Templot Club Archive 2007-2020                             

topic: 19Forum emails
author remove search highlighting
 
posted: 22 May 2007 01:43

from:

Richard Spratt
 
Stockton-upon-Tees - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
This forum Yahoo email is really annoying.  Many times the messages
arrive out of order and the thread loses sense.

posted: 22 May 2007 02:11

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Richard,

    > This forum Yahoo email is really annoying.
    > Many times the messages arrive out of order
    > and the thread loses sense.

That problem is down to Yahoo. It's been bad again recently.

You can solve the problem by choosing to receive your emails direct from the Templot Club forums, instead of via the Yahoo group. You will also get them much more quickly without the usual several minutes delay via Yahoo.

Try this:

1. Go to Yahoo and change your setting for the Templot group to "no email". Or send a blank message to templot-nomail@yahoogroups.com

2. Go to the Templot Club pages at http://www.templot.com/forum

3. Login if not already.

4. Click the My Account button at the top.

5. Click the Emailed Messages tab.

6. Choose the option to receive "Messages as they come in" or "Daily digests" as you prefer.

7. Tick the boxes on the left for the forums from which you wish to receive emails. I imagine most members will want to tick all of them.

8. Click the Save button (bottom right).

Your Club emails will now come direct from the forums instead of via Yahoo.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 22 May 2007 03:17

from:

85a_forum
 
 

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Richard,

   > Not surprising I sent this message at 18:37 and
   > got it back at 20:43. Please sort it out Martin.

Steady on Richard. As I explained twice, if you now post or reply to messages via email, I am for the present manually entering them on the new forums.

I explained that that would result in delay, and that if you want your messages to appear instantly you should post them on the forum web site instead.

I am intending to provide an automated means of posting via email, but that involves some program development which will take time, and distract me from more important matters on Templot itself.

I would much prefer that everyone use the forum web site to post messages. There is a reply link in all the messages received by email. But if email is your only option, I will ensure that your message gets posted -- but as I say, it may be subject to delay.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 22 May 2007 03:45

from:

Peter Ayre
 
 

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Martin,

If a reply to a thread is sent to the Yahoo address (such as this message) will it also appear in the forum? I suppose proof will soon be seen on the forum, or not as the case would be.

{It's appearing here because I am manually entering it on the forum for you. M.}

I agree with Richard in that I too, am finding more and more Yahoo messages arriving out of sync, although this could be due to the senders email server and not always the fault of Yahoo.

I would go to "no messages from Yahoo" if I could be certain that I would get all messages in a thread,

{You will, if you follow the numbered instructions I gave earlier in this topic. M.}

I certainly don't want to chop and change and have to read some messages emailed from the forum and missing ones from Yahoo groups.

I do like the new forum, though.

Regards,

Peter Ayre


posted: 22 May 2007 15:35

from:

Templot User
 
Posted By Email

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
=== from Brian Lewis ===

Hi Martin,

Now I find b) below to be a minus point. It was very useful to filter out emails from certain folk without have to open them. This advantage is now lost.

Regarding c), I have not seen this in practice. Is my system not set up properly?

Regards

Brian Lewis
Carrs - C+L Finescale
http://www.finescale.org.uk
Tel: +44 1 275 852 027
Fax: +44 1 275 810 555


  > b. Messages posted on the forums do not contain your email
  > address in the header, even when distributed by email.
  > There is no way that joining the forums can make you more
  > liable to receive spam or malicious email.
  >
  > c. Messages on the forums can have links to image files or
  > have images and other files attached, which are visible on
  > the page when reading the messages. This makes it possible
  > to exchange screen-shots in explanations, which will be a great
  > advantage in making things clear.


posted: 22 May 2007 22:40

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Brian,

    > Now I find b) below to be a minus point. It was very
    > useful to filter out emails from certain folk without
    > having to open them. This advantage is now lost.

Not lost, the sender's name is now in the message body. You need to change your message rules to look for it in the "body" instead of the "from" line.
  
