BT mail.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Since I've got BT fibre broadband which I'm very happy with, I've also got BT mail. I don't much use my BT mail address as I have my own domain POPbox which I pay for separately - but rely on the BT SMPT side to send mails.

Accessing the BT box has been flaky for ages. But uploads less so.

Couple of days ago I could no longer send emails or receive them from my BT box - although still could from my own POP box. This remained the case for a couple of days - rather than perhaps an hour or so as before.

If I visited 'my BT' I could access mail. Same at Yahoo which has some tie up with it. But not with the three different email clients I use on two types of computer and my phone.

The response from the BT helpline droid? BT doesn't support any email clients. If it works on Yahoo, everything is fine. All they could suggest is deleting the email account from the client and re-entering the details.

I did try this on the laptop and of course it made no difference at all. Apart from getting the same warning about not being able to access BT after completing the details.

[Richard]

Works fine for me using Windows Live Mail and for my wife on her Macbook and iPad.

[Richard]

Come to think of it, recently had to change the password as BT had prevented access to the mail for my security (?). Had to change the password via the webmail interface. Since then, no further issues (that should trigger an avalanche of tribulations).

[Brian Gaff]

Well, I've noticed that something odd is going on inbt. I can send an email to people on there and get a return receipt as if its been through an exchange server to p ooutlook, but the person in question had not yet read the mail. They are using live mail in any case. Also Yahoo have been banging out some very weird emails about a new way to log in via a mobile and needing two passwords for non yaahoo clients, which is very non standared and if the deploy this then I'm going to have to go somewhere else as are many blind folk who use Outlook express etc to get their email. Brian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

A pal said to try changing the BT email password. No tiny task given the number of devices I'd have to change too.

But decided to try it anyway.

On finding the correct page on 'My BT' there were several warnings that if my account had been 'hacked' it would be suspended. But nothing about that after just logging in.

So I did change it. And everything started working again.

If appears to be what I'd call normal now. Instead of hanging for a while before getting into the BT box as before- even when it was working.

But only time will tell if it is a proper fix and was the reason. BT may well just have fixed something at the same time.