Post Office Broadband & Home Phone

islecastle

Riki wrote: »

Dave, there is only one niggling thing at the moment: My Email under My Account has disappeared (it was there when I first joined in December) and despite several emails I have not received an answer yet. I would be interested to know if you, or anybody out there, have the same problem.

Also, "Names for Numbers" is not working.

Riki,
I don't know what names for numbers is, so I can't help there.
Regarding emails, I don't use PO emails, but I have just checked and it seems to be working OK. It's a pity that they don't use POP3 and SMTP, cause that would make it a lot easier to use with say Outlook Express than the tedious website log in system. As a matter of interest I have been using Yahoo for years for email.
Cheers, Dave

Riki_2

islecastle wrote: »

Riki,
I don't know what names for numbers is, so I can't help there.
Regarding emails, I don't use PO emails, but I have just checked and it seems to be working OK. It's a pity that they don't use POP3 and SMTP, cause that would make it a lot easier to use with say Outlook Express than the tedious website log in system. As a matter of interest I have been using Yahoo for years for email.
Cheers, Dave

They do use POP3 and my email handler, Thunderbird, works fine with all my emails.

whitevanwoman

Have just switched to PO phone & b/b extra a week ago, from Orange after they hiked up their monthly charge from £24 to £32.

I'm beginning to wonder if I made a big mistake - a week on and my connection is still dropping out every half hour. I spent 3 hrs 9 mins this morning on the phone to them and they said I have to do some sort of test with my socket. Because the socket is in an awkward spot behind a large book case, they said they would ring me back at 2.30pm to talk me through it... I'm still waiting.

I'm trying to face phoning them again but am not looking forward to it, having been on hold for 25 mins on "go live" day when I phoned to find out why I had no connection, then again 25 mins this morning, then another 20 mins while the tech dept transferred me to the cancellation dept which turned out to be the sales team after I said I wasn't happy and wanted to cancel but was told tough, you can't cancel unless you go through several steps with the tech dept and we decide we can't offer you b/band, then another 15 mins on hold whilst I was transferred back to tech dept to be told that they would ring back once I'd moved the furniture etc.

So have spent the best part of today either on the phone or messing around with cables (which all worked fine, no probs at all until a week ago) or waiting around for a phone call, having to reset the router every half an hour when the connection drops.

Plus I'm having real problems with email - I have several different email addresses, and use outlook 2002. I've had no problems using the different email accounts with my old b/band connection with orange, but although I am receiving emails from all the different accounts, I am unable to send from the different accounts ie, all emails that I send are being sent from the new mypostoffice.co.uk email address - an address that I hadn't intended using as I don't want to have to get new stationery printed and mess around letting people know about this new address.

So if anyone can give me any tech advice on how to resolve this or confirm that this is just something I am going to have to put up with and will have to use this postoffice address as my sending address I'd be grateful. According to the postoffice tech dept this morning, I will either have to get settings from the other email address servers (which I already have but which won't work) or else just accept that an email address using a different server won't work. Whilst I have a reasonable technical understanding I'm by no means a whizz kid as far as the internet and servers etc is concerned so it might just be that I am doing something wrong. But having spent hours tweaking settings and trying to set test messages, it would be useful to know whether it is possible or not before I waste any more time doing this.

FannyHill

I like the idea of no contract for the tel service. I don't like the idea of 12 month minimum for BB.

A broadband service can be great for a few months and then go downhill and you need to be able to leave quickly if you have to and find a more reliable internet provider.

Riki_2

whitevanwoman wrote: »

Have just switched to PO phone & b/b extra a week ago, from Orange after they hiked up their monthly charge from £24 to £32.

I'm beginning to wonder if I made a big mistake - a week on and my connection is still dropping out every half hour. I spent 3 hrs 9 mins this morning on the phone to them and they said I have to do some sort of test with my socket. Because the socket is in an awkward spot behind a large book case, they said they would ring me back at 2.30pm to talk me through it... I'm still waiting.

I'm trying to face phoning them again but am not looking forward to it, having been on hold for 25 mins on "go live" day when I phoned to find out why I had no connection, then again 25 mins this morning, then another 20 mins while the tech dept transferred me to the cancellation dept which turned out to be the sales team after I said I wasn't happy and wanted to cancel but was told tough, you can't cancel unless you go through several steps with the tech dept and we decide we can't offer you b/band, then another 15 mins on hold whilst I was transferred back to tech dept to be told that they would ring back once I'd moved the furniture etc.

