Email redirects

Hi All

Has anyone used the PlusNet email redirects system???

I have tried to 'set it up' and I wonder if I have totally misunderstood what it is for???

In the first 'box' it asks for the address of what address the sender will use e.g. [email protected] so I entered the mailbox name I wished to "redirect" in the next box down it asks for the email addy of where you wish the redirect to be sent to, in my case I have tried my BlackBerry account.

However, two things struck me 1) nothing happens i.e. the redirected email does not get to my BB and 2) if you look at the PlusNet system for the list of redirects there is no list of (in my case) one to see, so what gives???

TIA for any insight on this one

I've just had a quick look and there are no redirects set up on your account. I tested on my own account and it's working fine so it just looks like it hasn't saved properly.

Give it another go and if it's not shown in the summary then clear your cookies and cache and try again. Failing that, drop me a PM and I'll try setting it up from my side to ensure there's no system issue that's affecting your account.

I've got a number of redirects which are all working correctly.

Could you confirm that in the Re-direct name box you only entered the mailbox name (excluding the @username.plus.com).

The other thing is that if you currently have a mailbox or alias for the mailbox name (shown on the Summary tab) you should delete that BEFORE you try to create the re-direct. Although it comes up saying it will be replaced I have a dim recollection that that may not work.

I've just tested this - I created an alias and then tried to substitute it with a redirect.:

Deletion of alias failed. Please try to remove it manually and then create a redirect

Ben: are you going to raise a problem for this?

Hi Ben & Jelv

Right, to summarise I use FF (most current version) so tried IE6 and I get the same non result. I cleared the cache & cookies and that did not help.

For the record I setup up a "push" on the BB and that works pefectly

So what gives with PlusNet redirects???

Will test this now. I've got a feeling that you may need to allow 30 minutes for the alias to be fully deleted before the redirect will be accepted so will need to test that so I'll report back later today with the results.

I couldn't replicate this problem on my account, either doing the changes instantly or allowing 30 minutes for the alias to be fully created then deleting it and adding the redirect straight away.

@Routefinder
Any objections to me testing this on your account?

In reply to a post by bentrimble:

I couldn't replicate this problem on my account, either doing the changes instantly or allowing 30 minutes for the alias to be fully created then deleting it and adding the redirect straight away.

@Routefinder
Any objections to me testing this on your account?

Hi Ben

I PM'ed you a short while ago

Thanks for your help guys, I've replicated the problem and raised it as 63394. It's low priority so will be assigned to an appropriate project which addresses email improvements. However, I don't know when that project will come about. In the meantime, if you need to replace an alias with a redirect then please delete the alias, allow 30 minutes and create the redirect - this should work fine.

In reply to a post by bentrimble:

Thanks for your help guys, I've replicated the problem and raised it as 63394. It's low priority so will be assigned to an appropriate project which addresses email improvements. However, I don't know when that project will come about. In the meantime, if you need to replace an alias with a redirect then please delete the alias, allow 30 minutes and create the redirect - this should work fine.

Hi Ben

It is good that you have been able to replicate the problem and that a workaround is "proven" to work.

So as this is deemed "Low Priority" will you be updating the Redirects portal page with explicit instructions on the methodology to help customers to make it work as needed/when needed???

If we get more customer reports saying that this is a major problem then we will, of course.

However, we only have two complaints at the moment which unfortunately isn't sufficient to warrant development time to put a notice on. Whilst this is only a small change, it would still need to go through a full peer review and testing process which will take many man-hours, regardless of the size of the change.

In reply to a post by bentrimble:

If we get more customer reports saying that this is a major problem then we will, of course.

However, we only have two complaints at the moment which unfortunately isn't sufficient to warrant development time to put a notice on. Whilst this is only a small change, it would still need to go through a full peer review and testing process which will take many man-hours, regardless of the size of the change.

Ah! so only two of us are affected. Point taken

Well, I believe that it's a service wide issue but so few people want to replace an alias with a redirect by the method you've found fault with means that it's classed as low priority

In reply to a post by bentrimble:

Well, I believe that it's a service wide issue but so few people want to replace an alias with a redirect by the method you've found fault with means that it's classed as low priority

Hi Ben

Errrr! my case was not replacing an alias with a redirect but actually creating a redirect in the first place was failing and the create alias > delete alias > create redirect. Was the workaround you found was the way to create the redirect.

Sorry if I misunderstood what you had discovered about the bug but what you say above did not make immediate sense to me based on the origin of the problem for me.

I rather think it was me that introduced that red herring here which was one reason I knew of where creating a redirect would fail.

Have you finally managed to create the redirect? I don't think you ever answered the question I asked in the same post:

In reply to a post by jelv:

Could you confirm that in the Re-direct name box you only entered the mailbox name (excluding the @username.plus.com).

I had a few PM's with jelv to identify the specific issue he was seeing (replacing an alias with a redirect definitely is a tad funky), but I'm having no problems at all creating test redirects on your account - you can see test and test2. Can you have another go for me please - create a couple of redirects and leave them on file so I can go back and have a look what has happened?

Hi jelv & Ben

Firstly I did try on the mailbox to just use the mailbox name as Jelv suggested but that failed as well!

I will try again to redirect the mailbox by using both just the mailboxname and [email protected] in the first entry and see what happens??? But for the record each time I have tried there was no evidence that I had created them i.e. no list for you to see Ben. That was the reason for the original opening of this thread!

Yes, I could see you had created test & test2 as "the system" sent me emails telling me of the changes but I got no such emails when trying to create them.

Will advise shortly that I have done this

You need to just use mailboxname not [email protected] in the left field, I think that's what you're doing wrong.

In reply to a post by bentrimble:

You need to just use mailboxname not [email protected] in the left field, I think that's what you're doing wrong.

Hi Ben

Right I used just the mailbox name in the first field and the destination mailbox full address in the second field Note - this is an external email address i.e. not PlusNet

For the record this is what I tried before as per jelv's suggestion.

All that happens when I click to add that redirect the page refreshes with the "add a redirect" with no sign that the redirect has been created!!!

Why don't you either send him the exact details you are putting in each field, or better still send him a screen shot before you click OK or whatever it is on the screen?

That's a good suggestion. If you take a screen shot just before you click Add and also one after.

Note that if you enter something invalid the screen you go back to is very similar except it may have "Invalid redirect name, please read the instructions below" below the first box or "Invalid email, please read the instructions below" under the second.

Yeah, as RobertoS has suggested, I need the exact details you're entering to figure out what's wrong here.

Hi Ben (RobertoS and jelv)

I will do this again and PM you the info and a link to the screengrabs a little later this evening.

Edited by deleted (Thu 09-Sep-10 17:11:37)

I've retested this with our QA Team and whatever issue was causing it seems to have passed because the redirects are now being created correctly.

If you see any further issues, please let me know.