Plusnet email

[ChrisR]

We use the Plusnet ISP and Mrs R uses an associated email address; I onky look at it occasionally to check things. Last week I noticed an email saying:

"To ensure you can continue to receive a reliable and secure Plusnet email service, we’ve taken the decision to transfer the running of our email to the provider Greenby who will manage the service going forward."

The slight downside is, Greenby are going to charge £15 a year for the service, although they're doubling the amount of disk space for that. Plusnet says we don't have to accept this, but if we don't, they will simply wipe our email account anyway. Greenby will keep our Plusnet email addresses.

Greenby are part of the Enix group that provide email services and web hosting. I've not heard of either but that's not suprising. I looked at Greenby's web site, and AFAICS it's a special purpose vehicle for the Plusnet email; there doesn't seem to be information on anything else.

I can see one advantage of this: if we choose to move to another ISP, we won't have to lose our Plusnet email addresses! The £15 a year is not a big deal, I guess (I'm sure the Plusnet charge will not drop accordingly!). I'm just a bit concerned at this company I've never heard of!

Email addresses don't really matter, except when they do. You can get your friends to use a new email address, but finding all those accounts where you've used that email address to sign up and changing those is very tricky. And if you lose the old address and forget the password, you've lost the ability to do a password reset. That's the big deal.

Anyone else worrying about this? Am I just worrying unnecessarily?

 

[droj]

I thought of stumping up the paltry £15 pa, but as a matter of principle ...

I decided to migrate everything to gmail. So notified everyone in my address book, and logged in to all my commercial accounts that mattered to change my details.

Also as a personal preference, I've set up my mail program to receive gmail. Some operating parameters are different to before which caused some slight confusion at first.

The simplest answer is to pay the £15 pa & carry on as before. And I wouldn't worry about anything that may never happen!

 

[ChrisR]

I decided to migrate everything to gmail. So notified everyone in my address book, and logged in to all my commercial accounts that mattered to change my details.

I already use gmail for my own address; my preference would be to move away from them as part of an attempt (probably fruitless) to de-billionaire my life.

The complication in our case is that the Plusnet address is used mostly by Mrs R, who is not tech-savvy and highly resistant to change!

The simplest answer is to pay the £15 pa & carry on as before. And I wouldn't worry about anything that may never happen!

I think this is probably sound advice.

I can't think of an easy way to work out which if any accounts I might have set up with Plusnet addresses. Apart from Plusnet itself (which wouldn't matter if we migrated away, anyway), I can't think of any I would miss.

 

[gramps]

I can't think of an easy way to work out which if any accounts I might have set up with Plusnet addresses.

TBH this is something you need to address, the 'issue' may be more difficult down the line (think recent increased rate of cyber-crimes}.

 

[Box Brownie]

Interesting and thanks for the heads-up.

I/we have been with PN since 2003 (IIRC?) and as at yesterday evening don't recall seeing such an email about the above . For other reasons I logged into the PN portal and there was nothing of note drawing my attention to such a change to their email service.

I have a few emails setup and it would a PITA to go through all the possible places I have 'registered' an email address

 

[Box Brownie]

A quick dig.....

Plusnet email moving to Greenby

Just had an email from PN advising that they're offloading their email to Greenby, with an indicated date of "from 19th May". A paid service, £15pa - not sure if that's just me and my ilk (metronet accounts), but I'm more than happy to pay this is for the security of a well-managed and...

community.plus.net

Linked from one post in that discussion

https://www.plus.net/help/email-account-changes/

It seems the changeover is being phased in.

At £15 pa that is not a huge extra cost so for convenience I will likely 'go with the flow' until I decide to make other changes.

On the face of it PN are divesting the peripheral(?) services and possibly only leaving the core FTTC & FTTP services once the landline service goes 100% "digital voice".

 

[Stephen L]

I was told of this a couple of months ago during another conversation, but so far I've not been told when I'm moving. I think they are phasing it in. He also said that the first years subscription will be free, but that's just verbatim.
I shall probably move over, as my main email address is aliased to Plusnet and I'm wary of something going wrong. There are many alternative mail hosting services, but from what I can see moving over yourself is a right pain. And although I have a secondary mail address with iCloud, notifying everyone is just not practical. Some people/companies are bound to be overlooked.
I terminated my landline when we went Fibre To The Premises many months ago as we did not use out landline anyway.

