A Question re. Plusnet emails

Pyxis · 19 February 2019 at 9:29AM

Firstly, Plusnet is my ISP, and I don't wish to change it.

I have received an email from Plusnet saying that they are about to upgrade the way their emails work, and that if I currently send mine through a non-Plusnet server, they need me to check that my outgoing server settings are up to date.

It goes on to say that my outbound mail server needs to be set to relay.plus.net to ensure that my emails keep working after the changes. If it's already set to that, I don't need to do anything.

Now, the situation is that I have three email addresses...

One is with Plusnet, and that account is already set to relay.plus.net.
I almost never use that email address these days, because of the limited email storage Plusnet have, and the problems I had with that in the past....won't bore you with the details.

One of the others is with gmail, and the other is with iCloud.

I use an iPad exclusively, and have no desktop or laptop.

My question is, are they telling me I have to change the servers for my other two email accounts to the Plusnet one, otherwise they won't work?
Or are the other two accounts completely separate, despite Plusnet being my ISP, and so won't be affected?

(The guide link they gave in the email didn't answer this question).

Neil_Jones · 19 February 2019 at 9:45AM

What it means is if you send email through your Gmail or iCloud account you need to use Plusnet's server, not the one Gmail/Apple gave you.

It won't stop you using those emails providing they go through Plusnet's server when you send.

wanman · 19 February 2019 at 9:54AM

I read this as that it only affects Plusnet emails.

There are a couple of threads on the plusnet forums https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Email-from-Plusnet/td-p/1611089 and https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Email-changes-and-non-plusnet-mail-providers/td-p/1612778

From these it seems Plusnet are implementing SPF - this means they are adding some information into DNS TXT records which lists the 'approved' originating IP addresses or DNS names of mail relays that can send plusnet mail.

IF a recipient mail system implements SPF control then they may look up this SPF record and possibly reject emails that have not originated from the approved relays. The intention is that SPF acts as some form of anti-spam and anti-spoof, for example preventing me sending emails as if they are from a bank etc.

In practice there are many limitations in SPF and it does not work well, there are far too many reasons why valid mail can get blocked and most email systems do not implement it. From the plusnet thread quoted it seems that plusnet tried to implement SPF controls on inbound email but had to remove it due to rejection of valid emails.

So if you do not use a plusnet relay for your plusnet mail there is a small chance that some recipients may not receive your email, but these changes should have no impact on other email addresses using other relays. I have not seen anything saying plusnet are blocking mail to other servers such as those used by gmail etc

Pyxis · 19 February 2019 at 10:02AM

Neil_Jones wrote: »

What it means is if you send email through your Gmail or iCloud account you need to use Plusnet's server, not the one Gmail/Apple gave you.

It won't stop you using those emails providing they go through Plusnet's server when you send.

That's exactly what I am afraid of, though, due to the storage problem.

wanman wrote: »

I read this as that it only affects Plusnet emails.

There are a couple of threads on the plusnet forums https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Email-from-Plusnet/td-p/1611089 and https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Email-changes-and-non-plusnet-mail-providers/td-p/1612778

From these it seems Plusnet are implementing SPF - this means they are adding some information into DNS TXT records which lists the 'approved' originating IP addresses or DNS names of mail relays that can send plusnet mail.

IF a recipient mail system implements SPF control then they may look up this SPF record and possibly reject emails that have not originated from the approved relays. The intention is that SPF acts as some form of anti-spam and anti-spoof, for example preventing me sending emails as if they are from a bank etc.

In practice there are many limitations in SPF and it does not work well, there are far too many reasons why valid mail can get blocked and most email systems do not implement it. From the plusnet thread quoted it seems that plusnet tried to implement SPF controls on inbound email but had to remove it due to rejection of valid emails.

So if you do not use a plusnet relay for your plusnet mail there is a small chance that some recipients may not receive your email, but these changes should have no impact on other email addresses using other relays. I have not seen anything saying plusnet are blocking mail to other servers such as those used by gmail etc

I was hoping this scenario would be the case.

The Plusnet email address I have is hardly ever used and it wouldn't bother me much if there were problems with it, (and I am already on the right server setting for that anyway), but the other email addresses I use all the time, and that would be a huge problem.

Thank you.

dipsomaniac · 19 February 2019 at 10:07AM

not a good idea to use isp email address for obvious reasons. surely plusnet changes only affect their email addresses. can't see how they would try and limit the most popular email client in the world as they wouldn't have any customers

Pyxis · 19 February 2019 at 10:12AM

dipsomaniac wrote: »

not a good idea to use isp email address for obvious reasons.

What do you mean? Sorry, not obvious to me!

Do you mean I shouldn't use my Plusnet email address?
And if so, why?

I'm not very clued up, I'm afraid.

ballyblack · 19 February 2019 at 10:26AM

one obvious reason if you leave plusnet you will lose that email address

Use gmail or similar

dipsomaniac · 19 February 2019 at 10:27AM

Pyxis wrote: »

What do you mean? Sorry, not obvious to me!

Do you mean I shouldn't use my Plusnet email address?
And if so, why?

I'm not very clued up, I'm afraid.

yes, as ballyblack says when you leave plusnet you will lose your email addresses. i learnt the hard way many years ago with 6 bt email addresses

Pyxis · 19 February 2019 at 12:08PM

ballyblack wrote: »

one obvious reason if you leave plusnet you will lose that email address

Use gmail or similar

dipsomaniac wrote: »

yes, as ballyblack says when you leave plusnet you will lose your email addresses. i learnt the hard way many years ago with 6 bt email addresses

That's ok then , as I use my gmail and iCloud addresses a lot, lot more. I don't use the Plusnet address any more, except on the rare occasion that someone sends an email to it, which hardly ever happens these days.

I don't intend to leave Plusnet, though.

Anyway, as long as my other addresses won't be compromised, that's ok!

Thanks everyone! Much obliged for your help.

ballyblack · 19 February 2019 at 3:17PM

I don't intend to leave Plusnet, though.

some people used to have an o2 email but they stopped their service ....with customers having no email

Pyxis · 19 February 2019 at 3:57PM

ballyblack wrote: »

some people used to have an o2 email but they stopped their service ....with customers having no email

Presumably though, I could still use my gmail and iCloud accounts, even if that were to happen?

A Question re. Plusnet emails

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