Homechoice - no emails?

parthena · 10-01-2008, 10:12

I've had no emails since yesterday evening (9 Jan). Tried phoning CS but had to listen to a wailing female punctuated every few seconds by another female apologising "for the delay" (I hate that

)... gave up in the end.

Anyone else got problems?

parthena

seneca2005 · 10-01-2008, 10:35

After waiting on the phone for almost 30 minutes I got through only to be told that they are working on the mail problem but have no information on when it would be fixed. They hoped it would be fixed to day. I asked why there was nothing about it on the website and was told he didnt know. They are thinking of putting a message on the telephone to save people wasting time ringing.

Anniel · 10-01-2008, 11:53

Husband also has no mail ( he uses Outlook Express) but my web mail with Google is fine.

I rang them yesterday and they said they were working on the problem ( we are in NW London)

This problem with email has been going on for yonks. We have friends and business contacts telling us they have sent mail to my husband, but it never arrives.

All most annoying.

masai · 10-01-2008, 11:54

This is happening more and more frequently... To the point where I cannot rely on homechoice to handle my emails. I have ditched it and now use Gmail which is fully POP configurable and has over 6Gb of storage so I need never worry about space.

Zapomatic · 10-01-2008, 13:15

The current hold music really is quite unbearable - shrieking ballads down a phone line (especially on a mobile) can be very painful to the ears! The Christmas carols before that weren't too pleasant either but at least they're no longer playing a Katie Melua album...

edEx · 10-01-2008, 20:03

Anybody getting e-mail yet? My Inbox is still as barren as the Gobi in a dry spell.

Zapomatic · 10-01-2008, 20:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by edEx

Anybody getting e-mail yet? My Inbox is still as barren as the Gobi in a dry spell.

Same here - last email received yesterday at 12.34pm. The test emails I've sent to my address haven't bounced but the ones sent to a made-up address were so fingers crossed we might get it all in a big chunk, postal-strike style.

Zapomatic · 11-01-2008, 09:06

This is getting ridiculous now, STILL nothing!

MK_Brett · 11-01-2008, 11:49

Is this still causing a problem?
I have users confirming it was working fine this morning!

Zapomatic · 11-01-2008, 13:15

Logging in to the webmail or authenticating by POP is fine, but no new mails are being received.

five7niner · 11-01-2008, 14:16

Just got off the phone to them - they answered within a minute, so that made a pleasant change.

This is what I was told -
Apparently some sort of spam thing has hit the Homechoice server and caused damage.
It is being worked on now as we speak (they started on it yesterday), as a consequence of this spam bomb (whatever that is) HC has been listed as a spam server and that is what is causing all the problems.
Chappy on the phone told me that hopefully it will be back to normal over the next 24 hrs.

Zapomatic · 11-01-2008, 14:27

Thanks for the update!

edEx · 11-01-2008, 21:38

Having Homechoice listed as a SPAM server wouldn't cut out all e-mails, just those from servers that reference blacklists. If nothing else, we would all still be getting the usual Home Finance and Viagra rubbish if that were the whole story.

Having just tried telnetting onto sc-insmtp1 to manually send a mail it only gets as far as RCPT TO: before returning an error, namely

"451 GLD Please try again later (#4.3.0)"

GLD is the greylist component on the pretty much ubiquitous Postfix mail server software. If Homechoice is listed as a SPAM server it should be getting these messages from other servers when we try and send outgoing mail, not giving them out to incoming connections.

Something doesn't add up with that explanation.

parthena · 12-01-2008, 09:19

I've changed my Digital Spy and eBay email address to Virgin.net (a dial-up a/c I keep for emergencies) and they are coming thru now.

parthena

ToniB · 12-01-2008, 10:26

Im in South london and Im experiencing the same problem, no mail since 9th jan

Tried the web mail service and not working there either.

Rang HC yesterday and was told it should be working today and that the mail server was down!

parthena · 12-01-2008, 10:40

I'm also in south London. My emails ceased at midday on Wednesday 9th Jan and have not recovered as at now, ie 10.40am Saturday 12th Jan.