   > Regarding c), I have not seen this in practice.
   > Is my system not set up properly?

Images are visible in messages if you read them on the forum web site, they are not visible in email messages received via the Yahoo group. They may be visible in emails received direct from the forum, although in most email software probably not.

Brian, I suggest that you try the new Templot Club forums -- I promise you it is not like the Guild forum, you will have to register and login only once in every 5 years. Here is an example of a topic containing an inline image:

 topic 18

Images can be included in messages in two ways.

1. As an attachment. Click the Browse button below the editor and navigate to the image file on your computer.

2. As an inline image, if located elsewhere. Top and tail the URL with img and /img tags (put the tags in square brackets).

If you post by email instead of using the editor on the web site, 2) is the only option. (At present I am manually posting such emails on the forums for members.)

regards,

Martin.


posted: 7 Jul 2007 16:54

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Dear all,

Some ISPs are being lazy and using IP blocks as spam filters instead of actually checking for spam content. This can mean that direct emails from Templot Club get blocked because some other domain is sending spam from the same hosting provider as templot.com .

Currently known ISPs doing this are:

AOL
Supanet

(Previously there was a similar problem with Comcast, but that seems to have resolved.)

If my ISP was doing that, I would be extremely annoyed that my legitimate emails were being blocked in this way, and I should be looking for a different ISP.

If you are on the above ISPs you won't be getting emails direct from Templot Club at present, so I suggest you remain on the Yahoo group and receive forum emails that way. You may want to contact your ISP and ask them why they are blocking your genuine emails.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 7 Jul 2007 18:13

from:

Brian Lewis
 
United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Martin Wynne wrote:
Currently known ISPs doing this are:

AOL
Supanet

(Previously there was a similar problem with Comcast, but that seems to have resolved.)

If my ISP was doing that, I would be extremely annoyed that my legitimate emails were being blocked in this way, and I should be looking for a different ISP.
Hi Martin,

C+L's web site is hosted on 123-REG. AOL apparently blocks all traffic from 123-REG, so folk who order on our secure on line web site do not get the usual acknowledgements. More of a nuisance is, if there is a query on their order I cannot use the built in reply system, but have to start again using my Nildram site. I spoke at length to AOL and they advised that 123-REG, being a site that is used mainly by high end businesses, contained known spammers. So they just blocked all traffic from that source.

The solution they offered was for individuals to configure their system, so that it would allow free entry from all ISPs. Apparently this is not a straightforward operation.

We have a note on our web site to this effect. I see it as censorship and fail to see why anyone bothers with AOL.

--

Regards

Brian Lewis
Carrs - C+L Finescale
http://www.finescale.org.uk
Tel: +44 1 275 852 027
Fax: +44 1 275 810 555

posted: 7 Jul 2007 18:22

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Brian Lewis wrote:
We have a note on our web site to this effect. I see it as censorship and fail to see why anyone bothers with AOL.
Hi Brian,

Years ago I tried to help a friend uninstall some AOL software, and I still bear the scars. :(

For me AOL goes in the same sentence as wild horses and a bargepole. :)

regards,

Martin.

posted: 7 Jul 2007 19:18

from:

Paul Boyd
 
Loughborough - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
I wonder how many people here remember when AOL first appeared?  There we were, quietly bimbling away on the internet nice and peacefully, then suddenly every schookid in America had an internet connection and it has never been the same since.  It will be a cold day in 'ell before I have anything to do with AO-'ell :)

posted: 8 Jul 2007 04:09

from:

Jim Guthrie
 
United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Paul Boyd wrote:
I wonder how many people here remember when AOL first appeared?  There we were, quietly bimbling away on the internet nice and peacefully, then suddenly every schookid in America had an internet connection and it has never been the same since.  It will be a cold day in 'ell before I have anything to do with AO-'ell :)
Paul,

If we hadn't let AOL users in,  or many others,  then we might still be paying a king's ransom for our service,  and the standard probably wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as we have now. :-)

Jim.
Last edited on 8 Jul 2007 04:12 by Jim Guthrie
posted: 8 Jul 2007 16:07

from:

Paul Boyd
 
Loughborough - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Jim
If we hadn't let AOL users in, or many others, then we might still be paying a king's ransom for our service, and the standard probably wouldn't have been anywhere near as good as we have now.
There's no doubting that the likes of AOL and Compuserve (shudder!) have helped take the internet from a minor business tool to what we have today.  I just wish it had been in a more controlled manner :)

posted: 5 Aug 2007 02:59

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
I wrote:
Some ISPs are being lazy and using IP blocks as spam filters instead of actually checking for spam content. This can mean that direct emails from Templot Club get blocked because some other domain is sending spam from the same hosting provider as templot.com .

Currently known ISPs doing this are:

AOL
Supanet

(Previously there was a similar problem with Comcast, but that seems to have resolved.)

If my ISP was doing that, I would be extremely annoyed that my legitimate emails were being blocked in this way, and I should be looking for a different ISP.

If you are on the above ISPs you won't be getting emails direct from Templot Club at present, so I suggest you remain on the Yahoo group and receive forum emails that way. You may want to contact your ISP and ask them why they are blocking your genuine emails.
I regret to report that Comcast are doing this again. Not only that, but they are also blocking my direct emails to such users via a different ISP. Comcast users may want to ask themselves how many of their other genuine emails are also being blocked in this way.

As far as I know, Comcast are not blocking email from Yahoo, so this is the only way for Comcast users to get Templot Club messages by email, and there is no way to receive reply notifications or private message email notifications.

More information about this block is at (under code BL003):

 http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=SecurityMail_Policy18627

N.B. This problem applies only to forum members who are Comcast users. As far as I know, all other forum members are receiving email without problems at present.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 5 Aug 2007 03:41

from:

Dave Phillips
 
New Jersey USA

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Martin,

I'm on Comcast and receiving Templot Club email just fine. When this problem originally occurred early in June, I contacted Comcast and asked them to unblock your ISP, which they did. It only took a few hours for Comcast to do this.

You can submit a request to unblock the Templot IP address at http://www.comcastsupport.com/rbl. The IP address (at that time) was 85.233.160.20. Is your IP address the same?

Maybe if each affected person requested unblocking, Comcast will eventually get the message!

Best regards,

Dave

posted: 5 Aug 2007 04:20

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Dave Phillips wrote:
I'm on Comcast and receiving Templot Club email just fine. When this problem originally occurred early in June, I contacted Comcast and asked them to unblock your ISP, which they did. It only took a few hours for Comcast to do this.
Hi Dave,

I'm confused here, because today I received several returned emails blocked by Comcast, one of them being to you.
You can submit a request to unblock the Templot IP address at http://www.comcastsupport.com/rbl
As far as I can see, this form is primarily intended to be submitted by the hosting company, giving details which only they can provide.

As a general principle, we now have over 200 members of this forum, with more joining regularly. It is not practical to be required to make individual arrangements for users' ISPs. Only a handful of members are affected by this -- everyone else is receiving forum emails without any problems, so it is difficult to see why Comcast cannot do the same. I have seen reports elsewhere that it can be difficult to get emails through to Comcast users.

regards,

Martin.


posted: 5 Aug 2007 05:14

from:

Dave Phillips
 
New Jersey USA

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Martin,

So what are we to do? I agree the form appears to be for the sending ISP administrators. Have you contacted your ISP? And yes, I understand your reluctance to do this, since it's a "problem" with Comcast. But what am I supposed to do? Change ISP's? Unlikely.

If you or your ISP don't request unblocking, the only thing I can suggest is that the affected Comcast users request unblocking.

Regarding the notice you received about blocking a message to me, is the sending IP address in the message the same as in my previous post, or is your ISP using several different IP addresses, one of which is unblocked while others are blocked. Obviously I'm getting some messages!

Regards,

Dave

posted: 5 Aug 2007 06:00

from:

Dave Phillips
 
New Jersey USA

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Martin,

I have checked emails received today from the Club against messages posted on the Yahoo site. Looks like I missed at least one message today.