 

[droj]

By email from Plusnet on 01 May:

Greenby are able to provide you with the following features:​ • Retain your current Plusnet email address and inbox content​ • A specialist team to assist you with your service and any queries​ • Easy to use platform​ This service will be free of charge for the first 30 days, if you wish to continue thereafter there will be a charge of £15.00 a year inc VAT.​

​

​ Good news, you don’t have to do anything at the moment. We will begin transferring mailboxes from 30th June 2025, you will still have access during this time.​ Greenby will be in touch when the transfer is complete and will provide you with details on how to set up payment. No payment will be taken without your authorisation.​ Once you have been transferred, Greenby will become responsible for the personal data that is processed to provide your email service (including name, contact details, login details and mailbox data).​ You can view Greenby’s privacy notice by clicking here. To find out more visit our FAQs page.​

​

​ If you don’t use your email or don’t wish us to transfer your data to Greenby, you can opt out of the transfer by clicking here before 22nd June 2025.​ Your mailbox will then be closed on 30th June 2025.​ Please be aware that if you choose to opt out, you will lose access to your email address, email data and all mail stored within the account.​ Thank you for being with Plusnet​

 

[jamesev]

Sounds very much a gotcha kinda thing. It might be £15 now but if its a third party provider, and they take ownership and control of the plusnet suffix whats to stop them upping their prices over and over again

 

[Stephen L]

Sounds very much a gotcha kinda thing. It might be £15 now but if its a third party provider, and they take ownership and control of the plusnet suffix whats to stop them upping their prices over and over again

Competition. There are scores of mail hosting companies out there, most of them very inexpensive.

 

[Box Brownie]

I have just checked for 'Greenby' in any saved emails (I keep lots before culling them) and none refer to Greenby, so it looks like so far I have not been on the notification mail-out yet!

 

[Box Brownie]

Copied & pasted a part from the second linked page in my post #6

"Will I be charged for the new service?​

We have arranged for this service to be free for two years after you have migrated, for all current Plusnet Broadband customers. It will become chargeable after this point, Greenby will be in touch with more information on this. If you have any questions in the meantime please get in touch with Greenby.

If you are not a Plusnet Broadband customer then a charge will apply for all Greenby services."

 

[ChrisR]

By email from Plusnet on 01 May:

Greenby are able to provide you with the following features:​ ​ • Retain your current Plusnet email address and inbox content​ • A specialist team to assist you with your service and any queries​ • Easy to use platform​ This service will be free of charge for the first 30 days, if you wish to continue thereafter there will be a charge of £15.00 a year inc VAT.​

​

​

Copied & pasted a part from the second linked page in my post #6

"Will I be charged for the new service?​

We have arranged for this service to be free for two years after you have migrated, for all current Plusnet Broadband customers. It will become chargeable after this point, Greenby will be in touch with more information on this. If you have any questions in the meantime please get in touch with Greenby. [...]

The page Box Brownie pointed to is (now?) headed "Updated 15 April 2025". I suspect they've had a bit of push back!

 

[vintageman]

I use plusnet broadband. I was unaware of this as nothing has been sent to either of my plusnet email addresses

EE keep offering me cheaper BB deals and I've not taken them up to avoid the hassle of notifying contacts of new email addresses. I wonder how many emails will get lost on changeover day!

 

[ChrisR]

I use plusnet broadband. I was unaware of this as nothing has been sent to either of my plusnet email addresses

EE keep offering me cheaper BB deals and I've not taken them up to avoid the hassle of notifying contacts of new email addresses. I wonder how many emails will get lost on changeover day!

The address the email was sent to was a bit generic. So, if we were smith99 on plusnet, the email would be addressed to smith99@smith99.plus.com, not to either of the email addresses we actually use. That's part of the reason I missed it; I have forwarding set up from the address I actually use.

 

[jamesev]

Competition. There are scores of mail hosting companies out there, most of them very inexpensive.

as long as the hassle of changing all your emails on all your accounts is worth it

 

[Stephen L]

as long as the hassle of changing all your emails on all your accounts is worth it

The theory is that you still retain your existing email addresses. Personally, I will be staying put.

 

[Stephen L]

I spoke to Plusnet yesterday. He said that only a few emails had been sent out, as they were still working out the logistics (I haven’t yet received one). Mid-June was mentioned, though he did say the £15 charge would only apply to those who were only using the mail-hosting facility of Plusnet. Those who had broadband also would have the first year free.

 

[Box Brownie]

I spoke to Plusnet yesterday. He said that only a few emails had been sent out, as they were still working out the logistics (I haven’t yet received one). Mid-June was mentioned, though he did say the £15 charge would only apply to those who were only using the mail-hosting facility of Plusnet. Those who had broadband also would have the first year free.

IIRC my account number is very low compared to what I thought was their 5million + customers = churn. Part of their legacy of customer service (obligation?) was to provide an FoC email facility/service, to maintain those ex customers email address(especially) for Broadband customers who leave.