So have spent the best part of today either on the phone or messing around with cables (which all worked fine, no probs at all until a week ago) or waiting around for a phone call, having to reset the router every half an hour when the connection drops.

Plus I'm having real problems with email - I have several different email addresses, and use outlook 2002. I've had no problems using the different email accounts with my old b/band connection with orange, but although I am receiving emails from all the different accounts, I am unable to send from the different accounts ie, all emails that I send are being sent from the new mypostoffice.co.uk email address - an address that I hadn't intended using as I don't want to have to get new stationery printed and mess around letting people know about this new address.

So if anyone can give me any tech advice on how to resolve this or confirm that this is just something I am going to have to put up with and will have to use this postoffice address as my sending address I'd be grateful. According to the postoffice tech dept this morning, I will either have to get settings from the other email address servers (which I already have but which won't work) or else just accept that an email address using a different server won't work. Whilst I have a reasonable technical understanding I'm by no means a whizz kid as far as the internet and servers etc is concerned so it might just be that I am doing something wrong. But having spent hours tweaking settings and trying to set test messages, it would be useful to know whether it is possible or not before I waste any more time doing this.

First of all, the socket location should not affect your connection. What router are you using? Is it wireless or just ethernet connected?

I switched from AOHell to PO phone/broadband 8 months ago and after some teething problems connections are rock solid, touch wood. However, I still have a couple of things that remain unsolved to this day, unrelated to yours though. See my February post.

Regarding your emails, PO has nothing to do with your email client (programme). You are using PO to go online, once online you can run whatever email client you wish, e.g. Outlook, gmail, yahoo, thunderbird, etc. If you are referring to your newly created PO email addresses, that's a different story which I have had since day one: unable to use from their website under "My Account". Perhaps you could clarify this point. Your ISP, in this case PO, is used to connect to the internet, everything else is up to you.

nowtsquared

Just taken up with the PO for BB - the router got its settings over the internet, worked out of the box - all lights on and ready to surf. Nice piece of kit.
Had a slight problem with accessing the new PO myPostOffice account and that was sorted out with a phone call.
Access to reading emails and sending them is soooooooo much better than AOHell who seemed to think everyone is running a spam factory.

Northern_Rock

Can someone clarify the make and model of the current free wireless modem/router with their £25 package? Ta.I notice on Post Office website it says you get free connection if taking phone and broadband extra package, would that by any luck be free line connection or perhaps more likely free broadband connection?

lee12_2

Hi has any one gone over to the post office standard broadband package ?We are thinking of going to it but was wondering if it is ok, also what wired modem do they give you? we have 2 computers ones xp the other vista will they both work ok,

If any one has gone over we would love to know how you rate them

thanks

late9

lee12 wrote: »

Hi has any one gone over to the post office standard broadband package ?We are thinking of going to it but was wondering if it is ok, also what wired modem do they give you? we have 2 computers ones xp the other vista will they both work ok,

If any one has gone over we would love to know how you rate them

thanks

We have just gone live with them last week on the Homephone and Broadband Extra. A friend has the Standard pack also.

The Broadband and Phone Extra service has been excellent so far. Setup was very easy and no software was needed- It was just a case of plug and go. Setup instructions are clear although we found it easier and quicker to do on the Vista machine - a old xp laptop required an extra few clicks.

Speed has increased nearly 1Mbps compared to our previous provider Orange, we now get 6.9Mbps average on a 8Mbps connection. Service hasn't dropped or is limited during evenings either (although we are paying extra for the Unlimited pack). The wireless modem is great too.

I do know a friend who has the standard pack is pleased with it. The modem is different as its not wireless. Its smaller and has post office logo on it but set-up seems to be the same. I think there's 4 ethernet ports (4machines) to hook up too like the Wireless modem in the Extra pack.

The only downside is that the admin and customer support has been poor. We have had a couple of problems during ordering and the 'mypostoffice' account management centre doesn't seem to be firing on all cylinders. I still cant get access to billing or account information. Admin was off a bit with letters saying things like 'As you have already logged in your password is below" when there wasn't one and we hadn't logged in. It took ages to get through to the call centre (UK based).

The Broadband and Phone side has been great however but that's probably down to the fact its a BT Wholesale / re brand type of set-up. Basically its BT who run that side of things.

peregrin

I had no problem with Post Office broadband, only took the broadband and not the phone etc. but it was all fine, activated within a couple of weeks, nice free wireless router and got good sync speed at about 7.5Mbps and consistently fairly fast downloads. Was impressed.