cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Ntlworld email not working - service outage?

DebbieL1
Tuning in

Hi, I already mentioned this in a reply to another post, but thought I should create my own report. Last night my ntlworld.com email suddenly stopped working with no warning. The first I knew of this was when my phone's email client, which is permanently logged in to the ntlworld address, started asking for credentials. I put in my password (which is the same one I've been using for decades) and got a message saying it was incorrect. I then tried logging in to my webmail account, and got a 'mailbox is not available, please wait 1 hour' message - the same one I get whenever Virgin Media's email services are temporarily down, only this time it's been over 12 hours and the problem is still there.

I can still log in to My Virgin Media and my Virgin Mobile account using the same email address, and the My Virgin Media phone app is also working - it's just the email service that seems to be down. I haven't had any messages about security issues, the account being locked, or anything like that. I checked https://istheservicedown.co.uk/status/virgin-media and found that a lot of other people are reporting Internet issues at the moment, especially in London where I live. I've also seen a lot of similar messages on this forum over the last day or two.

Please could somebody at Virgin Media check whether there are any local or national issues with VM email services, and let us know how long it will take to fix? I use this account for virtually everything outside of work - banking, bills, online shopping, etc. - so losing access to it for more than a couple of days would be a big problem for me. I can provide account details through a PM if necessary, as I obviously had to use a different email address to sign up here.

14 REPLIES 14

jpeg1
Alessandro Volta

Hi DebbieL1.  I'm glad to hear that you have got access to your emails again. 

But please remember that email is intended for the exchange of messages . The clue is in the name.  It is not designed for the permanent storage of decades of important records.  You really should copy these somewhere else more secure.

- jpeg1
My name is NOT Alessandro. That's just a tag Virginmedia sticks on some contributors. Please ignore it.

coenoby
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@DebbieL1

I am really pleased that you got this sorted and I'm glad we could help point you in the right direction,

I know you are pleased that you have got your email account back but I would politely suggest that you need to think about whether you should continue to use it as your man email account. Think about this:

  • It will always be your dad's account not yours, so any issues you have with it in the future will require your dad to contact VM because he is their customer not you.
  • I am sure you trust your dad and that you get on well with him, but remember that he has control of the account, he can change the password, he could even look at your emails if he really wanted to.
  • At some point your parents may think about moving to another internet provider (there are big price increases coming up for VM customers) and you would then be faced with losing your email account because of it. Would that cause friction in the family?
  • On another tack, VM email is, let's say, a bit flakey. You have seen that your email was locked by VM and many people are having that often multiple times. Also, it is very basic and there are much better email services freely available.
  • Also, you mention your account may have been hacked, VM email is not very secure. There are many posts on here where VM customers have had their accounts hacked along with a linked online account such as Amazon. Other email services provide much better security.

Personally I have been with VM since before they were VM but I have never used their email as my main email account. I would strongly recommend that you look at the many free services available (see https://www.lifewire.com/best-free-email-accounts ). Personally I have used Gmail for several years but the main ones I would recommend would be Gmail, Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail) and Protonmail.

I had used the same email address for nearly 20 year but when I retired I decide to change. I can honesty say it's not that painful if you can do it over a period of time. I updated each of my online accounts a few at a time and I kept both email accounts running for a while to make sure I did not miss anything.

I think I have probably gone on too long on this subject so I'll stop there.😉

However, finally, if you have reason to believe your email account has been hacked you should follow all the advice here: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-account-has-been-hacked 

Coenoby

 

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media.

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

Yes, you're right and thanks for your suggestions. I'll keep my ntlworld account as the default for the moment, but I've copied all my existing emails to an Outlook account (which was WAY more complicated than it should be) and set up an auto-forwarding rule for new incoming emails. However, when I tried sending a test message from a work account, the forwarding didn't seem to work (I'm probably just missing something really obvious).

coenoby
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@DebbieL1 wrote:

However, when I tried sending a test message from a work account, the forwarding didn't seem to work (I'm probably just missing something really obvious).


People often forget to tick the "Enable" box:

Forwarding enabled.png

Coenoby

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media.

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

Sorted: it was being forwarded, but going straight into the Junk folder. I'll keep this setup for now, and see about gradually migrating some of my online services to the Outlook account as you suggested.

Many thanks to everyone in this thread who offered their help!