So, if hiving off of that legacy(?) service is the trigger......that sort of makes sense from a business perspective.

FWIW a domain I have (outside of Plusnet) provide one free POP3 account but charge for the SMTP service. I used to be able to send emails using that address via the PN SMTP server but PN changed something that broke that function......so my only option was to pay for the SMTP at the domain service.

 

[ChrisR]

I spoke to Plusnet yesterday. He said that only a few emails had been sent out, as they were still working out the logistics (I haven’t yet received one). Mid-June was mentioned, though he did say the £15 charge would only apply to those who were only using the mail-hosting facility of Plusnet. Those who had broadband also would have the first year free.

So far we have the free period being 30 days, 2 years and 1 year!

Our situation is a bit odd. A few years ago Plusnet suddenly stopped billing me, for around a year (not sure quite how long). It was a bit worrying, but there is a limit on the amount they can back bill anyway. I'd alerted them, but they couldn't work out what was going on. Eventually they said they couldn't fix it, said they would have to terminate that account; if we would open a new one, they'd forget all the lost charges. I got them to agree to keep the original email part open, to save all the hassle of changing email addresses. So technically, I guess we have an email account with no broadband, as well as a broadband account whose email we don't use! If that means we only get the 30 days free, I'll be just a wee bit annoyed!

 

[Box Brownie]

So far we have the free period being 30 days, 2 years and 1 year!

Our situation is a bit odd. A few years ago Plusnet suddenly stopped billing me, for around a year (not sure quite how long). It was a bit worrying, but there is a limit on the amount they can back bill anyway. I'd alerted them, but they couldn't work out what was going on. Eventually they said they couldn't fix it, said they would have to terminate that account; if we would open a new one, they'd forget all the lost charges. I got them to agree to keep the original email part open, to save all the hassle of changing email addresses. So technically, I guess we have an email account with no broadband, as well as a broadband account whose email we don't use! If that means we only get the 30 days free, I'll be just a wee bit annoyed!

I suggest you register on the user community forum and raise the question there.

Many of the CSCs join in and address issues.

If you search you will find the contributing staff ,.....then possibly PM him/her for direct support???

 

[Box Brownie]

Though possibly a tad of a tangent re: PlusNet changes?

I found this now older discussion thread here https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/f/4756123-leaving-plusnet.html

Where the OP mentions in April 2024 that PN will not support Digital Voice?

Not sure what to make of that (subject to checking it out?) as AFAIK for those currently with a landline that go FTTP or indeed FTTC when DV kicks in when the old analogue service is ceased by Open Reach (BT) that PN customer would be able to keep their landline phone number.

PS FWIW we still have our landline and do use it, though perhaps not as often as we used to.

 

[ChrisR]

Though possibly a tad of a tangent re: PlusNet changes?

I found this now older discussion thread here https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/plusnet/f/4756123-leaving-plusnet.html

Where the OP mentions in April 2024 that PN will not support Digital Voice?

Not sure what to make of that (subject to checking it out?) as AFAIK for those currently with a landline that go FTTP or indeed FTTC when DV kicks in when the old analogue service is ceased by Open Reach (BT) that PN customer would be able to keep their landline phone number.

PS FWIW we still have our landline and do use it, though perhaps not as often as we used to.

Last time I renewed one of my Plusnet accounts (in 2024) they first of all told me that I had to have fibre and a digital phone. I said firmly that I didn't want it, and I got a cheaper price with a standard twisted pair service! Now I'm not sure if Digital Voice has a special meaning, but they were definitely offering me phone over fibre at that time.

 

[Mr Bump]

just migrate to google and gmail and embrace their ecosystem i did this from virgin media/ntlworld a few years back and never looked back it just all works

 

[Stephen L]

just migrate to google and gmail and embrace their ecosystem i did this from virgin media/ntlworld a few years back and never looked back it just all works

Will Google host my current email address? I think not. Not practical to change my address with all the organisations who need it. Anyway, I go out of my way to NOT use Google.

 

[Mr Bump]

Will Google host my current email address? I think not. Not practical to change my address with all the organisations who need it. Anyway, I go out of my way to NOT use Google.

Up to you but running both side by side for about 6 months I found it a breeze

 

[Stephen L]

Up to you but running both side by side for about 6 months I found it a breeze

But why change if there's no need to?

 

[Mr Bump]

But why change if there's no need to?

get ahead of any change and move to a much easier free solution.
gmail will never charge you and will just get better

 

[Stephen L]

get ahead of any change and move to a much easier free solution.
gmail will never charge you and will just get better

But it’s GOOGLE ! I hate Google as much as I hate Microsoft!

