26/08/25 With the switch off of the unauthenticated smtp we have had some customers asking for help with !POPstar there is a page on our support area that details the smtp setup which customers can read through. However the last update as far as I am aware was back in 2003 so 22 years ago. I would suggest that a quick call to to R-Comp and a purchase of !NetFetch would be a good thing to conside at £30 it is not expensive and it is supported and fully up to date. R-Comp can additionally pre-setup your account details for you if you ask them. 11:11
25/08/25 All issues resulting from the abuse of the smtp server should now be fully resolved as of 13:55 Sunday as we were removed from the last Blacklist then. 11:38
21/08/25 We are now clear on all blacklists bar one, this runs automatically on reputation and is updated at a minimum of 24Hrs and depending on the severity of the Virus/Spamming could take a week to clear. So you may find that for some time some mails may keep bouncing back. This is why we try to keep our security high and hope that our customers do the same. Checking there computers and keeping there paid for anti-virus software up to date and keeping all passwords private and secure. 10:01
20/08/25 We have removed unauthenticated mail send now on the servers. We have also requested removal from 3 blacklists this evening which we expect to happen over the next 12 hours. 19.59
20/08/25 We have taken the difficult decision today to cease our non-authenticated smtp server service. This has been causing our servers to be blacklisted on a regular basis culminating again today causing on this occasion real problems for several customers while we sorted things out. So from tonight the old style of sending not using a username and password will cease to work. If this does impact you then using your main mail username and password will allow you to send again. If you have difficulties then do please give Richard a call and he will assist you as best as we can. 17:30
12/08/25 Our local Fibre lines are being developed between 00:00 ~ 06:00 on 22nd Aug it is possible services may be unavailable during this time for up to 30 minutes. 16:25
30/07/25 All servers have been upgraded work finished at 20:15. 20:45
30/07/25 Various servers will go down for between 10 & 15 minutes this evening as we perform power upgrades this will affect all customers. We will do our best to keep disruption to a minimum. 15:00
30/06/25 Our send mail server will have interupted service this evening between 20:00 and 21:00 this will affect all customers. We will do our best to keep disruption to a minimum.
26/06/25 We are still improving our services and have now started a service alert when scheduled work is being done. the e-mail you will receive will be service-alerts@< Orpheus domain >
23/06/25 There will be disruption of services for approx 10~15 Minutes from 8:00pm this evening for maintenance.
16/06/25 We have sucessfully migrated all our normal servers across to ARM based computers this afternoon. Going froma continuos draw of 450~500+Watts now down to a maximum 98~110Watts usually running around 98Watts. Andy and I would like to thank everyone who has had a few jinks in the systems since we started this journey back in September 2024. Thank you so much for your patience. We aim to do no major work over the summer maybe just a few frills and icing on the cake like a new power server to reduce down the VM's in the event of a power outage. There are a few other ideas but we will let you know when we have decided what we can do. So new hardware, software and OS's. This now gives us better response to various internet nasties. We are of course still tuning things and some of the new items take a little bit of getting used to and are different but they are there to help keep you and computers as safe and secure as we can manage. I am sure Paul Vigay we will checking on Orpheus and be cheering us on especially on the use of the ARM chips.
06/06/25 We will be migrating a number of websites and email accounts to new servers over the next week. We will aim to keep any disruption to a minimum; migrations will be scheduled for times outside conventional working hours. Some websites will experience service interruptions as they are updated to run on the newer software. 12:28
27/03/25 Due to the more than 2 dozen reported router issues we fixed over the last 3 days it was not possible to post the link here that we wanted to on the 25th the following link will take you to a temporary page where the pdf can be downloaded. Please use with great care as we cannot take any responsibilty for the failure of a router after using the instructions. If you are in doubt please call using the usual numbers and we will assist you. DrayTek PDF. 22:05
24/03/25 We will post DrayTek's suggested instructions on 25/03 and our own information. 22:46
24/03/25 MSO is related to DrayTek routers depending on model and firmware. We will update as soon as we have more news. 11:10
24/03/25 MSO is still unresolved currently. 08:37
23/03/25 We currently have an MSO UK wide causing broadband to repeatedly reset. No timeline is available for this being fixed. The incident started at approx 9:30pm Saturday. 12:12
15/03/25 Annual price increase is now showing on the website accounts on old tariffs wil be notified of there price changes by e-mail. 14:18
10/03/24 Sending mail is a little slow at the moment due to filtering out of increased traffic from bad domains. 13:24
05/02/25 Normal email services should now be available again after server migration. 08:10
04/02/25 Some .orpheusweb.co.uk websites are missing their SSL certificates. We have exceeded our permitted allocation and are waiting for it to renew. This will be over the next couple of days. 17:25
02/02/25 We will be migrating email services hosted on trixie to a new server on Wednesday 4th February at 7.30am. Sending mail will not be affected, but downloading or reading mail will not be possible while the migration takes place. Email on rex will not be affected. 08:03
02/02/25 Migration of web services complete. 08:00
01/02/25 We will soon be migrating web services hosted on orac (81.5.176.34) to a new server. There may be some downtime while this takes place. We will post the scheduled time and date of the move when we have it. 12:54
Migration sheduled for 07:30, Monday 3rd February.