Emails addressed to me@virgin.net are coming thru fine.

parthena

edEx · 12-01-2008, 12:58

Yep, the problem is only for mails heading for a Homechoice.co.uk e-mail address. I've used this as the kick up the backside I needed to move my domain and all archived mail up to my GMail account and sync via IMAP back to my computers. At least then I'm not waiting on Tiscali muppets.

parthena · 12-01-2008, 13:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by edEx

... move my domain and all archived mail up to my GMail account and sync via IMAP back to my computers.

I don't suppose you could explain (step by step, in lay language) how to do this? I've got a Gmail account but rely on opening a browser page for it.

parthena

Nikhil · 12-01-2008, 13:13

What a complete joke. This is the worse display of customer services i've seen yet with homechoice/tiscali.

They haven't even bothered to tell us, they could at least put an apology on the website, but oh that would take about 5 seconds of their time!!

The even more stupid thing is that we cant even access the "tiscali TV" forums as we don't have a frigging tiscali.co.uk email address.

Someone at tiscali really needs to get a grip.

If they really wanted to keep the two companies as separate entities they shouldn't have renamed the homechoice platform as "tiscali" we should have just remained homechoice customers and then migrated when they felt fit. At the moment we are "tiscali" but treated as second rate subscribers, even though we pay more for our subscriptions.

I've been a subscriber for a few years now, and this is the worst I've seen it. At least back in the day we used to get a few updates on the service, there was even a service updates page on their website. At the moment we get nothing.

Very very poor. And the fact that i have lost about 4 days emails is not a pleasant thought.

parthena · 12-01-2008, 14:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by five7niner

This is what I was told -
Apparently some sort of spam thing has hit the Homechoice server and caused damage.

I'm sure this spam problem was posted here several (many?) months ago in relation to Tiscali email failure.

parthena

RyanL · 12-01-2008, 14:42

Don't panic guys, I'm sure MK_Brett will be along Monday morning with the usual half arsed fob off story

I know you do your best Brett and that this bothers you too but your management are a sham you must see that?

The way they are treating ex Homechoice customers is very unprofessional imho, i have a theory that they want us all to leave to lighten the workload!
Things like being able to access the tiscali forums and sorting out migration to the tiscali platform should have been a priority not an afterthought.

I use 1and1.co.uk for my email, works out about a tenner a year but never had a problem plus when/if i ditch the joke that is Tiscali as an isp i won't need to change my address.

edEx · 12-01-2008, 17:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by parthena

I don't suppose you could explain (step by step, in lay language) how to do this? I've got a Gmail account but rely on opening a browser page for it.

parthena

That could take a while. It's not something that's easily explained without going very techie and posting screenshots and stuff.

Basically you buy a domain (such as parthena.co.uk) and set it up so that every e-mail that reaches it is automatically forwarded to another address, such as your GMail account. Most companies that sell domains have some form of facility that will do this for a small annual payment.

Then you configure your mail client to synchronise with your GMail account over the IMAP protocol. Google have instructions to do this bit for just about every mail program you can think of here. The good thing about it is you can have several computers and even your mobile all synchronising to GMail. It's all handled with secure transfers as well, unlike the more basic POP3 mail method which most people use.

BTW, I has ONE e-mail in via Homechoice about fifteen minutes ago. Could it be that they are finally moving again?

parthena · 12-01-2008, 21:23

Thanks for the info, Ed.

I've had a batch of Homechoice emails in but there seem to be loads missing.

parthena

cpc84 · 12-01-2008, 22:35

Looks like things are back to normal - just found over 200 spam emails waiting for me.

Dave T120r · 13-01-2008, 11:58

Strange, I'm in South London, am a Homechoice member and have been receiving emails regularly during this period.

10-01-2008, 10:12	#1
parthena Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: SW London, Crystal Palace Tx Posts: 2,769	Homechoice - no emails? I've had no emails since yesterday evening (9 Jan). Tried phoning CS but had to listen to a wailing female punctuated every few seconds by another female apologising "*for* the delay" (I hate that )... gave up in the end. Anyone else got problems? parthena

10-01-2008, 10:35	#2
seneca2005 Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 28	Just phoned homechoice and told to be patient After waiting on the phone for almost 30 minutes I got through only to be told that they are working on the mail problem but have no information on when it would be fixed. They hoped it would be fixed to day. I asked why there was nothing about it on the website and was told he didnt know. They are thinking of putting a message on the telephone to save people wasting time ringing.

