Virgin Media - helpfully forgetting to give you most of the information to get your email working...

I have recently assisted a long term client with their move from Sky to Virgin boradband – a simple process, thanks to the router which we installed, with added ‘expandability’ – we managed to effect a smooth transfer without re-programming all his equipment.

Happy so far 

This is all well and good ~ however, there was an issue with configuring his new Virgin Media email – all the setting were entered as per the help documentation, but this still seemed to fail. Working on the fact that sometimes email systems take a while to set up, I advised our client to test it again in the morning.

Cometh the morning – not cometh the emails

Call Virgin – who told me that they had neglected to update their own ‘help’ system with the details of the email system they were now using.
Oops…

Enter the amended details and voila – email flood.

For you all with a similar issue – try these settings:

Under the ‘More Settings’ bit on the email configuration choose the ‘Advanced’ tab and set the following

• This server requires an encrypted SSL connection – tick
• Use the following type of encrypted connection list, choose SSL
• Outgoing server (SMTP) – 465

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"So I said to Jeff, you know that lovely little runner over from the M6..."

This news article caught my eye “Talking’ cars could reduce motorway pile-ups” and it made for some interesting reading…

It seems that the boffins interested in automotive technology are making vehicles (or the smart devices that their drivers carry) talk to each other and warn of things such as accidents on the road ahead.

What a fantastic thing to have

Imagine zooming along the road and your car lets you know of a pile-up ahead – allowing you to pull off the motorway and find a better route to your destination.
Marvellous ~ but I don’t think it goes far enough…

I’m of the belief that their will be no significant reduction in the amount of accidents on the roads until we remove the ability to make mistakes from the drivers. Remove the tired/drunk/drugged/visually impaired/slow reacting/stupid/stressed/confused drivers from the roads (that pretty much means everyone the enters a vehicle) and you’ve got a much safer environment for all concerned.

This of course would be met with such a massive amount of derision and rejection that it’s probably not going to happen within the scant span of my terrestrial existence sadly :( but is the best way to stop the tragedy that  ruins lives when something major happens on the British roads.

I remember a fairly recent news article showing the testing of cars communicating with each other whilst driving at high speed, a few centimetres apart ~ Safely
Not a feat I could imagine many drivers accomplishing, despite their best efforts to practise this particular skill behind me on the many journeys around Yorkshire I take, but it does show that the technology is moving in the right direction in my opinion.

One can only hope that this technology matures at a much more rapid pace…

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of The Future", 1961 (Clarke's third law)

Sometimes it’s hard.

That’s the truth about this industry.

Recently we did a little ‘home grown’ PR and visited a local serviced office to show our skills. We were offering a free visit to fix some of those minor issues that plague businesses.

You know the kind of thing ~ “Oh, it always does that” ~ this statement is too often heard.

Anyhow, one of the companies there had a ‘minor’ issue with the email; just the ‘minor’ issue of not being able to send!

Now here’s the problem. To use an email system to send email, you need to use what is known as a SMTP server (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) which handles the sending of the email. This server is usually either on-site, or connected to your broadband.
The question “Who provides your broadband” in serviced offices usually returns a “Don’t know” response; As it did in this case.
So, how do you connect a client to an unknown SMTP server when no-one knows the info required? 

Suffice to say (and not giving away any secrets) we managed to solve the clients issue – without asking anyone for the details :)

“Now that’s MAGIC!”

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