experience. Though it's hard to tell the difference between 'constant' and 'intermittent but every day or two' :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I can see what you are saying but there is no way any ntl email acc are down for 9 months or even intermittent for 9 months there has to be a problem elsewhere to do with Chrysalis' setup or his connection to ntl causing that kind of a problem or perhaps he is being a little melodramatic :)

edit: by intermittent i am referring to your definition of every day or two

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

jarked up in teesside as well :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Got problems here in Reading, just hangs when recieving then get the following message in Outlook
Task 'pop.ntlworld.com - Receiving' reported error (0x800CCC0F) : 'The connection to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I can't agree with you there Threadbare.....

We worked out that in the last 12 months, there has been an ntl email problem on the SS Page on average once a week.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

But you're on Pipex.....:erm:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I know there have been problems (lots of 'em!) but the mail service has definately improved. and there have far less server probles lateley compared to the problems of last year. What I was trying to say to Chrysalis is that he is complaining of a mail service which has not worked for 9 months but then goes on to say it works 50 - 66% percent of the time.

if it is as bad as he says then there must be a problem elsewhere on his setup/connection to net surely? or are chryslis' problem par for the course?

edit admittedly I rarely have problems with ntl's mail except for complete outages - when there is an intermittent problem its effects on my service are quite minimal - my accounts must on the more reliable servers

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

just had a few password boxes pop up , still not working though :(


edit :- its just come back to life :)

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

not had any probs with mai all weekend.. just got home now and can't connect to the pop server.. it brings up the pw box even though that is fine then just stays at authenticated... am based in Bromley.. looks like something is fubared

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

pop does not work, smtp does not work either....

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

it is looking liek a n authorization problem to me
:(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Well there is a problem, its not constant but it comes pretty close. :rolleyes:

ntl customers attempting to send email may currently find the mails take a long time to send, and may time out while trying to do so. This is due to a technical fault. Our engineers are aware and are working towards a resolution as soon as possible. Please accept our apologies for any inconvience caused.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

SMTP has been timing out intermittantly for most of today :rolleyes: (stopped late afternoon).

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

it must be a record , i now seem to be getting triple of everything :D :D :D

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

No offence Threadbare honestly (& I know you work for ntl)..... :angel:

But there can't be a person on this board who hasn't suffered with ntl's infamously pi$$ poor email 'service' at some point in the last 12 months or so.

The Register ran 2 stories on it in June 2003. :eek:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06...improve_email/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06...mittent_email/

*Sigh*

Why do you think I carry the comment about mail servers that work in my sig? ;)

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

now now neil! you know i don't work for ntl - i have a friend who does (a cpl in fact!) which is where i get most of my tech info and my slightly pro ntl stance :angel:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Much as I treasure everyone' s comments I don't really need three versions of them. :rolleyes:

Incog. :)

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Are NTL actually going to deliver an effective anti-spam email upgrade?
I read about it some time ago, and if it's already happened, then it sure as hell doesn't work.

If they are going to have an effective solution (preferable DUL blacklisting, rather than unreliable content based blocking) then I'll be wasting my time if I initiate an address move or preparing my own defences (eg. Spampal).

95% of spam comes from IP addresses that are already WELL blacklisted for open proxy (these days, you never see an old style relay), and 99.9% is from dynamically assigned user address space, direct to MX. That someone can't direct send to you from their desktop SMTP server, is a small price to pay for slaughtering the majority of spam.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

See my comments on the subject: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...398#post217398

In short, I'd rather deal with spam myself. If NTL start messing with my emails I'll have to look elsewhere for email provision, certainly for an account for professional purposes. I need to be able to trust that an email sent to me will arrive, and vice versa.

We're addressing the wrong problem - a common mistake. Instead of addressing the problem of how to deal with spam once it's been sent, we should be ensuring it's never sent in the first place. It's easier to tackle the former but that doesn't make it the right problem to deal with, far from it.

