Anyone else having problems with Ecosse.net/Breathe?

Quaint1

I had webspace hosted by Ecosse.net - only 50mb, but dashed useful, I used it for my home page, and also had a small imaging software site and the RSS feed for a hobbyist podcast I produce stored on there, with domains pointed to various pages. It worked fine, all I had to do was use the dial-up connection every so often and it kept on working.
Now, however, Breathe Internet has taken over the running of the Ecosse.net brand and they switched everything over last weekend, without any advance notice. Since then, I haven't been able to access any of my webspace, have been given no information on how I can ftp to it or anything. My podcast is consequently in a bit of a mess, as most of the podcast directories are reporting problems finding the feed, and my personal webpage, the software pages and another site about an author I like, cannot now be viewed by anyone.
There is no email address for Breathe and when I called the Customer Service number I eventually found (an 0870 number - there is a Tech Support number, but that is 60p per minute!!!) all I was told is "wait a couple of days and you should get an email - other people have already had it".

Are any other MSE members affected by the same thing? If so, Have you had the email; if so, what does it say? (I did get an email from Calico, the people who used to run Ecosse.net but all that said was that they were no longer taking calls about webspace)

Alternatively, can anyone suggest a free or dial-up charges only alternative other than Google Pages (which has 100mb, but is extremely limited and inflexible - you cannot upload HTML, you have to use their templates and, so far at least, I cannot find any way to add animated banners or links to images!)
Au Res.,
Paul

espresso

Not much help but it looks like they are on the slippery downward slope! see here.

minxed

I've had the same trouble as my emails all disappeared yesterday and are yet to return. Hving emailed Breathe.net, I received the following email:

"Dear Ecosse Customer,

We are delighted to advise you that breathe have now taken over full control of your service including email and connection. This email is to inform you of our
contact details and information you require in order to continue with us.

Your webspace has already been moved to us and we hope you are accessing your files successfully.

In order to continue your connection you will need to ensure you are using the correct dial up number to connect to the ecosse.net 0845 service. To do this
please check your current 0845 number is:

0845 662 1034

This number will continue to be charged via your telephone provider at the local rate. To check these costs please contact them direct.

This can be done by opening up your existing connection and overwriting the 0845 number to the above. You can continue to use your username and password
to dial up.

For your email account please ensure you have the following settings in your email client:

POP3 Server: mail.ecosse.net
SMTP Server: mail.ecosse.net
Username: full email address (eg breathe@ecosse.net)
Password: email address password- please note this is case sensitive.

For webmail, please log in with your email username and password at: http://webmail.ecosse.net/

For webmail on your mobile phone, please log in with your email username and password at: http://webmail.ecosse.net/mobile

For webmail, please note that any new email received after the above date will be shown in your Inbox. Email stored in your old account will be transferred over
at a later date. Please bear with us while we complete the work to ensure a smooth migration of your old email.

Your address books have been transferred and this information will show in your account.

Should you need to contact us if you have any problems with connection or email our support agents will be happy to deal with any queries on 0901 023 0373.
Calls to this number are charged at 60p per minute and lines are open 9am-9pm Monday-Friday and 9am-6pm Saturday and Sunday.

We hope you are able to amend your details successfully and trust you will enjoy the breathe service.

Kind regards
Customer Services"

I think ecosse and I may be parting company if I don't get my email back which would be a shame as I have been with ecosse for many years. I loved the simple format and spam digests to keep things in order - it seems far too complicated and time consuming now.

paolo

Yup it's doing my head in. Can't send emails to anyone but myself

support@ecosse.net doesn't work anymore and not paying 60p a minute to call them.

time to change maybe...

Actually - they are either blocking port 25 SMTP or have not notified me of a change in SMTP server. Got a nice fix for my MAC though - just turned on it's SMTP server facility. Works a treat

captainparanoid

hi

i have had an account with ecosse.net for ten years and rely on it for
my freelance business contacts and obtaining work

since the changeover initially i could access my account but all my previous
mail and folders were not transfered

this morning i attempted to access my e.mail and was not able to do so
with the following message 'You don't have permission to access /atmail.php on this server.'

i am also on a mac
is there a way i an access my account?

much thanks

starlight_xx

My email has been down all day but its working intermittantly just now. I did phone but got some rude Indian sounding man who snapped at me the email migration was taking place and there might be faults til Thursday.

captainparanoid

i was told all my old e.mail folders would be back

and e.mail working again by weds eve

but no sign of them yet

and cant receieve
or send mail

grrrrrr

Quaint1

I got that email and all it did was make me even more frustrated - I hadn't been able to access my webspace because they hadn't actually emailed me to tell me how!
I suspect the Indian guy had had a lot of calls about this - when I called him, he told me the details I needed for webaccess (the ftp is ftp/ecosse.net - you need to log in with your ecosse.net id and password) and that was it.

Ever since the transfer to Breathe, the spam/virus filter has been turned off; the first few emails I got on my ecosse.net address were spam, so I promptly removed the account from outlook express and, as soon as I could, I went to the ftp site and deleted all my webpage content, having already relocated it to some paid for webspace (I got a bargain deal from a company I found advertising in one of the PC mags - 68p per month for 1Gb webspace, 1Gb email storage, and a .com domain - though you do have to pay for 2 years in advance - the company is Amen World and, so far, no problems!)

Breathe had not handled this at all well; I still don't understand why they had to migrate all the webspace without actually telling anyone using said webspace, nor why they thought they could get away with not providing a contact email address for customers desperate to know what was happening to said webspace - I ran a podcast and a couple of information websites from mine, and all were offline and unavailable for the best part of a month - I for one will never deliberately use their services again - and the whole thing contrasts very badly with the 'old' ecosse.net, who were friendly, helpful and (most importantly) easily contactable.
Au Res.,
Paul

starlight_xx

This is driving me nuts!!! And that guy answering the phone?? I could slap him.

I got a few emails on Tuesday night and not a thing since. When I phoned up today to find out what was going on he told me rather sharply 'As Ive already said, itll be a few more days' I pointed out actually he hadnt already said to ME!!!

Not one of their 'informative' emails about the migration seems to mention the fact the whole system would be down for days on end.

The old ecosse.net system was much better, and you got a nice personalised reply to your queries in the space of a couple of hours.

Ive also discovered that emails sent to my ecosse.net account from my Gmail one are being returned undelivered so Lord knows how many we're going to lose when the servers finally come up

jaggybunnet

All I want for Christmas is my email back!!!

Still no joy.

Complained to Watchdog now...

tinman9898

I have also had problems since Ecosse.net migrated to Breathe servers. As have several other Ecosse customers over at the isp review forum....

To avoid repeating myself please go to the following thread for details of how to make a complaint to BBC watchdog, isp review, and other internet authorities......

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/showthread.php?t=25538

If we can group all the complaints together they will gain more weight. Please be courteous, polite and contructive with anything you submit. Being angry or abusive will get nowhere and wil lead to your complaint being ignored.