NTL and security

Spent a long time on the phone to NTL this afternoon to a succession of
mainly foreign gentlemen who didn't understand what I was saying. I asked
whether it was possible to have an extra level of security on access to my

pmj...

I don't think that is normally possible.

email - ie if anyone attempted to forward my emails someone, a question
would be asked about my first school, Mother's single name etc. The eventual

pmj...

You are asking for a special, customized Version of the normal ISP
Mail Server/Account Package, which most ISP's won't offer.

That's the sort of thing that *can* (obviously) be implemented, but
they would need lost of people asking for it, before they included
that sort fo feature - & then everybody else would whinge & moan,
saying how complicated things are1

answer from technical support was no, it was not possible. If, presumably,
they don't offer that to any of their customers, I suppose I'm asking now
whether any other ISPs do give that or am I asking too much in view of
what's happened to me?

pmj...

I don't think most other ordinary ISP's offer that sort of facility
(or feature) on their Mail Accountts.

To get those sort of things, you would need an Independent, 3rd Party
Mail Service Provider, which will cost - they are actually not
expensive, you can get a full featured POP3 (& IMAP4) Mail Account,
with use of their SMTP Server (useful for when travelling, so you
can *Send* mails, without any Hassle & without having to use a Web
Interface), for less than 20 Quid per Year.

Have a look at some of the firms that offer those sort of things,
such as...

But even with those sort of firms, most of them generally use
basically just a UserName & PassWord for Authentication, for Access
to the Account Management Pages.

I eventually got through to Customer Relations, and pressed the option for
"if you are thinking of leaving NTL" and spent 13 mins listening to them
telling me how important my call was lol

The woman said if I had been given that answer by technical support, that
must be right, so I asked how much notice I needed to give if I decided to
close my account. She then said "30 days, and you can do it on the
telephone. Thank you. Goodbye" Click and she was gorn! They can move pretty
quickly when they want to, but even the speed of that astonished me.

pmj...

Well, there's no need to Cancel your *Internet* Connection Service
Provider's Account!!!

If yo uwant a better or more Secure emai lFacility, then just Open
up a *separate* eMail Account with an independent, 3rd Party eMail
Service Provider.

There no reason why you (or anybody else) should need to be tied to
using just the eMail Service that is provided by their Connection ISP.

And no-one has hacked into my account today, so sighs of relief all round

pmj...

Good!!!
:-)

mothy...

Most ISPs allow you to create new mail accounts, you could create a
temporary account before you go away and set up mail forwarding to this
new account from your existing account.

Use the new account whilst away and then when you get back just delete
the account and remove the forwarding. This does have the advantage of
you having to inspect your email account settings when you get home so
would spot any problems straight away. If you combine that with what
pmj has suggested about trying to ensure the mail account details stay
secure, it may help in minimising the problem.

Splodge