Back on topic - my email has gone from fine this morning to hardly working :( Additionally, browsing, tracerts, SETI, and newsgroups are all running slowly, timing out or producing errors :rolleyes:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

'452 Filesystem error - message not accepted'

These error messages just keep getting better :)

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Well there you go - NTL *are* improving the e-mail system - you now get a better class of error message. :D ... :erm:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

:rofl:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Fair enough but I think you're in a minority there

But if you successfully deal with Spam once it's ben sent, you remove the incentive for sending it. In any case, I don't want to wait years for a "proper" solution (if such I thing ever arrives, which I doubt). Most other major ISPs have a solution right now, and I hope NTL will follow suit.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

SMTP server down or not working (again). I have tried to call about this - but this really is taking the p*SS - I fail to see that running a SMTP server by NTL is that difficult to achieve ....

I mean WHY is it so difficult to get right ?

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

.. and whilst I am on the subject ... would anyone like to comment on this program :

http://www.postcastserver.com/

I really wonder if this is the way to go and bypass the NTL server ?

thanks for any comments or views

Mark

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

There was a thread on this last month

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...light=postcast

Personally I've paid I-web 10.69 (well I think I have) for a years hosting and now use thier mail servers. Now if only i-web did news servers.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

yeah its never worked reliable enough for me threadbare, I dont use the address for hardly anything but it is in my outlook send/receive group so when I click it to download mails, I know its broken when the box pops up with the error, also even when it works I noticed the ntl mail server is slow at responding, I have 5 pop3 accounts used in outlook and 4 of them are almost instant at resonding and the ntl one always lags behind. I have done numerous test's sending mail from my hotmail account to all of my pop3 email boxes and everytime the ntl one takes days to arrive and the others take mins if not seconds, I have had occurences where email arrives from my sister at 2am on a sunday morning, which when I tell you she sends them from work where she does 9-5 mon-fri you then know something is up :D

When sending email it quite often has taken well over a week to arrive even if its a simple 1kb text message, and strangely enough my attachments seem to always get stripped off.

As far as my connection goes its pretty much good, I dont get slow connections to any other email servers, or other internet services so I pretty much assume its ntl's email servers, and judging by the other respnses here and that massive thread on the old nthellworld site then I know its an ongoing problem especially as I know ntl are setting up a new email server to try and fix it.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

yep got problems here.... what a load of ****e :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Except that it is wrong. It lies to you.

The server has actually accepted the message, and will try to deliver it while telling the client that it hasn't. Of course, the client will try again later, which will result in the message being delivered multiple times.

This is a violation of RFC 2821, and should be beneath even NTL.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I don't think so and if I were it wouldn't necessarily make me wrong :)

Just seems arse about face to me. Do other ISPs have a solution, or do they have a system that inconviences the user as much as spam would?

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Solution: Go to http://www.dyndns.org/ and set your machine up with a real fixed hostname. Then install Exim (http://www.exim.org/), and SpamAssassin (http://www.spamassassin.org/), and do your spam filtering yourself.

This does involve leaving your computer on all the time, unless you find someone friendly enough to provide a secondary MX server for you.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I hardly think NTL wrote the e-mail software they run - and I also doubt they are the only people in the world to run said software. If such a problem was occuring it would be the responsibility of the software vendor.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

of course it is the responsibility of the end user to configre the software right, we can't assume ntl have configured it right, because something is wrong for sure.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

rubbish, NTL get everything else wrong :\

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

and even if it's not NTL's fault and they can't be bothered to get the vendor to fix it - there are plenty of other vendors out there who could do it properly.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

In which case I'm in the same minority.

Due to the nature of my business (if you don't know, follow the www link below!) I can't filter out (or have someone else filter out) messages that contain reference to, shall we say, "bodily parts" because it could be a spam offering to enlarge them or it could be a legitimate customer enquiry.

