NTL POP email

[savalas]

I have lost access to pop email via ntl for about 6 days now, (romsey, hampshire area) anyone else having problems with this? i can log in (after about 5 trys) to the webmail version of my account and mail is coming in, but POP email (via outlook etc) is just throwing errors, tried on more than 1 machine too.. anyone know whats happening?

Just ntl email being ntl email, I would imagine. I long ago set a permanent divert on all my ntl addresses to forward to a different account, effectively bypassing their flakey mail servers, so I don't notice the service outages any more. I would suggest you do the same.

[savalas]

sounds like a good idea, how is that done?

Originally Posted by savalas

sounds like a good idea, how is that done?

The first thing you need is a reliable alternative email provider - apparently Yahoo are good, although I subscribe to an email service from Apple called Dotmac which works nicely for me as a Mac computer user.

Then you go to this page at ntlworld.com:

http://selfcare.ntlworld.com/cgi-bin/frontend

Enter your @ntlworld.com addy, and your password, then click 'Go'.

On the next screen, choose the option to set forwarding address.

Next, enter the email address you wish to forward to. You can tick the box if you want each email to continue to be delivered into your ntlworld account as well; personally I don't bother. When you're done, click 'Go'.

Finally, set your computer's email programme not to check your @ntlworld.com address automatically. Set it to check your alternative addy instead (the one you are now forwarding to). You should never again get a connection error message (unless your alternative service provider goes down, which happens, but let's face it, it's a lot less likely).

HTH



BTW, to Cable Forum!

Originally Posted by towny

Just ntl email being ntl email, I would imagine. I long ago set a permanent divert on all my ntl addresses to forward to a different account, effectively bypassing their flakey mail servers, so I don't notice the service outages any more. I would suggest you do the same.

You're not actually bypassing ntl's servers - the mail still has to be delivered to to ntl, and then ntl has to forward it on, so you are going in and out of ntl's servers.

No ntl mail server has been down for the past six days so there must be some other problem affecting savalas. I would suggest he contact TS.

Originally Posted by Pem

You're not actually bypassing ntl's servers - the mail still has to be delivered to to ntl, and then ntl has to forward it on, so you are going in and out of ntl's servers.

No ntl mail server has been down for the past six days so there must be some other problem affecting savalas. I would suggest he contact TS.

Mail passes through lots of machines on its way from a to b. The point of this method is not to influence what goes on behind the scenes, but to remove the customer's need to interact with the ntlworld POP server. That is the part of the process which most visibly fails for the customer, generating error messages and denying them access to mail which has in fact successfully been delivered into their mailbox.

By setting a redirect, any mail coming into ntl's systems is immediately forwarded to the specified mail account without even passing through the customer's @ntlworld mailbox.

I can say from experience that I have suffered connection failures with my alternative provider far, far less frequently than I did with ntlworld.

As for the service status ... in the weeks before I implemented a permanent redirect for myself, I found that service outages would be ignored on the ntlworld website as often as they were acknowledged.

[br3ach]

Originally Posted by savalas

I have lost access to pop email via ntl for about 6 days now, (romsey, hampshire area) anyone else having problems with this? i can log in (after about 5 trys) to the webmail version of my account and mail is coming in, but POP email (via outlook etc) is just throwing errors, tried on more than 1 machine too.. anyone know whats happening?

If you can login VIA webmail then its no likely to be the NTL mail server.

Try things like your firewall and anti virus or maybe try setting up the mail account again in the mail client

Originally Posted by br3ach

If you can login VIA webmail then its no likely to be the NTL mail server.

Try things like your firewall and anti virus or maybe try setting up the mail account again in the mail client

I would say that the fact it takes about five goes to log in to webmail suggests that it probably is the ntl mail server that's the problem.

The old issue they used to have (and which I have no idea whether it was ever properly fixed) was that one of the six (IIRC) mail servers would go down, completely denying access to mail for any user whose account was stored on that particular server. Requests for access to affected mailboxes were then spread around the remaining five, slowing their response times to such an extent that even users with mailboxes on the unaffected servers were finding the system to be intolerably slow - in some cases so slow that their mail clients were returning timeout error messages.

There was a thread ten miles long about this on the old nthw.com site, now sadly obliterated forever.

[savalas]

Thanks for all the advice chaps.. i went to the webmail and ditched everything... pop mail started to work again! must have been a duff message or something, amazing that it could hang up the whole account, glad the webmail service exists

[goldoni]

The mail servers are playing up again, Letchworth, Hertford and Northampton seem to be down at the moment. I thought the last big mail server upgrade was going to fix problems. It seemed to fly the first week now is either quite slow or like now not working. The last few weeks I have had to use web mail to flush the spam so I could get the rest of my mail. But now web mail has packed up and times out Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[goldoni]

Originally Posted by savalas

I have lost access to pop email via ntl for about 6 days now, (romsey, hampshire area) anyone else having problems with this? i can log in (after about 5 trys) to the webmail version of my account and mail is coming in, but POP email (via outlook etc) is just throwing errors, tried on more than 1 machine too.. anyone know whats happening?

I have had the same problem using outlook but overcome the problem with web mail when its working. I thought it was a spam mail causing the problem, as when I dumped them my po3 started to work again.

Originally Posted by Paul M

No ntl mail server has been down for the past six days so there must be some other problem affecting savalas. I would suggest he contact TS.

I did just that phoned TS and they said load Broadband Medic along with some real good advise †œto hit the remove link at the bottom of the spam emailââ‚ƚ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ� I was also informed TS are unable to help with spam or Outlook. Regarding †œNo ntl mail server has been down for the past six daysââ‚ ¬Ã‚ÂÂÂ� well they are now. Info on the other thread Link D'oH