🚀 go-pugleaf

> I had a 100 mile round trip yesterday to a meeting that had been cancelled
> by email some 14 hours earlier and I've only just got the email now - it
> took 17 hours to arrive! I receive snail mail quicker than that!  It's
> ridiculous - I'm just not using freeserve until they sort themselves out.
>

PS:
I'd thought I'd not been getting much mail so I tried sending a test message
to myself to see how long it took. It bounced back with the message "Message
content rejected"  Eventually freeserve CS replied with:
"Thank you for your email.
Due to the proliferation of viruses circulating the internet some mail is
being unavoidably delayed.
Any mail with the following text in the subject field of an email will be
rejected as undeliverable by the system:
Test
Hi
Hello
Mail Delivery System
Mail Transaction Failed
Server Report
Status
Error
Urgent Assistance
Inheritance Claim
Letter from Dr Chris
Can I trust you
This is in order to minimise the number of viruses in circulation.
Change the subject line and try again."

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 06:09:09 -0000, "Denise"
<dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote:

>Any mail with the following text in the subject field of an email will be
>rejected as undeliverable by the system:
>Test
>Hi
>Hello
>Mail Delivery System
>Mail Transaction Failed
>Server Report
>Status
>Error
>Urgent Assistance
>Inheritance Claim
>Letter from Dr Chris
>Can I trust you

Such a filter, given that it doesn't bother to check for an
attachment - let alone an executable attachment - is ludicrously
crude; Wanadoo (Freeserve's owners) should be ashamed of
themselves. But none of the above is likely to have been the
subject line of the e-mail announcing the cancellation of your
meeting, so one can conclude that they are providing us with even
worse problems. 

-- 
Regards      Peter Boulding
pjb@UNSPAMpboulding.co.uk (to e-mail, remove "UNSPAM")
Fractal gallery: http://www.pboulding.co.uk/ 
Fractal music: http://www.pjbmusic2.freeserve.co.uk/

Denise <dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote in message
ZTw5c.23456$Y%6.2311336@wards.force9.net
> I had a 100 mile round trip yesterday to a meeting that had been
> cancelled by email some 14 hours earlier and I've only just got the
> email now - it took 17 hours to arrive! I receive snail mail quicker
> than that!  It's ridiculous - I'm just not using freeserve until they
> sort themselves out.

How much per month do you pay for your e-mail with Freeserve?

"Denise" <dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote in message
news:n%w5c.23457$Y%6.2311484@wards.force9.net...
> > I had a 100 mile round trip yesterday to a meeting that had been
cancelled
> > by email some 14 hours earlier and I've only just got the email now - it
> > took 17 hours to arrive! I receive snail mail quicker than that!  It's
> > ridiculous - I'm just not using freeserve until they sort themselves
out.
> >
>
> PS:
> I'd thought I'd not been getting much mail so I tried sending a test
message
> to myself to see how long it took. It bounced back with the message
"Message
> content rejected"  Eventually freeserve CS replied with:
> "Thank you for your email.
> Due to the proliferation of viruses circulating the internet some mail is
> being unavoidably delayed.
> Any mail with the following text in the subject field of an email will be
> rejected as undeliverable by the system:
> Test
> Hi
> Hello
> Mail Delivery System
> Mail Transaction Failed
> Server Report
> Status
> Error
> Urgent Assistance
> Inheritance Claim
> Letter from Dr Chris
> Can I trust you
> This is in order to minimise the number of viruses in circulation.
> Change the subject line and try again."

Ah .. It would be nice if they would inform everyone of this .. say on their
system status page ... this is getting ridiculous ... I wonder how the other
ISPs are managing to cope ....  I don't think it is limited to those subject
lines either so we can no longer rely on email ... maybe it will get
through, maybe it will be erased ... who knows ..... its a lottery

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 10:30:14 -0000, "Ian McMillan"
<ian@NOSPAMimcmillan.co.uk> wrote:

>How much per month do you pay for your e-mail with Freeserve?

Irrelevant.  