I appreciate, of course, that it's not the same for everyone, but such systems should not be applied by default.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Me too, but for a different reason:

In all the instances so far when I have let someone else manage my spam filtering, it has been really bad. With my own spam filters, I get zero false positives, and hardly any false negatives.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Filtering by content is one thing, and shouldn't be done by the ISP - apart from virus-containing attachments that could easily be blocked, either by bouncing the email or removing the attachment. Filtering by origin is a different matter and is what other ISPs seem to do.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I like those catalogues. You can spend many an hour, often with a friend or partner, trying to work out which bit of the body goes in/over/through each item :pp You must get some strange emails :)

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Thank you for that enlightening contribution :dozey:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

The brightmail / demon setup works like this... Brightmail have set up a few thousand email accounts globally. These accounts have never been revealed on the internet. If a mail goes to one of these accounts, by default it must be spam, as mail has never been solicited to these accounts. This is then parsed to establish a pattern and that is added to the demon filters.

If you send a mail to them, it is manually reviewed to ensure it is not solicited before being added to the system.

It works brilliantly, and misses about 10% making my mail far more managable.

Grahams line of business would be irrelivant for the above reasons.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

There is agreement in quite a few circles that the behaviour of bouncing emails with viruses, or stripping bad attachments and sending through the rest of the email is a bad thing. In fact, some viruses explicitly use the behaviour of some "virus scanners" that bounce the emails to deliver their payload to their intended victim, by sending the email to a non-existent address from the target address. For some reason, the bounce often includes the virus attachment, and bypasses some scanners.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

The "'452 Filesystem error - message not accepted'" seems to be something to do with the hard disks getting full.

Perhaps it is time for ntl to replace the pentium 1 boxes with 500Mb HDD's :rofl:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Bouncing I can understand. But what's the problem with removing the virus-bearing attachments?

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

ntl fliter by using spamhaus

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Perhaps this is the answer?

Let's face it-if ntl haven't sorted out their email issues in the time they have been occuring (over a year), then they're never going to get it fixed. :td:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

cant get that site - corporate firewall - whatis it?

dont forget the mail platform still hasn't been migrated to openwave yet - this is supposed to take place in june sometime

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Do you actually have any links that you can post that provide evidence that NTL perform any spam filtering? I see no evidence at all that there has been a reduction in the amount of spam hitting my inbox. Spampal flags 99% of the spam correctly, so if I can do it reliably at my end then why is there no indication that NTL can do it at there's.

I should set Spampal temporarily to only use the Spamhaus blacklists. If it is still classifying mails as spam it will indicate that the senders are on the Spamhaus lists, and if I receive any of those mails it would strongly suggest that the claim that NTL are performing spam filtering is incorrect.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

So you'd describe it as 'coming soon'...?

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

It's Lycos's 1 gig mail offering @ £3.49 per month.



Hmmm-Coming Soon is it!? :erm:

[Edit]-Beaten to it by Russ! :D

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

now then some ground rules - just cos I have come out that I do work for ntl - do not take what I say as gospel - i know most of u don't anyway :D

it is scheduled to take place - it does have a date but I am not willing to provide it as I dont want to get anyone's hopes up, as u all know schedules slip

so yes it is comming soon:)

@ dr wadd I can't provide any evidence at all but i know from my own inbox that spam has been reduced.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

ahh cant access stuff like that :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

They are using Pentiums? I thought they were using an old 386 for the email server! :D

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

today ive just recieved 5 or 6 copies of all my emails!!
Has anyone else had this prob??

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

My email has been terrible lately. Finally managed to get some joy on webmail but really slowwwwwwwwwwww.

When I tried to reply the response I got on webmail was

"The SMTP server had insufficient storage for the message: 452 Filesystem error - message not accepted"

Looks like the HDDs are full on the servers :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Yeah, I'm receiving mail okay (or at least it appears to be okay), but about half the messages I send come back with an error. However, the messages do get sent okay.....weird!