29/01/25 News server currently unavailable due to a network issue will be restored asap. 15:37
News server now back up and running. 19:40
29/01/25 The main Orpheus website was unavailable earlier this afternoon due to a small server issue, which has been resolved. 15:15
14/12/24 There has been a Major Service Outage (MSO) this morning for about 50mins which has affected a good number of our customers including ourselves. Service has now been restored, but may be a bit flaky for a while. 11:54
10/12/24 The recent update to Apple iPad OS18 has broken the IMAP protocol on some devices for many e-mail suppliers including ourselves. Not all iPads are affected. We now have to wait until Apple issues a software fix for this problem. 17:13
30/10/24 We have had over 10,000 spam e-mails an hour today mostly on our old argonet domain. As this is affecting all our customers email with delays the argonet domain is now on its own spam server. This will have two results, general mail should now be processed more quickly. However it will mean that argonet addresses will still suffer delays due the thousands of incoming spam. We will continue to manage all spam as best possible. 14:10
25/10/24 We are temporarily suspending c.s.a.apps due to the group being swamped with binaries for download. Once we have done that we will re-visit the group in a week and re-activate it if the spamming has stopped. 14:50
24/09/24 Due to an errant piece of test kit we have had odd cases of various servers being unavailable on the internet today. The box in question has now been switched off until we are happy it will work correctly. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. 16:23
16/08/24 Scheduled line test overran this morning causing the servers tp be unavailable for 10 mins or so at 09:30. 09:40
09/08/24 We are currently suffering from a huge volume of spam emails - over 10x our usual daily throughput just in the past hour. This is delaying normal email delivery. We apologise for the inconvenience. 11:20
Normal service has resumed. 14:20
03/07/24 An update to Rex caused e-mail sending to stop at 6am this has now been sorted and speed issues also. 10:03
30/06/24 Server upgrade complete. 09:01
29/06/24 SERVER SHUTDOWN 8AM SUNDAY MORNING. ALL services will stop for no more than 60 mins tomorrow morning for a hardware upgrade. 13:00
22/05/24 BT have stated that the timetable for the switching to all digital has now been extended to January 2027 adding another year to the schedule. See the BBC Technology article here :- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5119g5z4q5o
13/05/24 Last week we became aware that the 'new' version of Newshound was having issues with our News server. I am happy to say this has now been resolved with ourselves and R-Comp and the Newshound programmer all working and testing together. Our server now has extended capabilities and I would like to thank our partners for there quick response. 12:30
13/05/24 Cataract op was completed sucessfully on Saturday. 09:30
17/04/24 Rex Spam issue has been resolved.
15/04/24 We are aware that our Rex mail server is placing SPAM marked emails into customers mail inbox. We are working to rectify this behaviour as quickly as we can. 15:57
12/04/24 One of our mail servers has had a moment this afternoon and stopped processing mail. This has now been re-started and should start processing mail shortly. 16:30
05/04/24 Our phone number 01702 462385 is now working as is the voice mail. The message hasn't been setup just yet but do leave a message if you can't get through. 16:12
03/04/24 Advanced warning the office will be closed over the weekend of the 11-12 May as I have a cataract operation. I expect to be back in the office the following Monday 13th May all being well. 09:44
02/04/24 I have just been informed that BT have very kindly turned off all the services on our 01702 462385 landline and as it will take longer to restore the divert and answering service than it will for me to change it over to our VoIP service, which will cost me less, this is what we are doing. However durning this time the only number that is working is the mobile one. I apologise for this and ask that if a mobile number is not one that you like to use, please call me and ask me to ring you back which I will do. I thank you for your patience in this matter. 17:34
02/04/24 Office hours are now restored to there normal times. 17:33
05/02/24 Due to having shingles the office will only be open in the morning 09:00-13:00 for the next few weeks. I will keep you updated as things improve. 15:55