Freeserve have, at least for the time being, joined a group of
ISPs - of which BT is the best-known member - that cannot be
relied for prompt delivery of the overwhelming majority of
e-mails. This group does not comprise the cheapest ISPs but
rather those that allocate an insufficient proportion of their
revenue stream to technical resources. 

-- 
Regards      Peter Boulding
pjb@UNSPAMpboulding.co.uk (to e-mail, remove "UNSPAM")
Fractal gallery: http://www.pboulding.co.uk/ 
Fractal music: http://www.pjbmusic2.freeserve.co.uk/

Peter Boulding <pjb@UNSPAMpboulding.co.uk> wrote in message
1mod50t00gdv7o1rtdd9gbnh3lk0am0ibu@4ax.com
> On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 10:30:14 -0000, "Ian McMillan"
> <ian@NOSPAMimcmillan.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> How much per month do you pay for your e-mail with Freeserve?
>
> Irrelevant.

Not at all.  if e-mail is so important and time cricital, then you shouldn't
be using a bog standard POP3 box lumped on with Anytime style access.

"Ian McMillan" <ian@NOSPAMimcmillan.co.uk> wrote in message
news:4056d73a$0$3300$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com...
> Denise <dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote in message
> ZTw5c.23456$Y%6.2311336@wards.force9.net

snip
>
> How much per month do you pay for your e-mail with Freeserve?
>
�27.99 a month. And this is the next reply I got when I complained

Dear Denise.,

Thank you for your email.

Emails are not instant, as some people try to make out, which is why
instant messaging is so popular.

The routing of emails is very complex and emails can literally be
shunted all round the world to go to a machine a few feet away, very
much like text messaging.

Time delays do happen depending on routing, encryption?s and various
other things a delay of up to 24 hours is not unheard of - its not
common but does happen.

However all things being equal an email should not usually take more
that 20 to 30 minutes - although 90% of the time it will be much
quicker.

At present we are performing necessary update work on the mail servers.
This work should have only taken until the end of February to complete,
however delays or extensions have been required.  During these updates
you may find that your email is being delayed however rest assured that
it will arrive.

"Denise" <dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote in message
news:fBF5c.23545$Y%6.2331241@wards.force9.net...
> �27.99 a month. And this is the next reply I got when I complained

I went over to ukonline :)

> Emails are not instant, as some people try to make out, which is why
> instant messaging is so popular.

Excuse me? What have you been drinking?

> The routing of emails is very complex and emails can literally be
> shunted all round the world to go to a machine a few feet away, very
> much like text messaging.

Since when?

> Time delays do happen depending on routing, encryption?s and various
> other things a delay of up to 24 hours is not unheard of - its not
> common but does happen.

Makes nonsense of the following!

> However all things being equal an email should not usually take more
> that 20 to 30 minutes - although 90% of the time it will be much
> quicker.

Rubbish! Why does some of mine take a day or so?

> At present we are performing necessary update work on the mail servers.
> This work should have only taken until the end of February to complete,
> however delays or extensions have been required.  During these updates
> you may find that your email is being delayed however rest assured that
> it will arrive.

Bollocks! Mine hasn't been arriving! I have positive proof of this!

-- 
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 13:11:20 -0000, "Ian McMillan"
<ian@NOSPAMimcmillan.co.uk> wrote:

>>> How much per month do you pay for your e-mail with Freeserve?

>> Irrelevant.

>Not at all.  if e-mail is so important and time cricital, then you shouldn't
>be using a bog standard POP3 box lumped on with Anytime style access.

Many millions do rely on such access, and have rarely if ever
been seriously let down - and never for more than a few days.
The exceptions - such as BT - are notorious. 

This was true of Freeserve until Wanadoo made the mistake of
deciding they were competent to take incoming mail away from
Energis (Freeserve's usual service provider). 

BTW I am trying to check mail right now... the POP3 server is
simply timing out; Freeserve's web-based e-mail service (the sole
beneficiary of all these delays and cockups) is more honest: 

"The mail server is busy. Please check your mail again in a few
moments." 