 

[Royal]

Move to gmail, or another service, and then just set your current emails to forward to the new email address. Allows you to start afresh, but still access the other stuff when needed. Just set a filter to say anything that was sent to: x to put into it's own inbox.

 

[Stephen L]

Move to gmail, or another service, and then just set your current emails to forward to the new email address. Allows you to start afresh, but still access the other stuff when needed. Just set a filter to say anything that was sent to: x to put into it's own inbox.

That’s fine, and obvious, if you want to start afresh. For me, that’s something I want to avoid.

 

[Royal]

That’s fine, and obvious, if you want to start afresh. For me, that’s something I want to avoid.

Then don't. That's your alternative really. Something like that, or nothing.

 

[Stephen L]

Anyone heard anything further on this? I have had no contact from Plusnet at all regarding web hosting apart from the phone conversation with them when they hinted at a June 28 rollout.

 

[cuthbert]

The advice I give to anybody that will listen is instead of having an address on a free service or isp linked to everything, just buy a domain and use that. Then, if you move providers your address never changes - you can still use it to forward to a freebie address if you like - or set it up on iCloud+ or buy a mailbox for a few quid with your hosting company - but just having that attached to all your sign ins does make life easier in the long run. So many people got stung with BT Yahoo move a few years ago.

I’ve set up all my modern accounts so I’ve got gusto@cuthbetsdomain.com, netflix@ and it’s interesting to see how your details get shared over time.

 

[Stephen L]

The advice I give to anybody that will listen is instead of having an address on a free service or isp linked to everything, just buy a domain and use that. Then, if you move providers your address never changes - you can still use it to forward to a freebie address if you like - or set it up on iCloud+ or buy a mailbox for a few quid with your hosting company - but just having that attached to all your sign ins does make life easier in the long run. So many people got stung with BT Yahoo move a few years ago.

I’ve set up all my modern accounts so I’ve got gusto@cuthbetsdomain.com, netflix@ and it’s interesting to see how your details get shared over time.

That's precisely what I have. However, it's currently hosted with Plusnet who apparently have decided to cease being a domain host. They are supposed to be transferring everyone's affected domain to another host, but it seems to have gone quiet. So no matter who hosts your domain, there is a risk that they too will cease.

 

[Box Brownie]

That's precisely what I have. However, it's currently hosted with Plusnet who apparently have decided to cease being a domain host. They are supposed to be transferring everyone's affected domain to another host, but it seems to have gone quiet. So no matter who hosts your domain, there is a risk that they too will cease.

FWIW

I use Namesco to domain host, park, forward etc. They are a domains specialist (as I perceive it) though do also web hosting but I don't use that service. Their market position compared to an ISP is somewhat different.

In regard to Plusnet I have yet to see any official email advising me of the switch to Green by but as discussed they are heading towards majoring on the 'digital' only offering internet connections.

Looking ahead, bear in mind the BT own EE (no idea if they provide emails service?) and PN and I surmise that BT will stay in the 'landline' market but other less common companies (who?) will keep a foothold in providing that too.

 

[cuthbert]

It is at least fairly easy to transfer to another domain host without any downtime - I actually transferred all of mine from 123 reg to ionos because 123 reg started charging for mail forwarders and as long as all the contact details match the transfer happens quickly - but even so - it’s still a lot less hassle than getting access to your accounts when your email account is locked out.

 

[mused]

Yes 123reg user are facing a lot of issues recently many of my clients have switched to WebhostUK.co.uk.

 

[onomatopoeia]

My first email address was with Demon Internet, long, long before services like gmail existed so ISP addresses were the only option. When Demon stopped being an ISP their owners (Vodafone) transfered the mail service to namesco, which became chargeable. I paid the fee as 20 odd years of correspondents had the address.

About five years later Vodafone decided they were going to pull the demon.co.uk domain for email hosting so the namesco service would be terminated. At that point I'd wished I'd set up my own domain long before, but I bought a domain and run a postfix / dovecote server on my broadband connection to receive my mail, giving me independence from ISPs and third party providers like google.

It was a massive faff getting loads of accounts with banks, shops, forums etc updated and I still found some I'd missed too late (e.g. Steam) so had even more faff.

Those paying the £15 to keep their plusnet address think very seriously about getting an independent address and migrating everything to it. I wouldn't wish the drama I had on anyone.

 

[Vike]

My problem is that back in 1999 I took up the offer of a free .co.uk domain name from what was then freenetname,co.uk. this then became Madasafish then Plusnet. My domain and email are both hosted by Plusnet. They did tell me some time ago that they were planning to stop the hosting of both my website and email but that I would be notified when this was going to happen. Does anyone else here have a freenetname website or address?