One other thing I can do (and have done) is to turn emails back on for the Yahoo site. I will then get duplicate emails. If we can't solve this problem with Comcast (and the other "bad" ISPs who are blocking your emails), I will revert back to reading only emails from the Yahoo Templot site.

regards,

Dave

posted: 5 Aug 2007 06:28

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Dave Phillips wrote:
So what are we to do? I agree the form appears to be for the sending ISP administrators. Have you contacted your ISP? And yes, I understand your reluctance to do this, since it's a "problem" with Comcast.
Hi Dave,

I contacted them in general terms. They said that since they did not consider themselves at fault they would charge for any work undertaken, including the filling in and sending of this or any similar form. They felt that doing so was a waste of time, because Comcast and other ISPs who act likewise (AOL) were just as likely to re-impose the block at any time. They were keen to know which of their hosted domains was regarded as a spammer by Comcast, but I did not have that information.
Regarding the notice you received about blocking a message to me, is the sending IP address in the message the same as in my previous post, or is your ISP using several different IP addresses, one of which is unblocked while others are blocked. Obviously I'm getting some messages!
Here's the relevant rejection note. The IP is one digit different, so presumably there are two (or more) mail servers involved:

550 85.233.160.21 blocked by ldap:ou=rblmx,dc=comcast,dc=net ->
BL003 Blocked for spam. Please see
 http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=SecurityMail_Policy18627 

All the Comcast returned forum emails today have had this IP. Perhaps you could ask Comcast to unblock this IP also?

But the problem doesn't stop there. In attempting to send an off-forum message to a Comcast member via a different ISP, that was also blocked in the same way. In this case the IP is 195.112.4.54
So what are we to do?
If it was me I would be looking for a different email address for use on the forum, and anywhere else that might get blocked. Yahoo offer a free email address, and you can set it up to have your emails forwarded to your Comcast address. That might get round the block, or it might not.

What do Comcast say to their subscribers about this blocking of their legitimate emails? Do you get a notification that it has been blocked, or any option to release it? Why not simply put it in a spam bin if they think it is spam, so that you at least have a chance to retrieve it if it is genuine, and can add the sender to a whitelist?

regards,

Martin.


posted: 5 Aug 2007 06:41

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Dave Phillips wrote:
One other thing I can do (and have done) is to turn emails back on for the Yahoo site. I will then get duplicate emails. If we can't solve this problem with Comcast (and the other "bad" ISPs who are blocking your emails), I will revert back to reading only emails from the Yahoo Templot site.
Hi Dave,

This gets you the forum messages, but not any email notifications (e.g. the notification that you have received a new private message on the forum).

Also, Yahoo have a new YahooGroups product under beta test, and I'm not yet convinced that the present forwarding of messages will go on working. There's not yet any indication of when the changeover will take place. More about this at:

 http://new.groups.yahoo.com/yg_beta_forum


regards,

Martin.

posted: 5 Aug 2007 08:10

from:

Dave Phillips
 
New Jersey USA

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Martin,

Sounds like you should be looking for another ISP if they won't fill out an online form with about 6 questions without some money!

"They were keen to know which of their hosted domains was regarded as a spammer by Comcast, but I did not have that information."

The domain should be the blocked IP address that is shown in the Comcast message.

"Perhaps you could ask Comcast to unblock this IP also?"

I will submit a request to unblock 85.233.160.21.

"But the problem doesn't stop there. In attempting to send an off-forum message to a Comcast member via a different ISP, that was also blocked in the same way. In this case the IP isĀ 195.112.4.54 "

And I'll send a request to unblock this one.

"Yahoo offer a free email address, and you can set it up to have your emails forwarded to your Comcast address. That might get round the block, or it might not."

I'll give it a try.

"Do you get a notification that it has been blocked, or any option to release it? Why not simply put it in a spam bin if they think it is spam, so that you at least have a chance to retrieve it if it is genuine, and can add the sender to a whitelist?"

