Telecom to launch Yahoo!Xtra Bubble - Free enhanced services to Xtra subscribers

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Telecom to launch Yahoo!Xtra Bubble - Free enhanced services to Xtra subscribers

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#83091 21-Aug-2007 09:33

centaurianz: In my experience - I do expect that the mail client settings will most likely change if I'm changing mail server or provider. In this case, the service has been moved to Yahoo!

The POP and SMTP settings were clearly stated at the end of the sign-up process for Yahoo!Xtra Bubble.

I would expect nothing to change. FWIW Xtra is still the provider, and a lot of people know nothing about changing program configuration for e-mail servers, even though it was listed at the end.

Bung

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#83092 21-Aug-2007 09:46

Xtra may still be the nominal provider but there was mention that POP access would be available from other ISPs which seemed to explain why there were client changes. I tried those and they didn't work, the old settings were OK. For those that needed help finding the email client settings the Bubble process helpfully gave them links to totally irrelevant pages when I looked.

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#83093 21-Aug-2007 10:12

freitasm: I would expect nothing to change. FWIW Xtra is still the provider, and a lot of people know nothing about changing program configuration for e-mail servers, even though it was listed at the end.

Dare I challenge you, Mauricio?

In all respect, Yahoo! (mail servers) now provide the Xtra mail services.
So yes, in my experience, I would expect a probable change in the mail client settings.

freitasm

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#83094 21-Aug-2007 10:35

centaurianz:
freitasm: I would expect nothing to change. FWIW Xtra is still the provider, and a lot of people know nothing about changing program configuration for e-mail servers, even though it was listed at the end.

Dare I challenge you, Mauricio?

In all respect, Yahoo! (mail servers) now provide the Xtra mail services.
So yes, in my experience, I would expect a probable change in the mail client settings.

What I mean, and please read again, is no changes in the client side being required on a changeover. How hard is to change DNS settings and have all the existing smtp.xtra.co.nz clients going to the new server without any changes in the client and all the problems that this obviously (to anyone else, but Xtra's ultra smart infrastructure people) cause?

riahon

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#83095 21-Aug-2007 10:39

Interesting observation today.

Outlook 2007 on laptop (Vista). Port settings changed to 995 & 587 with smtp.xtra.co.nz. Today pop up asking username password error. Went in and changed to send.xtra.co.nz and worked fine. I never changed the port settings manually.

Outlook 2007 on PC (XP) - Port settings default 110 & 25 and smtp.xtra.co.nz. No problem sending and receiving emails.

How is it that for same email address I can send receive emails from 2 different computers with 2 different settings?

freitasm

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#83097 21-Aug-2007 10:49

[shameless plugin] Do you want a free e-mail account, with calendar, contacts, 2GB storage, works as a Live ID for login live.com, Messenger, etc? Can be used from desktop browsers, Outlook client, mobile browsers, WAP browsers, MSN Messenger? Check Geekzonemail...
[/shameless plugin]

ictgeeknz

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#83108 21-Aug-2007 11:18

freitasm:

What I mean, and please read again, is no changes in the client side being required on a changeover. How hard is to change DNS settings and have all the existing smtp.xtra.co.nz clients going to the new server without any changes in the client and all the problems that this obviously (to anyone else, but Xtra's ultra smart infrastructure people) cause?

Awwww... come on! You should know better - things in IT are never that simple! Especially when it comes to migrating network services, or on a scale such as this. Where's the fun and challenge for an IT professional when things go according to plan?

Quic Broadband

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jim.cox

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#83109 21-Aug-2007 11:23

centaurianz:
freitasm:

What I mean, and please read again, is no changes in the client side being required on a changeover. How hard is to change DNS settings and have all the existing smtp.xtra.co.nz clients going to the new server without any changes in the client and all the problems that this obviously (to anyone else, but Xtra's ultra smart infrastructure people) cause?

Awwww... come on! You should know better - things in IT are never that simple! Especially when it comes to migrating network services, or on a scale such as this. Where's the fun and challenge for an IT professional when things go according to plan?

