This topic

My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 11:49:51 GMT

I have been through a nightmare 5 days with no access to my Email host on my 3 computers. Luckily I can access the host via my EE mobile. And on my computers by using my phone as a Hotspot. But it has been - and still is - a huge working-from-home inconvenience. I have done exhaustive tests via my host which establish that the BT network suddenly stopped connecting with this one specific server last Friday morning. Hub has been reset twice, configurations tested, new WAN IP. My host has specifically white-listed the address. BUT because my Broadband service is otherwise working, BT will not acknowledge a fault, assign an engineer or escalate to someone who understands complex routing issues. I have spent hours on Messaging and to Tech Support in Ireland. It basically ends up as "You have no fault" "I do have a fault" "No, you don't..." etc etc. I have also emailed consumer-resolutions but no acknowledgement or reply. HELP!!

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

licquorice — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 12:16:27 GMT

YOU, don't have a fault, your email host does. It is up to them to raise the problem with BT via postmaster@btinternet.com

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 13:29:56 GMT

My understanding was that "Postmaster" is specifically for BT hosted email. Do you know for certain they deal with Email hosted elsewhere?

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

licquorice — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 14:31:01 GMT

I possibly misunderstood your original post. Can you access the mail server using a different DNS server such as Google 8.8.8.8

You can't change the DNS server on the hub but you can change it on your laptop/computer.

It is still a problem for your mail host to resolve with BT if it turns out to be a DNS problem.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 14:44:38 GMT

Thanks for engaging! Much appreciated.

Thanks — yes, I did initially wonder about DNS, but we have actually ruled that out fairly conclusively.

Using the same BT connection, the hostname resolves correctly to 91.238.161.174. I also tested the IP address directly with curl, bypassing DNS altogether:

91.238.161.174:443 → Connection refused

The same test over EE 4G → TCP connection succeeds and TLS handshake completes.

More recently, from the same Ethernet-connected Mac over BT, I tested the three adjacent IPs:

91.238.161.173:443 → connects
91.238.161.174:443 → connection refused
91.238.161.175:443 → connects

So changing DNS servers wouldn't affect those tests, because the final tests are made directly against the IP addresses.

I agree that the problem needs to be resolved between BT and the mail host/network if necessary. At present Ecohosting's infrastructure team are purportedly investigating the .174 address from their side, while BT Consumer Resolutions have my complaint but haven't responded yet.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

licquorice — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:05:18 GMT

Not sure why a mail server should be affected, but it could be due to web protect.

https://www.bt.com/help/security/web-threat-protect/learn-about-bt-web-protect

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:12:34 GMT

No we ruled that out on Day One. It's now Day Five so I'm sure you'll understand that I'm going quite crazy. BT & Ecohosting pointing at each other, and days pass without any progress. If you've any idea what to do next...

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

licquorice — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 15:42:28 GMT

I assume you have tried the obvious of disconnecting your line for half an hour or so in order to obtain a different public IP address.

Surely you're not the only Ecohosting customer with the problem.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 16:05:42 GMT

Yes, On Day One, and again (and again) when calling Support. It's the cure-all, except when it doesn't! And, oddly, I am apparently the only one with the issue at Ecohosting.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

licquorice — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 16:10:18 GMT

I'm completely out of ideas now, you've tried all the obvious solutions.

Just one other thought, have you tried accessing the server from a neighbour's/friend's BT connection?

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 16:27:25 GMT

Nice thought, but very remote mountain location, our Fibre was buried in conduit for about a kilometre only to us! Paid for by Openreach... so in that sense it seems churlish to complain about anything. Everything has worked perfectly since installation until this weird fault that nobody takes responsibility for. My main frustration is that when no normal fault shows, Tech support refuse to escalate.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 18:37:34 GMT

So I'm just bouncing this again, because I'm sure there's a Networking Guru hiding out there who can figure out where this fault lies, how to fix it, and — most importantly — how to get it in front of the right BT team.

In simple terms, I'm paying two companies for two parts of one service: Ecohosting to host my email, and BT to provide the Internet connection by which I access it. Obviously those two networks have to interact for the service to work, and I'd like to think both sides would want to help establish where that interaction is failing.

