Re: Email system repeatedly shuts down - Page 8

gg30340 · ‎13-10-2023

@Froggy_Lady wrote:

@gg30340

Helpful information, gg, thank you. But I wish I knew what an email client/app was. I thought I always used a web browser, Firefox, to access and send my emails. I also believe that BT would charge you for the change; I'm sure I read it somewhere.

When is the "management" of BT going to take notice of all these comments and DO SOMETHING about it? It's driving me to distraction. I have been loyal to BT since I first acquired my laptop ten years ago. Is this how they repay loyalty?

An email client/app is a stand along program that is specifically designed to deal with email. An email app is generally used to access email on a mobile device rather than using a web browser.

An email client such as Outlook, Thunderbird Bluemail or one of the other many email clients are used on PC's and Laptops.

They are a far superior program for accessing email than a web browser and can be customised in lots of different ways to suit the users need unlike webmail in a web browser.

A big advantage or an email client/app is that the email supplier, in this case BT have no control over its interface and can not change it or update it which can cause problems such as you have found in this case.

I and many others use an email client/app and I doubt any of them are aware of the problems that the posters on this forum have found because the do not use webmail on a browser.

You can use both webmail and an email client/app together using the one that is best suited to your needs at a specific time.

There are many people who prefer using a web browser for various reasons and that is entirely their choice.

As regards what BT are doing about this problem, they are aware of the problem and they are no doubt endeavouring to fix the problem.

Loyalty to BT has nothing to do with this. The problems will be affecting people who have recently joined BT just in the same way as it is affecting people who have been with BT for many years.

EDIT: If you check out the link I posted in my last post in message 66 it fully explains the different types of BTMail products and their cost.

Froggy_Lady · ‎13-10-2023

@Ultraviolet13

Yes, thank you, an interesting article. But it seems like an awful lot of hassle for a non-tech, elderly person like me.

When I bought my first laptop, I thought that BT would be the safest option as I already had a BT landline.

licquorice · ‎13-10-2023

It's no hassle whatsoever, just download Thunderbird and enter your email address and password and Thunderbird will do the rest.

Non tech, fair enough, elderly is totally irrelevant.

Stephen5000 · ‎13-10-2023

@licquoricewrote:
It's no hassle whatsoever, just download Thunderbird and enter your email address and password and Thunderbird will do the rest.
Non tech, fair enough, elderly is totally irrelevant.

However, if you juggle between several devices, and different BT email addresses, WebMail is by far the most straightforward way to go if you're not keen on storing all your emails on lots of devices, and are quite happy for BT to store them on their server instead. Just like I've done since 1994 with no issue, till BT took over...

Sue036 · ‎13-10-2023

An email client is ideal if you only have one email account and / or if you only access your email via one device. If, like me, you have seven email accounts, across five different providers, and access them from several different types of devices - and not always necessarily your own devices- it gets a bit more complicated. My main issue is that I do not want an email client to store any of my emails on a device or via its software so that those emails are not always available to me from whichever device and using whichever software I chose, or have available, at the time. If you always stay in your office next to your PC or only get emails on the device that you always carry with you then that’s fine. I need my emails to be and to stay on mail servers so that I can always access them from wherever I am in the world and using whatever device is available to me at the time. I cannot do that with an email client.

licquorice · ‎13-10-2023

No, it's far simpler if you have multiple email addresses across multiple providers as I do. You can have as many as you like on a mail client.

I have multiple btinternet addresses, Gmail addresses, Hotmail addresses and my own domain addresses all on 1 simple client. They are all in one place but all with their own Inbox and folders, no switching between logins, the client does all that. It is far far superior to faffing about with webmail.

With IMAP, all the accounts are available on multiple devices and are all in sync. They will also be in sync if you need to access mail via webmail on a guest machine on occasion.

gg30340 · ‎13-10-2023

@Sue036

It would appear that you have little knowledge of what an email client/app can do and that you can still use webmail even if you also use an email client/app. They can also be used to access more than one email account across different email providers.

On a daily basis I check my email on four devices. I use both email clients/app and webmail depending on where I am and what devices I have available to me and this includes devices that are not mine ie works computers.

If you use IMAP on the email client/app your emails will be synchronised across all your devices and will still be available on webmail ie the email servers, regardless of where you are in the world.

I am not telling you that you must use an email client/app. As I said, it's your choice what you use but I suggest that you read up on using an email client/app because you may change your mind once you are better informed.

gg30340 · ‎13-10-2023

@Stephen5000 wrote:

@licquoricewrote:

It's no hassle whatsoever, just download Thunderbird and enter your email address and password and Thunderbird will do the rest.

Non tech, fair enough, elderly is totally irrelevant.

However, if you juggle between several devices, and different BT email addresses, WebMail is by far the most straightforward way to go if you're not keen on storing all your emails on lots of devices, and are quite happy for BT to store them on their server instead. Just like I've done since 1994 with no issue, till BT took over...

I refer you to my reply in message 77 and that of licquorice and suggest that you also read up on email clients and in particular if you use the IMAP protocol rather than the POP3 protocol that you would appear to be referring to.

Sue036 · ‎13-10-2023

The point is that I have more important things to do than to mess around with special software to access my emails. On my Apple devices their email client does all that I need seamlessly, so I do in fact use that. It interacts with my BT and gmail and hotmail etc stuff and never loses anything unless I ask it to. From experience if I try to use a client on my Windows PC I end up in a total mess with hundreds of emails downloaded to my PC that I cannot access from anywhere else. That is very likely down to my ignorance or incompetence but I prefer to avoid the risk by just using webmail on my PC (or on anyone else’s device). I know I’m not alone in this and think it’s a sensible and pragmatic approach to just staying in control of all of my mail.

gg30340 · ‎13-10-2023

@Sue036

You are using an email app on your Apple devices. As I said it is entirely your choice what you use so there is nothing further to add.