Hotmail

[JPB]

At least you had some worthwhile progress on the mail client issue then.
But, until you switch off openzone/WiFi access on your hub, the home page will continue to change randomly as BT do this and that's the only way to stop it once & for all.

[TerryG]

There are a couple of other things you can try.

Have you cleared your temporary internet files?
In internet explorer click the cog (top right)
Internet options
Delete (button about 1/4 of the way up)
ensure "preserve favourites and website data" and "Temporary Internet files and website files" are the only two boxes ticked then click delete.

If that doesn't make any difference you can try clearing your DNS cache.

start
all programs
accessories
right click on command prompt and click "run as administrator"
type "ipconfig /flushdns" (without the quotes)

then try again.

It is really unusual for a single route to fail, especially from a provider as large as BT. Their customer service is widely regarded as the worst in the industry but generally they either work or not. Partially working especially when the fault is with the route to just one site is very uncommon. The internet is designed to cope with failures like that and route around the problem.

[Phil P]

I do apologise to other readers of this forum for using it to try and fix my PC.

I have followed your detailed instructions to the letter. It has made not a jot of difference. I still keep getting 'This page cannot be displayed'. I have had umpteen free download offers but all keep taking me onto ASK. I have managed to get Google back after that suddenly changed to Bing and ASK and God knows who. I even had the language change to German! I should say that happened without me touching anything. I was just sitting looking at the screen. I am going to speak to a mate who works for BT as an engineer in the exchanges. That was funny I misspelt exchange and it gave me the spelling in German! I vill not (sorry) I will not give in.

One things for sure Terry I know a bloody site more about computers in 2 days than I did in the previous 15 plus years.

[Mitsuru]

Phill we have all done this at some point so don't worry.

Have you tried a email interface/porgramme like outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird?
As you don't use a website to access your emails it may be an idea to try it.

[suffolkpete]

It's not clear from your replies whether you managed to ping outlook or not. If not, I wonder if your IP address has been blocked. I had this problem with one of my providers recently and it transpired that they had had a denial of service attack and had blocked a range of addresses, of which mine was one. I solved the problem by rebooting the router causing it to pick up another address, although you can't always guarantee this will work. I too am with BT, so I wonder if there's a hacker among their customers.

[JPB]

Pete, the human source of the problem isn't among BT's customers, but is caused (source: Theresa Stableford, a customer relations manager at BT, a letter to those mentioned below - dated 18/04/14) by rogue elements among their contractors, which also explains how a small number of other ISPs' customers could in theory suffer the same problems.
Dad - as well as a few of my tenants who are with BT - has been having this trouble for a few years now and BT's own advice was to switch off their hotspots. They even removed the usual surcharge for service users who do this (in the smallest ever small print but yes, they could!) as they know that these attacks go on and claim to be powerless to prevent their continuing.

[Classic Microcars]

Another method of browser hijack is from some authorised updates. There is an easy to miss tick box that you must de-select on the Flash updater for instance, or you get McAfee installed as well as Ask, (I think).

In my personal opinion, the use of Hotmail for anything important is a bad idea. Besides these problems, getting a Hotmail email looks unprofessional.

There are many email providers that will give you independant service. You can get email hosting and your own domain name for just a few pounds a year, or maybe you could get an address from your business domain?

[suffolkpete]

John, I'm not sure how turning off the BTOpenzone service would stop these problems. Openzone traffic is tunnelled through the router and is given an IP address in the 10.0.0.0 range, so it would be connected to my IP address. It's possible to see who has been using the service by looking at the router. I've had the hotspot turned on ever since the service started, although it isn't used a lot because wireless coverage barely extends beyond my boundaries.

[Phil P]

I have just spoken to a mate of mine who works for BT.I gave him my e mail address and password and he went straight into my account. He is coming round to see what the problem is. He told me to check what the level of security was on my PC as if it is set at maximum it can sometimes see some e mail accounts as a virus. I followed his instructions on how to check it only to discover my Bit Defender settings had been changed! It did tell me that my PC was virus free. Checking again I also found out that somebody had used my e mail account. I have just changed my password. I still can't get onto hotmail but I am getting nearer. If this fails the local computer shop guy said he will de frag it and clean up the hard drive if I drop it in. £75 to get it sorted and he will come to the house to plug it in and check connections ain't bad. It's cheaper than having the double glazing repaired after I've slung it through the window.

[JPB]

John, I'm not sure how turning off the BT Openzone service would stop these problems....

Unless witchcraft is involved, neither am I, but that's the way the attacks I mentioned have been stopped and sometimes, the satisfaction achieved by the right outcome beats the frustration caused by the not knowing why, which we don't expect Theresa to explain to us. Perhaps BT tells people to do these things so that the real reason for the problem is masked while they just give up and move on to the next mug in the background?