10-01-2008, 11:53	#3
Anniel Forum Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 151	No Mail Husband also has no mail ( he uses Outlook Express) but my web mail with Google is fine. I rang them yesterday and they said they were working on the problem ( we are in NW London) This problem with email has been going on for yonks. We have friends and business contacts telling us they have sent mail to my husband, but it never arrives. All most annoying.

10-01-2008, 11:54	#4
masai Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: London Posts: 452	This is happening more and more frequently... To the point where I cannot rely on homechoice to handle my emails. I have ditched it and now use Gmail which is fully POP configurable and has over 6Gb of storage so I need never worry about space.

10-01-2008, 13:15	#5
Zapomatic Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: London SE17 Posts: 681	The current hold music really is quite unbearable - shrieking ballads down a phone line (especially on a mobile) can be very painful to the ears! The Christmas carols before that weren't too pleasant either but at least they're no longer playing a Katie Melua album...

10-01-2008, 20:03	#6
edEx Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Londres, Tierra del Fuego Posts: 12,952	Anybody getting e-mail yet? My Inbox is still as barren as the Gobi in a dry spell.

10-01-2008, 20:30	#7
Zapomatic Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: London SE17 Posts: 681	Quote: Originally Posted by edEx Anybody getting e-mail yet? My Inbox is still as barren as the Gobi in a dry spell. Same here - last email received yesterday at 12.34pm. The test emails I've sent to my address haven't bounced but the ones sent to a made-up address were so fingers crossed we might get it all in a big chunk, postal-strike style.

11-01-2008, 09:06	#8
Zapomatic Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: London SE17 Posts: 681	This is getting ridiculous now, STILL nothing!

11-01-2008, 11:49	#9
MK_Brett Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Herts. Posts: 318	Is this still causing a problem? I have users confirming it was working fine this morning!

11-01-2008, 13:15	#10
Zapomatic Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: London SE17 Posts: 681	Logging in to the webmail or authenticating by POP is fine, but no new mails are being received.

11-01-2008, 14:16	#11
five7niner Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 57	Just got off the phone to them - they answered within a minute, so that made a pleasant change. This is what I was told - Apparently some sort of spam thing has hit the Homechoice server and caused damage. It is being worked on now as we speak (they started on it yesterday), as a consequence of this spam bomb (whatever that is) HC has been listed as a spam server and that is what is causing all the problems. Chappy on the phone told me that hopefully it will be back to normal over the next 24 hrs.

11-01-2008, 14:27	#12
Zapomatic Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: London SE17 Posts: 681	Thanks for the update!

11-01-2008, 21:38	#13
edEx Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Londres, Tierra del Fuego Posts: 12,952	Having Homechoice listed as a SPAM server wouldn't cut out all e-mails, just those from servers that reference blacklists. If nothing else, we would all still be getting the usual Home Finance and Viagra rubbish if that were the whole story. Having just tried telnetting onto sc-insmtp1 to manually send a mail it only gets as far as RCPT TO: before returning an error, namely "451 GLD Please try again later (#4.3.0)" GLD is the greylist component on the pretty much ubiquitous Postfix mail server software. If Homechoice is listed as a SPAM server it should be getting these messages from other servers when we try and send outgoing mail, not giving them out to incoming connections. Something doesn't add up with that explanation.

12-01-2008, 09:19	#14
parthena Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: SW London, Crystal Palace Tx Posts: 2,769	I've changed my Digital Spy and eBay email address to Virgin.net (a dial-up a/c I keep for emergencies) and they are coming thru now. parthena

12-01-2008, 10:26	#15
ToniB Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: S E London Posts: 5	Im in South london and Im experiencing the same problem, no mail since 9th jan Tried the web mail service and not working there either. Rang HC yesterday and was told it should be working today and that the mail server was down!

