Cut-off howling...

[desperance]

The server that hosts my sites and (more importantly) my e-mail went down a couple of times yesterday. Nothing calamitous, it came back up again - only since then I have been unable to send e-mails. Receiving them is fine, but every time I try to send anything I just get "Your SMTP server does not support PLAIN. Choose a different authentication method" error messages - which is just plain nonsense, of course it supports PLAIN, it's been doing it for years.

And my guru is on holiday, and I feel - oh, isolated. Cut off. Voiceless. Obviously there is an irony in that - oh look, right here - but the people I need to be talking to don't necessarily read LJ, for all that I think it should be compulsory. Gah!

Comments

[fastfwd.livejournal.com]

I agree. It should be the law that all people who are able to help us out with anything should be keeping up with our lives and know immediately when we need help so that they can spring into action the moment we run into problems.

Why this hasn't happened already I'll never know.

:)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

'Zackly. It's all so obvious, when you spell it out so cogently. Where are you, people...?

Where are you, people...?

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

We were sitting in the square in Sighisoara eating pizzas and me with a litre of beer (shewhomust may be able to post a photograph of this event).

You may well have an SMTP server available via your BlueYonder account, we could talk about this. I'm pleased that, with samarcand's help, this seems to have been a temporary upset.

Re: Where are you, people...?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Ooh - hullo, are you home? How nice...

Y'know, if I didn't know where you've been, I would have absolutely no idea where Sighisoara was. The atlas is a closed book to me.

I do, I know, have e-mail facilities thru BlueYonder; I've not set them up, because you know how nervous I am of overcomplication. Simple and focused is how I like my life: sausages on the griddle, just starting to splutter, me on the keyboard, ditto ditto...

Re: Where are you, people...?

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Sighisoara is the town in Transylvania where Vlad Dracul was born, our hotel was about 100 metres from the spot.

Re: Where are you, people...?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. Did you eat at the house of Vlad Tepes?

And is it just li'l ol' adolescent me, or is anyone else utterly delighted to learn that the Latin name for the place is Castrum Sex?

[autopope.livejournal.com]

This is why you should always, always, ALWAYS have a backup account somewhere else.

(If antipope.org and similar are down, you can get me via charlie dot stross at gmail tod com. Yes?)

If you need help, I can help you get a gmail account -- you need a primary email account to associate with it, but I can fake that out and then email you the username and password. Reply here if you want one, okay?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

This is why you should always, always, ALWAYS have a backup account somewhere else.

Right. That stitch-in-time thing. I never was much good at that stuff. And this is a context where it simply hadn't occurred to me; I guess I've been blessed, hitherto.

(If antipope.org and similar are down, you can get me via charlie dot stross at gmail tod com. Yes?)

Also noted, and thank you.

If you need help, I can help you get a gmail account -- you need a primary email account to associate with it, but I can fake that out and then email you the username and password. Reply here if you want one, okay?

Yes, please. My regular email is chaz at chazbrenchley dot co dot uk, if you need that.

See? Lesson learned, step one taken. It's never too late to change...

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Your new account, chaz.brenchley at gmail tod com, is created. I emailed you the password and details. Let me know you've logged in okay?

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

Hi Chaz,

I've just posted an error with the server-people about someone else with a similar email problem. I shall ring you when I have some sort of reply from them and see if it's been sorted.

I would have also offered you a gmail account if you didn't now have one. They are such useful things and have lots and lots of space on them.

[samarcand.livejournal.com]

Well, hopefully it's sorted now. Your webmail was down for a little while, which I assume the server people looking at it and sorting it, but it's up again now, so hopefully that means it's done. It'd be nice if they sent me an email to let me know these things...

Anyway, let me know if we have success. I do hope so, because I'm getting bored now!

Is this why I'm doing my MCSE? To do this sort of stuff. Good grief...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Anyway, let me know if we have success. I do hope so, because I'm getting bored now!

Fixed, O blessed samarcand! Bless you with many blessings. And likewise his holiness the autopope, who set me up with an escape route.

Is this why I'm doing my MCSE? To do this sort of stuff. Good grief...

Yup. It's called overqualification. One of my doctor-friends, I met when he was working as a cleaner (banks, largely, in the middle of the night; sadly, I was never able to exploit this).

Me, I have avoided this very problem by remaining perpetually underqualified for anything in the employment line.