... Except that it isn't a few moments; some minutes  later it's
still "busy."  In other words, not only is their filtering server
too "busy" to fill up our mailboxes - even for the majority of us
who don't use the web-based interface or, therefore, the X-Sieve
filtering system - their mail system is now in such a mess that
it can't even tell us that our mailboxes are still empty. 

-- 
Regards      Peter Boulding
pjb@UNSPAMpboulding.co.uk (to e-mail, remove "UNSPAM")
Fractal gallery: http://www.pboulding.co.uk/ 
Fractal music: http://www.pjbmusic2.freeserve.co.uk/

In message <s6de50hr62ajj5tgvouod3dn62t0mstpgv@4ax.com>, Peter Boulding 
<pjb@UNSPAMpboulding.co.uk> writes
>On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 13:11:20 -0000, "Ian McMillan"
><ian@NOSPAMimcmillan.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>>> How much per month do you pay for your e-mail with Freeserve?
>
>>> Irrelevant.
>
>>Not at all.  if e-mail is so important and time cricital, then you shouldn't
>>be using a bog standard POP3 box lumped on with Anytime style access.
>
>Many millions do rely on such access, and have rarely if ever
>been seriously let down - and never for more than a few days.
>The exceptions - such as BT - are notorious.

Thanks for the warning, as I was considering moving there.
"If you know a better hole, go to it", or whatever the phrase is, so 
where is the better hole?
-- 
Save the Hubble Space Telescope!
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

I'm trying UKonline. Aside from dodgy connections, it seems OK. They're a
bit overcautious about websites and demand to see a site before they'll give
you extra webspace.

-- 
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)


"Jonathan Silverlight" <jsilverlight@spam.merseia.fsnet.co.uk.invalid> wrote
in message news:z484voIeX0VAFw2S@merseia.fsnet.co.uk...
> In message <s6de50hr62ajj5tgvouod3dn62t0mstpgv@4ax.com>, Peter Boulding
> <pjb@UNSPAMpboulding.co.uk> writes
> >On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 13:11:20 -0000, "Ian McMillan"
> ><ian@NOSPAMimcmillan.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> >>>> How much per month do you pay for your e-mail with Freeserve?
> >
> >>> Irrelevant.
> >
> >>Not at all.  if e-mail is so important and time cricital, then you
shouldn't
> >>be using a bog standard POP3 box lumped on with Anytime style access.
> >
> >Many millions do rely on such access, and have rarely if ever
> >been seriously let down - and never for more than a few days.
> >The exceptions - such as BT - are notorious.
>
> Thanks for the warning, as I was considering moving there.
> "If you know a better hole, go to it", or whatever the phrase is, so
> where is the better hole?
> -- 
> Save the Hubble Space Telescope!
> Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

"Zebedee" <abuse@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:40572a03$0$3473$afc38c87@news.ukonline.co.uk...
> "Denise" <dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:fBF5c.23545$Y%6.2331241@wards.force9.net...
> > �27.99 a month. And this is the next reply I got when I complained
>
> I went over to ukonline :)
>
> > Emails are not instant, as some people try to make out, which is why
> > instant messaging is so popular.
>
> Excuse me? What have you been drinking?
>
> > The routing of emails is very complex and emails can literally be
> > shunted all round the world to go to a machine a few feet away, very
> > much like text messaging.
>
> Since when?
>
> > Time delays do happen depending on routing, encryption?s and various
> > other things a delay of up to 24 hours is not unheard of - its not
> > common but does happen.
>
> Makes nonsense of the following!
>
> > However all things being equal an email should not usually take more
> > that 20 to 30 minutes - although 90% of the time it will be much
> > quicker.
>
> Rubbish! Why does some of mine take a day or so?
>
> > At present we are performing necessary update work on the mail servers.
> > This work should have only taken until the end of February to complete,
> > however delays or extensions have been required.  During these updates
> > you may find that your email is being delayed however rest assured that
> > it will arrive.
>
> Bollocks! Mine hasn't been arriving! I have positive proof of this!
>

Yes its true ... nothing important so far .. but if you make the mistake of
relying on these twits it could be costly..
cw