I get no notification of blocked email. Each user has two relevant options in their account setup. First is Spam Filtering - I have mine set to no filtering. The second is Restrict Incoming Email - I have mine set to receive all emails. This setting allows one to block all emails except for specifically defined domains, input by the user. I have no explanation why messages are still getting blocked with these settings, but I'm going to ask Comcast.

I have a POP mail account and my email client also filters spam. These messages are the only ones that go into a spam bin for me to review. Filtered messages by Comcast do not get downloaded to my machine for me to check.

regards,

Dave

posted: 5 Aug 2007 09:15

from:

Dave Phillips
 
New Jersey USA

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Martin,

I have received a notification that both IP addresses have been removed from the Comcast blocked list.

regards,

Dave

posted: 5 Aug 2007 19:05

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Dave Phillips wrote:
I have received a notification that both IP addresses have been removed from the Comcast blocked list.
Hi Dave,

Many thanks.

Martin.

posted: 5 Aug 2007 23:10

from:

Paul Boyd
 
Loughborough - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Dave
But what am I supposed to do? Change ISP's? Unlikely.
To be quite frank, if my ISP was blocking legitimate emails without my consent or knowledge, I would be changing without a moment's hesitation.  How many other legit emails have you missed?  You don't know, because you don't get them.

No-one else should have to faff about filling in forms because Comcast decide to play by their own rules.  This is a Comcast problem, so Comcast need to fix it or lose customers.

Just my 2d's worth :)

posted: 6 Aug 2007 02:15

from:

John Lewis
 
Croydon - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Paul Boyd wrote:
To be quite frank, if my ISP was blocking legitimate emails without my consent or knowledge, I would be changing without a moment's hesitation.  How many other legit emails have you missed?  You don't know, because you don't get them.

No-one else should have to faff about filling in forms because Comcast decide to play by their own rules.  This is a Comcast problem, so Comcast need to fix it or lose customers.
Or have they got them locked in by long term broadband contracts with expensive "get out" clauses?

John.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 02:34

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Paul Boyd wrote:
No-one else should have to faff about filling in forms because Comcast decide to play by their own rules. This is a Comcast problem, so Comcast need to fix it or lose customers.
The web is awash with perfectly respectable sites complaining about being blocked by Comcast. See for example:  Hidden-Tech

It's difficult to form a view from this side of the pond, but presumably Comcast does something right to have so many subscribers.

Dave's request for unblocking seems to have worked -- no rejected emails today. But how long it will last I've no idea.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 04:59

from:

Rextanka
 
Scotts Valley - California USA

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Martin Wynne wrote:
It's difficult to form a view from this side of the pond, but presumably Comcast does something right to have so many subscribers.


Comcast were AT&T cable. During one of AT&Ts attempts to reconstitute the monopoly it had in place before it was split by the federal government into the Baby Bell's (AT&T has now, with the acquisition of PacBell, Cingular and other regional and cellular companies, managed to reconstiute it's self back to a monopoly. Comcast got sold off prior to all this, but it retains many of the business practices introduced under AT&Ts management.

If you get Cable, and most households in metropolitan areas get TV via cable then the "local" cable has a monopoly. It's not like I can say "I want TimeWarner to supply my cable" if Comcast are my "local" provider. There is no real choice, the only choice I have is DSL, provided by.... AT&T (formerly PAcific Bell). I have previously been a DSL customer and it was really flakey. With Comcast I have had 2 outages in the last 2 years so the level of service proved for high speed internet is good. The competition is not really from providers, its more between technologies.

This doesnt really add anything, but hopefully it's useful background.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 05:49

from:

Dave Phillips
 
New Jersey USA

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Rextanka is right. I live in a metropolitan area with one broadband provider--Comcast. The phone company (Verizon) can't provide DSL to my home because it's too far from a substation. So I'm stuck with Comcast or slow dialup. I think I'd rather miss a few emails than go back to dialup. BTW, I have no long term contract with Comcast, so that is not the reason for not switching provders. There are no other providers of broadband in my municipality!

