It has come to our attention that some of you using wholesale internet service (broadband) suppliers (ISP, such as BT and VirginMedia) started receiving bounced emails or emails that were marked as spam.

This is due to your ISP setting up a Policy Blocklist for their network, meaning that any emails sent through them HAVE to come via their SMTP (outgoing email) servers. Otherwise, your emails will include an extra spam rating (a bad thing).

Due to this change, you have three options, depending on your network requirements:

1. EASIEST
Use your IPS's SMTP server in your email client (outlook, thunderbird) - you can find this information on your ISP's support website.

2. CUSTOM SETUP
Call your ISP to add your domain SMTP to their allowable SMTP domains.

3. RECOMMENDED
For businesses, please use more reputable ISPs such as ZEN Internet, http://www.zen.co.uk/
We recommend ISP's very carefully and we base it on independent online research http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps.html as well as our hands on experience.

If you have any questions or need help, clients with support agreement can contact us anytime. If you don't have a support agreement, please get in touch, or read our frequently asked questions below.

Frequently Asked Questions

First of all, DON'T PANIC.

This is very confusing, what is this all about?
Many of you are using BT for broadband access. BT is trying to protect their networks from spam, so they setup a policy list (PBL), so that anti-spam services around the world can identify whether the email coming from BT is legitimate. The downside is, not many people know about this and even fewer have actually adjusted their systems to reflect the change.

OK I am using BT, now what?
The easiest option is outlined above in point 1. Just setup your outgoing email to BT's SMTP server. BT help page is here http://www.btyahoo.com/smtpsetup You won't need to chane any other settings.

Thunderbird users may find this LINK useful.
Outlook users may find this LINK useful.

So why should I care?
Spam rating for all your outgoing mail will increase and make it more likely for it to be tagged as spam by other email servers.

How do I know if I am affected?
If you don't receive reports that your email is spam, then you should be fine. But to be sure go to your email client software (Thunderbird, Outlook) and see if your outgoing mail server (SMTP) is set to what your ISP recommends. Please contact your ISP, if unsure.

Why are you saying that BT is not very reputable, we never heard of ZEN!
We recommend ISP's to our customers very carefully and we only base it on independent online research http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isps.html as well as our hands on experience. Unfortunately our experience with small and medium size businesses that have/have been using BT is less than favourable.

So why can't you sort it out?
As a responsible business hosting supplier, we can't scrap or ignore other ISP's policy block-lists. However, we can adjust your systems for you on your premises in case you are unsure of what to do. If  this is of interest to you, please just get in touch.

This is all your fault. You just want more money!
We heard this line from our customers unfortunately. But before you jump to conclusions, please note that we cannot be held responsible what your ISP is doing or what policies they adopt. Be informed, just because some ISP are big it doesn't necessary means that they are good.