The Keswick Web Design Servers benefit from high levels of uptime, which you can view here, despite this problems can occur but these are often not at the server end. If you're having difficulty connecting to email or can't seem to view your website read on for advice on tracing any problems.

There are many reasons why your email and/or website might be appearing 'offline' or you may be having difficulty connecting. To isolate the problem try the guidelines below.

Is your website appearing offline?

If you don't seem to be able to view your website the first thing to check is if the site is offline across the internet or just on your own system? There are several ways to check:

- Try to view your site via a mobile device such as an iPhone using it's data connection (not your usual wifi/home network connection)
- Ask someone not on your connection to check to see if your site is viewable.
- Use a proxy server such as https://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf/ which will bypass the normal connection to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and display a basic version of your site.

If your website is viewable using the above methods you can now rest assured that your site is live and the problem is with your own connection. There are 2 main reasons why you may not be able to view your website on your systems:

- You have blocked your computers/networks IP address: To enhance the security of your website our servers will block any computers/networks IP address if there are repeated login failures, for example you may have altered the password in your email account and tried to repeatedly connect with an incorrect password over a short period of time. To resolve this issue visit whatismyip.com and send us an email with the IP Number provided, we can then check to see if your IP address is blocked.
- Your ISP has a cache problem - Occasionally your internet service provider might have a corrupt cache or simply be refreshing itself. If this is the case you can either contact your ISP directly to inform them of your problem or wait a few hours to allow their cache to update.

99% of instances where websites are reported as being offline can be attributed to one of the above 2 reasons.

Are you having trouble receiving email?

There are several reasons you may be having difficulty receiving email, the first thing to check is to ensure you are using the correct email/password combination. We can reset your password for you if it's been forgotten but can't retrieve lost passwords for security reasons.

If you are positive you have the correct email/password but still cannot receive email a simple way to check if the problem is with your email program is to use your domains built in webmail at http://yourdomain.co.uk/webmail (obviously replacing yourdomain.co.uk with your domain!) Simply click the email program you prefer, we recommend Squirrel Mail.

This will allow you to check your email via a web based interface, totally bypassing Outlook, Windows Mail, OSX Mail, etc. If you can successfully connect via webmail the problem is likely to be found in the configuration of your email program, maybe an incorrect mail server or password. If you are still having trouble receiving email this may be for the same reasons as a website appearing offline, double check you can view your website using the pointers above.

Are you having trouble sending email?

Again the first thing to ensure is that you are using the correct email/password combination and to check your mail works by using http://yourdomain.co.uk/webmail and clicking Squirrel Mail. If you can successfully send a test email using webmail the problem can be traced to the settings in your email program. Ensure your settings are correct.
The main cause of problems with outgoing email is directly related to your ISP, several ISP's such as B.T. and Orange won't allow you to use an outgoing smtp mail server linked to your web address and instead force you to use their own such as smtp.btyahoo.co.uk or mail.orange.co.uk. Check with your ISP on their requirements for using your own email or contact us with the name of your isp to see if it's a common issue.

Typical email settings

For reference the typical email settings can be found below, replace yourdomain.co.uk with your actual domain name! Remember we're always here if you need assistance with your email setup.

Mail Server username, account name and email address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Incoming Mail Server: mail.yourdomain.co.uk
Outgoing Mail Server: mail.yourdomain.co.uk (server requires authentication) port 225

If you need to use SSL please contact us for the correct settings:

Supported Incoming Mail Protocols: POP3, POP3S (SSL/TLS), IMAP, IMAPS (SSL/TLS)
Supported Outgoing Mail Protocols: SMTP, SMTPS (SSL/TLS)

What are POP3 and IMAP?

There are 2 main types of email systems or protocols which vary slightly in the way they handle your email:

POP3: Is the more traditional method of email retrieval and works well in instances where only one computer needs access to emails. Your computer connects to the mail server, downloads the mail from the server then deletes it from the web server. All of your mail resides on your computer.

IMAP: Has several advantages where multiple computers/mobile devices are being used. for example our own email address needs to be shared and available across our main office computer, a laptop, a netbook and an iPhone. Using IMAP allows each system to have a mirror copy of all emails stored 'online' If you read an email on one system it's marked as read on all of the others, deleting an email on one system deletes the same email across all of the others. For IMAP the computer connects to the mail server, downloads the mail from the server, performs any housework for read/deleted/etc mails and most importantly leaves the email on the server for other devices.
When using IMAP it's important to be aware that your mailbox is far more likely to fill up, remember to take offline into local mailboxes any emails which no longer need to be shared across systems.

For any more advice on website or email troubleshooting please contact us.

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