Jonathan Silverlight wrote:
> In message <s6de50hr62ajj5tgvouod3dn62t0mstpgv@4ax.com>, Peter Boulding 
> <pjb@UNSPAMpboulding.co.uk> writes
> 
>> On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 13:11:20 -0000, "Ian McMillan"
>> <ian@NOSPAMimcmillan.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>>>> How much per month do you pay for your e-mail with Freeserve?
>>
>>
>>>> Irrelevant.
>>
>>
>>> Not at all.  if e-mail is so important and time cricital, then you 
>>> shouldn't
>>> be using a bog standard POP3 box lumped on with Anytime style access.
>>
>>
>> Many millions do rely on such access, and have rarely if ever
>> been seriously let down - and never for more than a few days.
>> The exceptions - such as BT - are notorious.
> 
> 
> Thanks for the warning, as I was considering moving there.
> "If you know a better hole, go to it", or whatever the phrase is, so 
> where is the better hole?

I moved from Freeserve some months ago when it became apparent that the 
email service was "unreliable". Its clearly even worse now.
I'm very happy with PlusNet, where I'm on ADSL
http://www.plus.net/index.html
Whichever one you choose, its probably worthwhile signing up for their 
Pay as you Go service initially, and see how it compares.

harold

"code_wrong" <tac@tac.ouch.co.uk> wrote in message
news:c37hlf$qt8$1@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
> "Zebedee" <abuse@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
> news:40572a03$0$3473$afc38c87@news.ukonline.co.uk...
> > "Denise" <dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote in message
> > news:fBF5c.23545$Y%6.2331241@wards.force9.net...
> > > �27.99 a month. And this is the next reply I got when I complained
> >
> > I went over to ukonline :)
> >
> > > Emails are not instant, as some people try to make out, which is why
> > > instant messaging is so popular.
> >
> > Excuse me? What have you been drinking?
> >
> > > The routing of emails is very complex and emails can literally be
> > > shunted all round the world to go to a machine a few feet away, very
> > > much like text messaging.
> >
> > Since when?
> >
> > > Time delays do happen depending on routing, encryption?s and various
> > > other things a delay of up to 24 hours is not unheard of - its not
> > > common but does happen.
> >
> > Makes nonsense of the following!
> >
> > > However all things being equal an email should not usually take more
> > > that 20 to 30 minutes - although 90% of the time it will be much
> > > quicker.
> >
> > Rubbish! Why does some of mine take a day or so?
> >
> > > At present we are performing necessary update work on the mail
servers.
> > > This work should have only taken until the end of February to
complete,
> > > however delays or extensions have been required.  During these updates
> > > you may find that your email is being delayed however rest assured
that
> > > it will arrive.
> >
> > Bollocks! Mine hasn't been arriving! I have positive proof of this!
> >
>
> Yes its true ... nothing important so far .. but if you make the mistake
of
> relying on these twits it could be costly..
> cw
>
Yep, I've had mail disappearing too. I think I'm going to have to tell
people to start using my Hotmail address, because it's more reliable by far
at the moment...


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.627 / Virus Database: 402 - Release Date: 16/03/2004

"Cannabis Window" <webmaster@cannabiswindow.co.uk.INVALID> wrote in message
news:MPG.1ac1a5083b4fcca989931@news.newshosting.com...

> Why not just get a .co.uk from www.123reg.co.uk and forward your email
> to anywhere you want .

I went over to Lycos for my .org.uk domain :)

-- 
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)

"Denise" <dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ZTw5c.23456$Y%6.2311336@wards.force9.net...
> I had a 100 mile round trip yesterday to a meeting that had been cancelled
> by email some 14 hours earlier and I've only just got the email now - it
> took 17 hours to arrive! I receive snail mail quicker than that!  It's
> ridiculous - I'm just not using freeserve until they sort themselves out.

Have you checked the headers to see where the delay occurred?  It may have
been the senders isp at fault and not freeserve.  Unless of course they use
freeserve aswell.

Cannabis Window wrote:

>>Yep, I've had mail disappearing too. I think I'm going to have to tell
>>people to start using my Hotmail address, because it's more reliable by far
>>at the moment...