So why did they do it anyway?

Is there really any demand for their "exciting new" features?

More of a case of "it aint broke, so lets fix it" if you ask me.

=mjc=
.

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#83111 21-Aug-2007 11:46

jim.cox: So why did they do it anyway?

Is there really any demand for their "exciting new" features?

More of a case of "it aint broke, so lets fix it" if you ask me.

I agree with this to an extent. There will be a good proportion of users who would never use some of the tools on offer, so why not have this as an optional extra (i.e. only get it if you specifically sign up for it)? That's what I originally thought it would be.

Post-geek, opinionated mediaphile, and natural born cynic. Jack of all genres, master of none.

jim.cox

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#83112 21-Aug-2007 11:50

freitasm: [shameless plugin] Do you want a free e-mail account, with calendar, contacts, 2GB storage, works as a Live ID for login live.com, Messenger, etc? Can be used from desktop browsers, Outlook client, mobile browsers, WAP browsers, MSN Messenger? Check Geekzonemail...
[/shameless plugin]

[Honest Reply]

No, I dont want, and would not use any of those features, except perhaps the mail

but thank you for asking

[/Honest Reply]

=mjc=
.

pjamieson

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#83113 21-Aug-2007 11:55

I worked for Xtra for over 6 years. I know only too well that the whole company (in fact all of Telecom I think) is completely driven by the Marketing department. I don't know how many mail upgrades, homepage changes and projects like this I went through where all the emails looked pretty, and it was all product focussed - saying the change will bring new features, you don't have to do anything bla bla bla, but none of the customer care people were involved to put any real input or plan together to deal with the impact on customers.

A company should be lead by it's customers feedback and the people who deal with their customers, not marketing/advertising people who don't understand the real world. I agree with freitasm, this change should not have required any changes by customers! How bad is it that they've erased everyone's settings, spam everything. This is a complete mess!

There is no complaint department. But if you email or write to them it will go to managers that will deal with it (send it to head office, not the customer contact details. You can ask to speak to a manager on the phone, but you won't get to the right person.

Nightwyrm

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#83118 21-Aug-2007 12:10

pjamieson: marketing/advertising people who don't understand the real world

OT - we call these teams at my work the "colouring in squads" (personally I think half of them eat the crayons too)

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bmoses

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#83122 21-Aug-2007 12:36

Just to update; I changed my SMTP settings last night and all is fine. The link to the Yahoo help page for Xtra goes to a general help page which is anything but; I ended up going to the US Yahoo help site manually and went through the Outlook help there.

I've noticed that emails are coming through within 5mins of sending to my Xtra address. Also last night they've started releasing held mail (2 days old), although the date/time stamp says it was sent today.

I wonder how much of my email they're still holding.

BlueToothKiwi

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#83132 21-Aug-2007 13:19

pjamieson: There is no complaint department. But if you email or write to them ....

Believe me - I did. But I am a lot calmer than I was yesterday, when I did my original post.

After talking to management at very high level and listening to the reassurances, and more importantly the off-the record stuff, my faith is Telecom has been restored.

Ofcourse they could have handled it better. But I hope to put this behind and move on. Life is too short.

Tim

Tim M, Auckland
Blog: http://paddler.co.nz

lestag

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#83140 21-Aug-2007 13:49

freitasm:
centaurianz:
freitasm: I would expect nothing to change. FWIW Xtra is still the provider, and a lot of people know nothing about changing program configuration for e-mail servers, even though it was listed at the end.

Dare I challenge you, Mauricio?

In all respect, Yahoo! (mail servers) now provide the Xtra mail services.
So yes, in my experience, I would expect a probable change in the mail client settings.

What I mean, and please read again, is no changes in the client side being required on a changeover. How hard is to change DNS settings and have all the existing smtp.xtra.co.nz clients going to the new server without any changes in the client and all the problems that this obviously (to anyone else, but Xtra's ultra smart infrastructure people) cause?

Ummm...there is a change if you have a private domain with them .see http://www.xtra.co.nz/help/

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