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

*NEVER* bounce e-mails in this way because it only adds extra traffic and just makes problems for some other poor sod. A few months ago someone was sending out virus infected e-mails with my address faked in the from field and my inbox was inundated by loads of messages telling me that I had a virus, which I knew damn well I hadn't! :mad:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I do indeed, but you'll have to PM for any more information...! :D

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Ok, this has been tested. Spampal was set so that the only filtering it was doing was on the basis of the Spamhaus lists, all other blacklists disabled and filtering by originating country also disabled. My e-mail has just been downloaded after about 10 hours. There were a couple of spam messages that weren`t picked up, but Spampal correctly identified 63 using Spamhaus alone. If these are even getting to me in the first place it is highly indicative that NTL are not performing spam filtering, certainly not using the Spamhaus lists.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

I'm getting doubles.

Also 2 days ago sent 2 messages to my hotmail address, one at 08:00 and one at 20:00. The second made it within minutes, the second is still out there somewhere. Mate in Oz tells me (via hotmail) he hasn't received emails sent a few days ago.

Any recommendations for an independant email service. Been looking at UKwired

Boots

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Ooops - that should have read the first.

I must preview my messages.
I must preview my messages.
I must preview my messages.

Boots

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Well the fact I had a collection of mails sitting in mine and Mrs H outboxes lastnight that would not go for the first time since we have moved to smtp.ntlworld.com indicates to me something is wrong.

So I used it as the kick I needed to move all my smtp over to i-web. Its a little slower at authentication, but I imagine that is due to it needing to authenticate rather than just check the IP address is in an appropriate range.

I-web £10.69 a year. Little less space, but a saving of £30.

http://i-websolutions.co.uk/cfhosting.php

• 100 MB of Web Space
• 2000 MB of Bandwidth
• 100 Pop3 Accounts
• Unlimited E-mail Aliases Web Mail Access
• Spam Assassin Spam Protection

All sent...

No more NTL mail servers for me now.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

This is a direct consequence of the NTL servers violating the RFCs, by refusing a message but delivering it anyway. Of course, the sending client (because it was told that the server did not accept the message) tries to send it again and again until it gets told that the message has been accepted.

I sent an email to root@smtp.ntlworld.com to try and point this out to them. According to my exim logs, it was rejected by their server ten times before finally being accepted.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Basically, because if an email is infected with a virus, it is extremely likely that the email was fabricated entirely by the virus engine, and therefore has no useful content. In fact, a virus scanner should be able to tell whether this is the case by knowledge of the various virus types etc. Therefore stripping out attachments and delivering the email merely turns virus emails into spam emails.

I believe the discussion was also complaining about the way that virus scanners use "cleaned" emails as a way of advertising their particular anti-virus product.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

The question is, will NTL do anything about this issue? I doubt it. Once the sending problem is fixed, they'll forget about it.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Yes. The software they are using has a bug - when the disc runs out of space it violates RFCs. Their solution will most likely be to add more disc space, ignoring the software problem.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

No-ntl will just find the cheapiest/nastiest workaround they can, leaving wage paying customers with email problems for another year. :dozey:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

This is disgraceful !!!
All their servers deserve to be set alight and burned to the ground as they are as useful as a chocolate tea pot.

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

So reducing the size from 150K to 1K. Which is nice :)

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

ntl e mail completely dead again in Wirral, Merseyside. Is it just me?

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Leeds - my primary account is down but the secondary ones are accessible :(

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

"Leeds - my primary account is down but the secondary ones are accessible"

Funny you should say that. so is mine ?

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

It always no email, primary fine and secondary not, or primary down and secondary fine. Must be how the accounts are stored??

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Now I think about it you are quite right :bigcry:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

A new e mail incoming faults message, timed at 13.16 has just appeared on the ntl Server Status web page. Add this to the outgoing faults message that has been there for three days!
I wonder what I'm paying good money for. :mad:

Re: [Merged] ntl Email Issues
 

Hehehe - if you put icing on a mouldy cake it's still a mouldy cake. Just looks pretty. Lovely, pretty server status page - shame none of the processes that result in it not being updated or updated inaccurately/incompletely have changed...