Comcast pays each municipality for the privilege of having a monopoly, a monopoly tolerated to entice businesses like Comcast to come into a municipality and wire it with cable. Verizon is beginning to advertise a fiber optic network direct to your door, which should be available in our community in a year or two. Then everyone expects cable prices to drop from the competition. Both Comcast and Verizon offer TV, broadband internet, and telephone service. You can buy one, two or all three services.

I'm not defending Comcast practices but they see a pattern from the hosting service that Martin uses that appears to be the same as patterns from sites sending spam. That doesn't mean Martin is sending spam but some other user of the hosting service may be. After hearing people complain about spam, it's no wonder that Comcast (and other providers and businesses) implement filters. As I understand it, the spam is not accepted from these sites to keep the Comcast network from breaking down with excess traffic. They are in essence trying to maintain an acceptable level of service.

I find it odd that Martin's hosting service provider isn't being more proactive in monitoring it's users for potential spam, and charging a user for filling out a simple form. It's almost like the service is avoiding the outgoing spam issue. At the very least, I would think they would contact Comcast when told they were being blocked becasue of spam patterns. On the other hand, I also think Comcast should be contacting each blocked service to inform them specifically what patterns they are seeing that seem spam-like, and to work with them to identify the spammers.

Sorry for the length of this reply and the lateness. I was out all day. Now back to Templot!

Best regards,

Dave

posted: 6 Aug 2007 06:12

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Rextanka wrote:
If you get Cable, and most households in metropolitan areas get TV via cable then the "local" cable has a monopoly. It's not like I can say "I want TimeWarner to supply my cable" if Comcast are my "local" provider. There is no real choice, the only choice I have is DSL, provided by.... AT&T (formerly PAcific Bell). I have previously been a DSL customer and it was really flakey.
Hi Nick,

Thanks for that.

Are you saying that your email mailbox has to be provided by the same ISP company that provide your broadband connection? Can you not set up a mailbox with some other provider? You should be able to do that with any hosting ISP anywhere in the world. For example, try one picked at random in the UK: NDO email.

Like Paul, I wouldn't remain for 5 minutes with an email provider which blocked my legitimate incoming emails without my knowledge or permission. That's not the same as changing the broadband connection -- I assume by cable you mean a fibre-optic cable? (ADSL phone lines are metallic cable.)

regards,

Martin.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 06:35

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Dave Phillips wrote:
As I understand it, the spam is not accepted from these sites to keep the Comcast network from breaking down with excess traffic. They are in essence trying to maintain an acceptable level of service.

I find it odd that Martin's hosting service provider isn't being more proactive in monitoring its users for potential spam
Hi Dave,

What you have to bear in mind is that it is only Comcast who seem to be having any problem. That's about 1% of the forum membership. All other ISPs are happily accepting emails from this forum without complaint, or any sign of the sky falling in.

I can't be certain, but I'm fairly sure it was my mentioning the name Comcast which caused them to put up the shutters. I think if I'd mentioned some other ISP they would have been a lot more helpful and concerned. Certainly I have found them very helpful with other matters.

I can understand Comcast treating all this forum's emails as spam, if they are so minded to treat the IP as such. What I don't understand is why they can't put them in the spam bin and allow you to retrieve them? Why block them completely so that you can't access them or even know they were sent to you? That's surely a very strange idea of an acceptable level of service.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 09:11

from:

Rextanka
 
Scotts Valley - California USA

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Martin Wynne wrote:
Rextanka wrote:
If you get Cable, and most households in metropolitan areas get TV via cable then the "local" cable has a monopoly. It's not like I can say "I want TimeWarner to supply my cable" if Comcast are my "local" provider. There is no real choice, the only choice I have is DSL, provided by.... AT&T (formerly PAcific Bell). I have previously been a DSL customer and it was really flakey.
Hi Nick,

Thanks for that.

