Email server

I know people can have different experiences with the NTLWorld mail service but frankly, for the whole week it's been ntlhellworld for us. Surely, NTLworld people can get this sorted out once and for all. Constant failure to receive and send mail is unacceptable and it's time the company did something to substantially improve the service. I suppose it won't be long before NTLWorld will want more money for this pathetic service.

It seems to me someone should be fired.

[Chrysalis]

ok a month or so ago for months the problem was repeatedly not been able to authenticate to the server, now that problem has gone for me but instead I am getting serious email lag.

Email sent to me is normally lagged 1-5 hours, email I send is normally lagged 3-7 days. This is getting beyond the joke now.

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

Anyone else having massive problems at the moment? I haven't been able to check my email since I got home about 45 minutes ago!

Mines a bit on and off atm

[chriscl]

I suppose we'll all have to bear in mind that as nobody (or only the *very* lucky) have been able to actually access their email for the last couple of days, there will, without doubt, be a humongous backlog of email sat around waiting to be delivered.

Of course, this is going to put even more load on the already struggling servers.

In addition, if mail sent to your "@ntlworld.com" account has been "bounced" (i.e. declined by the server due to unavailability, time-outs, what have you) then that mail (depending on the policy of the sending server...) may attempt to retry its delivery also....putting further load on the servers!

If it's true as I believe that the mail has been down for nearly a full day, then we're all going to have some lag until the outstanding mail queues have been cleared (this depends on how many servers they have and how they are configured).

I know we'd all like to call for the head of whoever runs NTL's mail servers, but to be honest, (and I know 'cause I design these sorts of things for a living!) that you can only guess at your peak throughput of mail traffic, until you've seen your domain in use. There are few magic "rules of thumb" for mail servers - mostly, it's a case of experience telling you much server capacity to deploy for a given number of users. You can't calculate for an unknown amount of mail - you just don't know how much mail you'll get until you put your domain out there - and don't even broach the subject of NTL and spam!

While the NTL techies may be monitoring the servers devoutly, if they have no funds to upgrade or add new servers, then we're all going to suffer in the short term!

So yes, we can cuss NTL and demand action, but unless Roman Abramovich decides to give up on Chelsea and buy NTL, I think our best bet is to bear with it until they deploy the "new" mail service - I would hope in the light of all the preceding problems, they do this sooner rather than later!

</sermon>

;-)

[Reddevil63]

Well NTL should have thought of these things beforehand.

The more people that sign up for the service, which is what they want potential customers to do, then the powers to be should with common sense think "hold on, we got more customers so we better upgrade/add new servers to cope with the demand."

[Chrysalis]

my thoughts exactly

out of interest I sent an email to myself from my ntlworld account and what a surprise I never got it.

[tinsnail]

Is anyone else still having problems with their email?
I still haven't been able to download anything since Friday Morning. It just get's stuck on Receiving: Message 1 of 20 but it never manages to download anything.

[carlingman]

Originally Posted by tinsnail

Is anyone else still having problems with their email?
I still haven't been able to download anything since Friday Morning. It just get's stuck on Receiving: Message 1 of 20 but it never manages to download anything.

Hi tinsnail,

Firstly welcome to nthelworld.co.uk

Have you tried accessing via webmail ????

Also if you have a firewall then try turning it off.

Have you tried to telnet it as they may be an offending mail blocking your download etc.

To telnet it try the following -

To telnet the mail server:
Start>Run
"telnet pop.ntlworld.com 110"
+OK InterMail POP3 server ready.
(type) user user.name
+OK please send PASS command
(type) pass password
+OK user.name is welcome here

this logs you into the pop server.

Try that and report back.

[tinsnail]

Originally Posted by carlingman

Hi tinsnail,

Firstly welcome to nthelworld.co.uk

Have you tried accessing via webmail ????

Also if you have a firewall then try turning it off.

Have you tried to telnet it as they may be an offending mail blocking your download etc.

To telnet it try the following -

To telnet the mail server:
Start>Run
"telnet pop.ntlworld.com 110"
+OK InterMail POP3 server ready.
(type) user user.name
+OK please send PASS command
(type) pass password
+OK user.name is welcome here

this logs you into the pop server.

Try that and report back.

Hi,
I have no firewall, and i tried telnet and it seemed to log me in correctly. Don;t know if i was supposed to do something after that though. webmail works ok (although it's very slow).
I deleted all the spam type messages with webmail, and still nothing. just the same as above. It says it is receiving: message 1 of 20 and just sits there doing nothing. I know it's not downloading anything cos i can check my dialup status.
I am using Mozilla as my mail program btw.

thanks
Rob

[carlingman]

Originally Posted by tinsnail

Hi,
I have no firewall, and i tried telnet and it seemed to log me in correctly. Don;t know if i was supposed to do something after that though. webmail works ok (although it's very slow).
I deleted all the spam type messages with webmail, and still nothing. just the same as above. It says it is receiving: message 1 of 20 and just sits there doing nothing. I know it's not downloading anything cos i can check my dialup status.
I am using Mozilla as my mail program btw.

thanks
Rob

Strange though if you have deleted them from webmail.

When you telnet etc.

What happens when you after loggin on with username and pass etc what happens when you type list ??

Does this show a list of messages and if it does have you tried deleting the offending mail if there is from the telnet session.

To do this you will need to identify the mail and type DELE 1 or whichever number corresponds.

Then type quit to close the telnet connection.

I myself am not to familiar with Mozilla but stick around and someone on here will be although like other mail clients have you tried deleting the account from Mozilla and recreating this.

Maybe worth changing the pop and smtp settings to

Instead of pop.ntlworld.com try 62.253.162.50 and smtp.ntlworld.com try 62.253.162.40

Like I say someone who is more familiar with Mozilla may have some further ideas.

[tinsnail]

It's working again now.
I didn't do anything so i'm sure it was just typical ntHELL.
I've now changed my email setup so now i download direct from my email server without getting them forwarded through my ntl address first, so hopefully i won't get this trouble anymore.

thanks for the advice.

[carlingman]

Originally Posted by tinsnail

It's working again now.
I didn't do anything so i'm sure it was just typical ntHELL.
I've now changed my email setup so now i download direct from my email server without getting them forwarded through my ntl address first, so hopefully i won't get this trouble anymore.

thanks for the advice.

Glad to hear it is sorted.

Lets hope it dont happen again.

[Enterian]

Originally Posted by carlingman

Glad to hear it is sorted.

Lets hope it dont happen again.

Fat chance

Originally Posted by Server Status

ntl Home - All Packages - E-Mail Service
19 January 2004 07:30

Due to a technical fault with our email service, you may currently be experiencing errors when trying to check for new mail on some or all of their email accounts. If you are experiencing this fault, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused. There is no need to hold on to speak to a technical support representative.

It already has!

[ntluser]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

Anyone else having massive problems at the moment? I haven't been able to check my email since I got home about 45 minutes ago!

Yep, same here in Manchester (Baguley Server). The server info status reports says the e-mail problem is resolved but I can't access my e-mail directly or via the ntlworld website.

Anyone else in Manchester or beyond having e-mail problems?

[chambece]

Originally Posted by ntluser

Yep, same here in Manchester (Baguley Server). The server info status reports says the e-mail problem is resolved but I can't access my e-mail directly or via the ntlworld website.

Anyone else in Manchester or beyond having e-mail problems?

I'm getting the password problem again in Nottingham.....

I think I might get some more email elsewhere if it carries on like this!