Ah yes, Hotmail, the epitome of reliability..

On  16 Mar 2004, "code_wrong" <tac@tac.ouch.co.uk> wrote:

>I wonder how the other ISPs are managing to cope ....  

Well, in recent weeks both Claranet and PlusNet have had quite 
a problem with the loading on mail servers, to the chagrin of a
portion of customers.  I've no idea how much of a delay may have
been introduced but a year or so ago, delays of up to 24 hours 
were happening to some on Demon (with SMTP delivery, as their
incoming mail servers were timing out under massive load).

>I don't think it is limited to those subject lines either so we 
>can no longer rely on email ... maybe it will get through, 
>maybe it will be erased ... who knows ..... its a lottery

It certainly seems a lottery if one is faced with simplistic
filtering of that kind.  I'm getting most mail "direct" from
web hosting POP mailboxes, but some gets forwarded and other
mail is either bounced or blackholed at the (USA) servers...

In article <4057989e$0$10753$afc38c87@news.ukonline.co.uk>, Zebedee
<abuse@127.0.0.1> wrote:

> "Cannabis Window" <webmaster@cannabiswindow.co.uk.INVALID> wrote in
> message news:MPG.1ac1a5083b4fcca989931@news.newshosting.com...

> > Why not just get a .co.uk from www.123reg.co.uk and forward your email
> > to anywhere you want .

> I went over to Lycos for my .org.uk domain :)

I'm using UK2 myself, mostly because they hosted my website from before I
shifted from another ISP that was only offering about 5MB of space (not
enough).

-- 
 //\  // Chika <zvlhxv@penfuarg.bet.hx. - ROT13>
//  \//  The second ZFC coming <crashnet.org.uk/zedeffcee> 

... Biography: One of the terrors of death.

What would you say is best? I have a website on an ISP. The problem is that
lots of people have linked into it from other sites. I think it might be
best to have ISP and web host as different entities. What's everybody's
opinions? At the moment I have my site hosted on two ISPs and linked from my
Lycos domain. I have email forwarding too.

-- 
Yours

Zebedee

(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)

Zebedee wrote:
> What would you say is best? I have a website on an ISP. The problem
> is that lots of people have linked into it from other sites. I think
> it might be best to have ISP and web host as different entities.
> What's everybody's opinions? At the moment I have my site hosted on
> two ISPs and linked from my Lycos domain. I have email forwarding too.

Get a domain of your own - asap.

Then you have the long and laborious task of contacting all the webmasters
to update their links - a pain, but the sooner you start ......

-- 
Net

On  16 Mar 2004,   Jonathan Silverlight   wrote:

>  so where is the better hole?

Your own domain, separate from any ISP's name, IMHO, and then use
service from the hosting firm (I can recommend nameroute.co.uk as
one which gives value for money service for a .*.uk domain), or a
web-based service such as mailsnare.net, runbox.com, or perhaps a
POP service such as from Claranet (which has had some mail probs,
but seems to be getting everything back to the reliable and great
service they have provided for several years, with fairly low fee
of a tenner a year for mail + news {text only}), or for a one-off
fee, fastmail.fm (many other domain names are available).

There are also free services offering POP mailboxes which are
quite separate from ISPs.  HotPop.com and yahoo.co.uk are a
couple.  You still need to use your existing ISP for sending,
in most cases.   Peter M.

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 13:31, Chika <miyuki@spam-no-way.invalid> wrote:

>they hosted my website from before I shifted from another ISP that 
>was only offering about 5MB of space (not enough).

In 1995 I opened a US ISP account as they were offering 5 MB while
one was lucky to find 500 kB being offered here...  The US ISP was
in a "time warp" insofar as it was still offering just 5 MB in the
monthly fee (of $7.95) until 2002, though one could pay a fee when
using more webspace.  Nowadays there are hosting deals offering 10
to 500 MB at reasonable prices, and I'd definitely recommend space
separate from your "connection" provider when possible.  "Free" is
only so good as you pay for it, whether free web space, e-mail and
news.  If you regard your fee as paying for "access" and the other
services a bonus, that cannot be counted on, you will be unlikely
to be diaappointed.