12-01-2008, 10:40	#16
parthena Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: SW London, Crystal Palace Tx Posts: 2,769	I'm also in south London. My emails ceased at midday on Wednesday 9th Jan and have not recovered as at now, ie 10.40am Saturday 12th Jan. Emails addressed to me@virgin.net are coming thru fine. parthena

12-01-2008, 12:58	#17
edEx Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Londres, Tierra del Fuego Posts: 12,952	Yep, the problem is only for mails heading for a Homechoice.co.uk e-mail address. I've used this as the kick up the backside I needed to move my domain and all archived mail up to my GMail account and sync via IMAP back to my computers. At least then I'm not waiting on Tiscali muppets.

12-01-2008, 13:11	#18
parthena Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: SW London, Crystal Palace Tx Posts: 2,769	Quote: Originally Posted by edEx ... move my domain and all archived mail up to my GMail account and sync via IMAP back to my computers. I don't suppose you could explain (step by step, in lay language) how to do this? I've got a Gmail account but rely on opening a browser page for it. parthena

12-01-2008, 13:13	#19
Nikhil Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: South Devon/London Posts: 963	What a complete joke. This is the worse display of customer services i've seen yet with homechoice/tiscali. They haven't even bothered to tell us, they could at least put an apology on the website, but oh that would take about 5 seconds of their time!! The even more stupid thing is that we cant even access the "tiscali TV" forums as we don't have a frigging tiscali.co.uk email address. Someone at tiscali really needs to get a grip. If they really wanted to keep the two companies as separate entities they shouldn't have renamed the homechoice platform as "tiscali" we should have just remained homechoice customers and then migrated when they felt fit. At the moment we are "tiscali" but treated as second rate subscribers, even though we pay more for our subscriptions. I've been a subscriber for a few years now, and this is the worst I've seen it. At least back in the day we used to get a few updates on the service, there was even a service updates page on their website. At the moment we get nothing. Very very poor. And the fact that i have lost about 4 days emails is not a pleasant thought.

12-01-2008, 14:04	#20
parthena Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: SW London, Crystal Palace Tx Posts: 2,769	Quote: Originally Posted by five7niner This is what I was told - Apparently some sort of spam thing has hit the Homechoice server and caused damage. I'm sure this spam problem was posted here several (many?) months ago in relation to Tiscali email failure. parthena

12-01-2008, 14:42	#21
RyanL Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Sunbury on Thames Posts: 161	Don't panic guys, I'm sure MK_Brett will be along Monday morning with the usual half arsed fob off story I know you do your best Brett and that this bothers you too but your management are a sham you must see that? The way they are treating ex Homechoice customers is very unprofessional imho, i have a theory that they want us all to leave to lighten the workload! Things like being able to access the tiscali forums and sorting out migration to the tiscali platform should have been a priority not an afterthought. I use 1and1.co.uk for my email, works out about a tenner a year but never had a problem plus when/if i ditch the joke that is Tiscali as an isp i won't need to change my address.

12-01-2008, 17:18	#22
edEx Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Londres, Tierra del Fuego Posts: 12,952	Quote: Originally Posted by parthena I don't suppose you could explain (step by step, in lay language) how to do this? I've got a Gmail account but rely on opening a browser page for it. parthena That could take a while. It's not something that's easily explained without going very techie and posting screenshots and stuff. Basically you buy a domain (such as parthena.co.uk) and set it up so that every e-mail that reaches it is automatically forwarded to another address, such as your GMail account. Most companies that sell domains have some form of facility that will do this for a small annual payment. Then you configure your mail client to synchronise with your GMail account over the IMAP protocol. Google have instructions to do this bit for just about every mail program you can think of here. The good thing about it is you can have several computers and even your mobile all synchronising to GMail. It's all handled with secure transfers as well, unlike the more basic POP3 mail method which most people use. BTW, I has ONE e-mail in via Homechoice about fifteen minutes ago. Could it be that they are finally moving again?

12-01-2008, 21:23	#23
parthena Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: SW London, Crystal Palace Tx Posts: 2,769	Thanks for the info, Ed. I've had a batch of Homechoice emails in but there seem to be loads missing. parthena

DS Forums

Homechoice - no emails?

12-01-2008, 22:35	#24
cpc84 Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 8	Looks like things are back to normal - just found over 200 spam emails waiting for me.

13-01-2008, 11:58	#25
Dave T120r Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 16	Strange, I'm in South London, am a Homechoice member and have been receiving emails regularly during this period.