Are you saying that your email mailbox has to be provided by the same ISP company that provide your broadband connection? Can you not set up a mailbox with some other provider? You should be able to do that with any hosting ISP anywhere in the world. For example, try one picked at random in the UK: NDO email.

Like Paul, I wouldn't remain for 5 minutes with an email provider which blocked my legitimate incoming emails without my knowledge or permission. That's not the same as changing the broadband connection -- I assume by cable you mean a fibre-optic cable? (ADSL phone lines are metallic cable.)


Nope, I can get more or less any email provider. More on this below.

Cable is the colloquial name of the medium over which TV and other digital services are delivered here. It's fiber to a distribution point but it comes in from the street over copper coax.

On the email front. All three of my email providers block email identified as spam. I don't look at my Yahoo account because it is mostly spam. The following:

comcast.net
mac.com
apple.com

all aggressively filter. I can move to something other than comcast if this is an issue for the site. Apple and .Mac both use the same filters though the config may be different, and both of them almost certainly use different filters to Comcast.

It may seem odd that I appear to blithely accept the filtering. Fact is that I used to write articles for Apple developer magazines in the mid 1990's as the internet was catching on with the masses. The articles had an old version of my work email address. My email address got farmed, and at one point I was getting in excess of 400 dodgy emails a day. So I worked with the IS&T people at work, along with a bunch of other people, to get the filters in place. At work I see just under 1000 emails a day come into my account, post spam filtering. After this I have about 70 mail rules in place to get it to a manageable 250 that I read. So I am a bit of a filter fan, but they are generally a blunt instrument and will get rid of email that is potentially interesting. It's a problem of drinking from a fire hose.

Regards

Nick

posted: 6 Aug 2007 13:23

from:

Paul Boyd
 
Loughborough - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Hi Nick
If you get Cable, and most households in metropolitan areas get TV via cable then the "local" cable has a monopoly. It's not like I can say "I want TimeWarner to supply my cable" if Comcast are my "local" provider. There is no real choice, the only choice I have is DSL, provided by.... AT&T (formerly PAcific Bell). I have previously been a DSL customer and it was really flakey.
That doesn't seem much of a free and democratic choice to me, but if it's what you have it's what you have!  In the UK, most people's broadband is through the phone line, so we can use pretty much whichever ISP we like.  I don't know what the scenario here is with cable broadband.  The downside of broadband through the phone lines is the crap speeds and dodgy connections we have to put up with in the UK compared to the rest of the world :(   I would have suggested using a different email provider, but that has already been discussed.
With Comcast I have had 2 outages in the last 2 years so the level of service proved for high speed internet is good.
It sounds like the ISP bit of Comcast is good - shame about their email practices.
This doesnt really add anything, but hopefully it's useful background.
Yes, it is.  Thanks.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 16:58

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Paul Boyd wrote:
The downside of broadband through the phone lines is the crap speeds and dodgy connections we have to put up with in the UK compared to the rest of the world :(
Hi Paul,

Bad Monday morning? :)

I think that is a bit sweeping. Recently I helped a friend get started with ADSL broadband. He's out in the wilds of South Shropshire with an ancient overhead phone line stretched half-way across the Clee Hill. The line has caused ordinary phone problems in the past, and there was a warning from the ISP that the length of the line may cause trouble.

In the event and much to my surprise he's getting a very reliable 2Mbps broadband service with only very occasional drop-outs. In fact he is getting a better upload speed than me! :( The error-correcting system (BroadbandMax) used by BT Wholesale to milk the last drop of speed out of the old copper wires seems to be working very well.