I found the binary newsgroups better on Freeserve than on PlusNet,
but have to admit to having had mail accounts but not treated them
as important on either of those ISPs.  I use some of the free PAYG
accounts with Tesco.net, PN, FS, Clara and others, and mostly they
work well, but the thing so many people fail to consider using the
ISP mail addresses is the mess they have when they decide to move,
or might be forced to change address (takeovers/mergers/closure),
whether for web sites or e-mail.  There was some worry about all
the Freeserve users having "Wanadoo" mail addresses... I wonder
how many would have quit if that had happened!   Peter M.

"Net Mongrel" entertained (or was it annoyed?) us in this chronicle:

> Zebedee wrote:
>> What would you say is best? I have a website on an ISP. The
>> problem is that lots of people have linked into it from other
>> sites. I think it might be best to have ISP and web host as
>> different entities. What's everybody's opinions? At the moment I
>> have my site hosted on two ISPs and linked from my Lycos domain.
>> I have email forwarding too. 
> 
> Get a domain of your own - asap.
> 
> Then you have the long and laborious task of contacting all the
> webmasters to update their links - a pain, but the sooner you
> start ...... 
> 

I got my 4 domains (2 charity ones, 2 personal) from 1&1... plus 
hosting... all you have to do with your ISP website is just get them 
to autotically redirect to your new site...

say your current one is me.isp.com and your new domain is 
yourdomain.com ....

on the pages for me.isp (eg mypage.html), just put this into your 
pages:

<HTML>
   <HEAD>
      <meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; 
            url=http://www.yourdomain.com/mypage.html">
   </HEAD>
   <BODY>
   </BODY>
</HTML>

The "content=" line shows how long to wait until you redirect... if 
you want it to happen without the user knowing, keep it at 0... if 
you want to show a message saying "that page is now at this 
location..." change it to content="<x>; url..." where <x> is the 
number of seconds you want to wait before it redirects...

-- 
Steve

"Beck" entertained (or was it annoyed?) us in this chronicle:

> 
> "Denise" <dee@newsroomnospam.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:ZTw5c.23456$Y%6.2311336@wards.force9.net...
>> I had a 100 mile round trip yesterday to a meeting that had been
>> cancelled by email some 14 hours earlier and I've only just got
>> the email now - it took 17 hours to arrive! I receive snail mail
>> quicker than that!  It's ridiculous - I'm just not using
>> freeserve until they sort themselves out. 
> 
> Have you checked the headers to see where the delay occurred?  It
> may have been the senders isp at fault and not freeserve.  Unless
> of course they use freeserve aswell.
> 
> 
> 

It's Freeserve.... I've jsut had a whole lot of old emails (up to 5 
days old) arrive in my inbox today

-- 
Steve

Peter - 0870 432 9616 wrote:
> On  16 Mar 2004, "code_wrong" <tac@tac.ouch.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> 
>>I wonder how the other ISPs are managing to cope ....  
> 
> 
> Well, in recent weeks both Claranet and PlusNet have had quite 
> a problem with the loading on mail servers, to the chagrin of a
> portion of customers.

(Snip)
Don't know about Claranet, but PlusNet's problem was relatively brief 
and was resolved before the end of Feb.
Unlike Freeserve, they keep their customers informed. Just scroll down 
to the third message here:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y1A7241C7
Or more generally, the Service Status page here:
https://portal.plus.net/supportpages.html?a=2

harold

In message <1rsg50tujca2eickuq945s8t56404mvaae@news.clara.net>, Peter - 
0870 432 9616 <us-mail@rocketmail.com> writes
>On  16 Mar 2004,   Jonathan Silverlight   wrote:
>
>>  so where is the better hole?
>
>Your own domain, separate from any ISP's name, IMHO, and then use
>service from the hosting firm

That's very tempting. Merseia.co.uk has a certain ring to it, even 
though I've already got most of the Google hits for "merseia" :-)