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| Thread ID: 138290 | 2014-11-05 01:44:00 | Xtra Email down...AGAIN ! | Blue Druid (4480) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1387641 | 2014-11-05 01:44:00 | I have been a loyal and faithful customer of Telecom/Spark/Yahoo/Xtra for many years and ridden through a few ups and downs with them. However, lately, they have been kicking me where it hurts... right in the email. (Ouch.. that hurts!) Constant demands for authentication, the promised spam filter doesn't filter spam (it used to) and adding insult to injury, speeds are sometimes worse than dial-up (they didn't used to be.) Now I know all telcos/ISPs have their problems but I am getting to think it is time for a change. Trouble is, I've been in the same place so long I have no idea who is good or bad at the moment. I seldom use more than 10 GB a month and they insist that I have 40. I would rather pay more per GB and have a reliable service within the range of my usage than pay a 'bargain' rate for a heap of data that I don't use. I also have a landline and two mobile phones with them and am happy with the service there. I'm on plans that suit me admirably and don't want to change them unless I can get the equivalent elsewhere. Spark, of course would love me to change to a more 'modern' (and expensive) plan but I argue, "why change a good thing?" ADSL is the best anyone can offer me where I live (not even ADSL2) and fibre is still a couple of millennia away. Price of living in Paradise, I suppose. It's a rural community n15 kms from the nearest exchange. I would probably have to call in the dogs to find a street-side cabinet. So, my question is this: am I likely to find a better plan/email service/speed by going to another provider or is the location likely to be the crucial determinant? Yes, I know I can use GMail and I do as a workaround but I would much prefer to not have to. They are just one pip too good at using data sent over their servers and while it may be harmless, it worries me for the future. If someone can suggest a better hole, I might just go to it. I know this thread gets done to death repeatedly but things change and last week's favourite may no longer be in favour. Any suggestions welcome. |
Blue Druid (4480) | ||
| 1387642 | 2014-11-05 01:54:00 | I ditched my ISP email completely about a month ago and migrated it all to an Outlook.com account. Way better. can see emails over multiple devices and anything you do on one device is replicated on all the others. Works great if you use outlook 2013. Ok if you use outlook 2007 ~ 2010 with the Hotmail connector. Would never go back to an IPS email system again. FYI my old ISPs email for life account was Orcon.. | paulw (1826) | ||
| 1387643 | 2014-11-05 02:18:00 | I have been a loyal and faithful customer of Telecom/Spark/Yahoo/Xtra for many years However, lately, they have been kicking me where it hurts... right in the email. . No. Spark/Telecom/Xtra are the ISP. Yahoo is the email service. It's outsourced. I am a customer of Telecom.......but no way did I use the email service. Do the same, no reason to use ISP mail these days. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1387644 | 2014-11-05 02:46:00 | So, if I retain my connectivity with Spark, what are my choices for email aside from ISP provided mail? Is there anything other than gmail or does that have the market sewn up these days? Is there a paid email provider or would that confer no additional benefit? I use Outlook 2007 with POP3 and already have a gmail account. What about spam? Do any providers include a useful spam filter or is that now the sole responsibility of the user? |
Blue Druid (4480) | ||
| 1387645 | 2014-11-05 04:37:00 | Use Outlook.com, its Free, doesn't matter who the ISP is you are with and its easy to setup on most email clients (if you want to use pop) it works on Outlook 2003 onwards support.microsoft.com | wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1387646 | 2014-11-05 05:02:00 | Outlook.com or gmail.com both as good as each other I use both. Both have excellent spam filters and if you really do need to block something its easy to set up a filter in the webmail side of them. Both can be used with Outlook, Win live mail, thunderbird etc |
gary67 (56) | ||
| 1387647 | 2014-11-05 05:22:00 | This situation is weird! Is it just that these are regional service failures? My Xtra email is 100% reliable, I use it/check it several times a day, every day, from 8:00am through to 10:00-10:30 at night, and I can't remember when it was last off-line other than when my computer is having a hissy fit and drops my connection, but a reboot always fixes that. What is stopping Spark/Xtra from keep up a consistent service nationwide? Cheers Billy 8-{) :confused: |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 1387648 | 2014-11-05 06:56:00 | I wish I knew the answer to that Billy T. Some of it could be due to my location (speed issues) but that doesn't seem to account for the frequent authentication demands unless the connectivity is so dodgy that they cannot consistently decode it so it comes across incorrectly. They seem to have got the mail delivery sorted for now but just in the time of typing this I have had authentication requests twice (my email is always on 6 am to midnight.) I like the outlook.com suggestion and I will try it for a while. If things turn out to be significantly better, I will probably switch to it completely and let Spark give my Xtra account a pension. |
Blue Druid (4480) | ||
| 1387649 | 2014-11-05 09:07:00 | My current ISP is with Spark. I do have an Xtra email account but my main email account is my free Orcon account. I have changed my ISP several times over the years so I feel the need to have an email account that you keep no matter which ISP you are with. | Bobh (5192) | ||
| 1387650 | 2014-11-05 17:58:00 | In response to Bobh that is why like many others have changed to Gmail. So far no problems. | Bryan (147) | ||
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