Of course I don't know if this is just one-off luck, or typical of the system as a whole. Or maybe 2Mbps is a crap speed for you? Compared with the homing pigeons and the runner with a cleft stick which folks in those parts are used to, it's damn quick! :)

regards,

Martin.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 20:23

from:

Paul Boyd
 
Loughborough - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Bad Monday morning? :)
Jeez - it must be.  I thought I wrote that yesterday!
I think that is a bit sweeping. Recently I helped a friend get started with ADSL broadband. He's out in the wilds of South Shropshire with an ancient overhead phone line stretched half-way across the Clee Hill. The line has caused ordinary phone problems in the past, and there was a warning from the ISP that the length of the line may cause trouble.
At work we've finally succumbed to paying for a brand new line direct from the exchange to get something approaching 1M.  Until that's installed, we're at the mercy of BT engineers swapping copper pairs around to whoever shouts loudest, and in the rain everyone can shout as much as they like because all the copper pairs become flaky.  Even at home I only get around 4-5M
Of course I don't know if this is just one-off luck, or typical of the system as a whole. Or maybe 2Mbps is a crap speed for you? Compared with the homing pigeons and the runner with a cleft stick which folks in those parts are used to, it's damn quick! :)
Well, 2Mbps isn't exactly the fastest, but it is a mite quicker than carrier pigeon :)   Just some random figures - 61Mbps in Japan, 45Mbps in South Korea, 17Mbps in France....... 1.9Mbps in the USA.

Cheers

posted: 6 Aug 2007 20:44

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
Paul Boyd wrote:
Well, 2Mbps isn't exactly the fastest, but it is a mite quicker than carrier pigeon :)   Just some random figures - 61Mbps in Japan, 45Mbps in South Korea, 17Mbps in France....... 1.9Mbps in the USA.
Hi Paul,

Do those figures apply to the whole country, or only to urban areas? I've read complaints on some US groups that they can get only slow dial-up where they live, and slow means slow -- 28kbps.

Presumably all those figures are for new fibre-optic infrastructure? For the entire population? It's not a fair comparison if such speeds are available only in major cities.

regards,

Martin.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 22:44

from:

Templot User
 
Posted By Email

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
------ from Nigel Brown -----

Martin Wynne wrote:
I think that is a bit sweeping. Recently I helped a friend get started with ADSL broadband. He's out in the wilds of South Shropshire with an ancient overhead phone line stretched half-way across the Clee Hill. The line has caused ordinary phone problems in the past, and there was a warning from the ISP that the length of the line may cause trouble.

In the event and much to my surprise he's getting a very reliable 2Mbps broadband service with only very occasional drop-outs. In fact he is getting a better upload speed than me! :( The error-correcting system (BroadbandMax) used by BT Wholesale to milk the last drop of speed out of the old copper wires seems to be working very well.
Hi Martin,

Out here in the hills (mid Wales) 512K broadband is the max I can currently get. However... the speed is genuine, every test I've done gives something pretty close to that, and the upload speed is near the max. On a couple of occasions recently when the phone bit collapsed the
broadband kept going without a problem.

My ISP is NDO (now part of Namesco) and they have been fine as well.

cheers

Nigel.

posted: 6 Aug 2007 22:59

from:

Martin Wynne
 
West Of The Severn - United Kingdom

click the date to link to this post
click member name to view archived images
view images in gallery view images as slides
This topic has strayed somewhat off-topic for Templot. Mainly due to yours truly. :) It has also got rather long. So I have restarted it in the "None of the above" forum:

  Broadband and emails

regards,

Martin.



Templot Club > Forums > Templot talk > Forum emails
about Templot Club

Templot Companion - User Guide - A-Z Index Templot Explained for beginners Please click: important information for new members and first-time visitors.
indexing link for search engines

back to top of page


Please read this important note about copyright: Unless stated otherwise, all the files submitted to this web site are copyright and the property of the respective contributor. You are welcome to use them for your own personal non-commercial purposes, and in your messages on this web site. If you want to publish any of this material elsewhere or use it commercially, you must first obtain the owner's permission to do so.
The small print: All material submitted to this web site is the responsibility of the respective contributor. By submitting material to this web site you acknowledge that you accept full responsibility for the material submitted. The owner of this web site is not responsible for any content displayed here other than his own contributions. The owner of this web site may edit, modify or remove any content at any time without giving notice or reason. Problems with this web site? Contact webmaster@templot.com.   This web site uses cookies: click for information.  
© 2020  

Powered by UltraBB - © 2009 Data 1 Systems