Virgin mail changing to Google platform

For information only...

As you know Virgin announced they were changing their email system over to the Google mail platform.

Mine appears to have been changed overnight as Virgin webmail is in the new Google format.

However the changeover may result in you receiving, via POP mail, a lot of copies of old emails (I had 25 some dating back to 2005!).

It would be wise to configure the new Google format to show the Spam folder (under settings/labels), but to be fair the Google system is much better than the old Virgin one for filtering spam and there should not be any 'good' ones wrongly directed to the spam folder.

I did not have to alter any settings on the POP account to make it work with Thunderbird; not sure if Outlook Express will need configuring though.

The system also appears to run a lot faster, emails being received in a few seconds.

Mike.

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Mike (Retired Radio & Electronics Engineer)
VirginMedia ADSLmax, up to 8Mb.

I've been having to dial up to Virgin every so often to keep my Virgin accounts alive. Will the new Google-run accounts still need me to do that, or will they be free, like normal Google accounts?

Michael

Hi; I guess you'll still have to do that as there is probably an activity timer on every dial-up account; most ISPs do this. They do vary time wise though; not sure what VM is; maybe 3 months, but it should be in the user agreement pages.

I think it would probably be easier for you to use a Google account and just inform your friends of the new Googlemail address, unless you have 100's of addresses in your email system.

Mike.

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Mike (Retired Radio & Electronics Engineer)
VirginMedia ADSLmax, up to 8Mb.

I noticed this change to a Google based system a few weeks ago. Although the system does behave much better for the limited purposed for which I use the account, it has failed entirely to transfer historic emails. Queries to support have been met with the proverbial nonchalant shrugs.

The most frustrating part is that during the 'change-over' I was disputing a billing issue with VM over email. x-(

1998 <------------------------------------------------>2009
X-Stream > Freeserve > Tesco.net > Wanadoo> Virgin.net

[IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/576549414.png[/IMG]

One thing I have noticed if you are using POP email (Outlook Express or Thunderbird) is that when you visit the VM webmail site (Google based) you still see all the inbox emails. The Google system counts them as unread so leaves them on the server.

No real problem as you can just 'Select all' and press the delete tab.

The plus side is that if you find any Spam in the inbox you can highlight the email and click on 'report spam' which will probably flag it as spam for you and others; I had a couple of persistent ones that tried to evade normal filters.

Mike.

______________________________________________________________________________
Mike (Retired Radio & Electronics Engineer)
VirginMedia ADSLmax, up to 8Mb.

Edited by RepairExpert (Tue 29-Sep-09 10:07:38)

Don't know if VM's webmail has the same options available as on Gmail, but on Gmail you can configure the POP3 settings to archive or delete mails after retrieving them via POP3, instead of leaving them as new in the inbox (can't remember what the default is). I personally set it to archive all my mail since it's sometimes useful to have access to old mails while at work, etc. And also if archive them, you can go to "All mails" and mark any spam messages there after retrieving them via POP3.

I use POP for checking my e-mails on multiple POP devices (leave copy of e-mail on server is checked in settings) and then downloading only to my main computer.

Problem with this new Virgin Webmail is when you check for new mail on a device it thinks you have downloaded the e-mail so when I go to check on my main computer it won't download the e-mail and just keeps it in its Webmail Inbox.

This is a real pain as I can then only check my e-mail on my main computer if I want to download it as well.

Also, there is no setting to turn off the Spam filter as it has already been marking e-mails as Spam that aren't Spam.

This new Webmail system is totally geared up for using only as webmail and not POP. If I wanted Webmail I would be using Google and not Virgin. Very dissapointed with Virgin after may years of use.

In reply to a post by staple:

I use POP for checking my e-mails on multiple POP devices (leave copy of e-mail on server is checked in settings) and then downloading only to my main computer.

Problem with this new Virgin Webmail is when you check for new mail on a device it thinks you have downloaded the e-mail so when I go to check on my main computer it won't download the e-mail and just keeps it in its Webmail Inbox.

This is a real pain as I can then only check my e-mail on my main computer if I want to download it as well.

Also, there is no setting to turn off the Spam filter as it has already been marking e-mails as Spam that aren't Spam.

This new Webmail system is totally geared up for using only as webmail and not POP. If I wanted Webmail I would be using Google and not Virgin. Very dissapointed with Virgin after may years of use.

I've just read this and what I may say might not help (can't get in to the Virgin site right now to check if the folloing is possible).. I know that from my own gmail/googlemail account I know have the option of instead of using POP3 I have the option of IMAP. This eliminates the problems of downloading emails to several pc's from the same email account.


If you have tried this already then I apoligise for replying



Craig

In reply to a post by staple:

Problem with this new Virgin Webmail is when you check for new mail on a device it thinks you have downloaded the e-mail so when I go to check on my main computer it won't download the e-mail and just keeps it in its Webmail Inbox.

Mine seems to work differently. I keep my POP client on all the time. The emails seem to go through to the POP system but also remain in Google system, so I have two copies. Not really a problem though as I can always Archieve or Delete them in bulk.

There is no need (in my opinion) to turn off the Spam Filter in the VM Google system (not possible I believe) as it works extremely well and I can't ever remember seeing a 'good' email in the Spam box on any of my Gmail accounts over the past few years.

Mike.

______________________________________________________________________________
Mike (Retired Radio & Electronics Engineer)
VirginMedia ADSLmax, up to 8Mb.

In reply to a post by captain666:

I've just read this and what I may say might not help (can't get in to the Virgin site right now to check if the folloing is possible).. I know that from my own gmail/googlemail account I know have the option of instead of using POP3 I have the option of IMAP. This eliminates the problems of downloading emails to several pc's from the same email account.


If you have tried this already then I apoligise for replying



Craig

Yes it does have IMAP in the settings so I will look into this and give it a try. Thanks.