Ecohosting have certainly tried. They've checked their firewall, checked the relevant IPs, whitelisted both of my BT public IPs, carried out further testing, and escalated the issue to their infrastructure team. Though they're taking their time..m

BT, so far, have essentially told me that there is no fault because their standard broadband tests show that my broadband is working. That is true — but it doesn't explain why this particular destination is unreachable.

The evidence is now quite specific:

• 91.238.161.174 is the server hosting my email and cPanel.
• It works perfectly from my phone over EE 4G.
• From the same Mac over BT, connections to .174 are immediately refused.
• From that same BT connection, the adjacent addresses .173 and .175 connect successfully.
• Changing my BT public IP from 81.152.17.174 to 217.42.97.128 made no difference.
• DNS and BT Web Protect have both been ruled out.

So this isn't really a question of whether "my broadband works". It does.

The question is: where, between the BT network and 91.238.161.174, is the connection being refused?

Ecohosting are investigating from their side. BT Consumer Resolutions have had my complaint since last week but I have yet to receive a response.

Is there anyone here with the network expertise — or knowledge of how to reach the appropriate BT network team — who can look at this as a destination-specific connectivity problem rather than simply a broadband fault?

HELP!

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

licquorice — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 19:08:55 GMT

Where does it fail if you do tracert to 91.238.161.174

I can reach it ok

Tracing route to cp161174.hpdns.net [91.238.161.174]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 10 ms 12 ms 3 ms hub.home.arpa [192.168.1.254]
2 12 ms 12 ms 14 ms 172.16.12.3
3 * 16 ms 17 ms 62.172.102.137
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 16 ms * 14 ms core6-hu0-0-0-35.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [62.6.201.245]
6 14 ms 14 ms 19 ms 166-49-209-194.gia.bt.net [166.49.209.194]
7 14 ms 14 ms 13 ms lon-tel-01gw.voxility.net [195.66.226.180]
8 16 ms 15 ms 15 ms lon-tel-01c.voxility.net [185.5.172.6]
9 17 ms 16 ms 17 ms 5.254.1.34
10 32 ms 17 ms 17 ms cp161174.hpdns.net [91.238.161.174]

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 19:22:55 GMT

That's very useful, thanks. It shows that 91.238.161.174 is certainly reachable from another BT connection, so the problem isn't a general BT-to-Ecohosting routing failure.

My connection is behaving differently, however. I'm done for today, but tomorrow I'll repeat the traceroute from my Ethernet-connected Mac over my current BT connection (public IP 217.42.97.128) and post the result.

The particularly interesting evidence so far is that, from my connection:

91.238.161.173:443 → connects

91.238.161.174:443 → immediately refused

91.238.161.175:443 → connects

and .174 works immediately when I switch the same Mac to EE 4G.

So your traceroute may give us another useful comparison with mine.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

licquorice — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 19:55:11 GMT

I guess as a temporary workaround to save tethering your phone, you could just use a VPN to connect.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 20:10:50 GMT

I really appreciate your input, but I have unlimited data with EE and my phone is always with me so tethering is easier than a VPN. I'm not really looking for another workaround.
What I'm trying to establish is why my normal BT connection cannot reach 91.238.161.174 when another BT customer's connection apparently can, and why my connection can reach the immediately adjacent .173 and .175 addresses but gets an immediate refusal from .174.
A VPN might well bypass whatever is causing that, but it wouldn't tell me where the underlying fault lies — and I'd rather get that fixed than add another layer to my everyday internet connection.
If anyone can interpret the difference between your successful BT traceroute and mine, that would be extremely useful. Signing off now, but thanks again and I'll post test results in the morn.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

mayavirupa777 — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:18:32 GMT

Morning! I think Ecohosting have finally got it to the right team, so I'm running various Terminal tests for them. They are also happy to host me on a different server if we can't find / fix it. So I'll post back later if it's resolved. Meantime, big thanks for engaging.

Re: My Email host is blocked by BT FF but not by EE 4G

licquorice — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 10:14:32 GMT

Sounds promising. 🤞🤞