So long, Demon Internet!

Reflecting how Demon Internet, the pioneers of UK dial-up access, disappeared from view - literally

Since 1995 my Demon Internet e-mail address had been deeply embedded in everything I’ve ever done for hobby/ amateur electronics and EPE Magazine. I coined the ‘epemag’ moniker when signing for a so-called Tenner-a-month dial-up account in an era when 14.4k modems reigned supreme, and alan@epemag.demon.co.uk was born.

I still have original Demon sign up letter, Feb 1995, printed on Conqueror laid paper, from Gateway House in Regent's Park Road, Finchley, London. I found it on Google Street View, a non-descript office block over some shops, demolished in 2016 for a Waitrose and office block. It looked spiffy in 2008 but very sorry for itself by 2014: https://goo.gl/maps/er6mo1awzNA2

Demon Internet, Gateway House, Finchley, London (2008)Demolished 2015Gone forever! (Images: Google Street View)

Demon Internet has changed hands several times and is now owned by Vodafone. Imagine my surprise when I heard that Vodafone is ditching Demon ‘free’ email and web services – free because they accompany a core dial-up account (broadband anyway), even though email has always been part and parcel of Demon’s £10 a month package from Day One. Web services (free websites) were bundled some years later as the market continued to evolve.

Vodafone is clearing the decks of old luggage like Demon and has done a deal with UK ISP Namesco, allowing customers to continue using their demon.co.uk Email address by subscribing to their service instead.  In theory anyway.

The Devil in the detail

Due to the Vodafone tie-up, Namesco claims to offer you a ‘last chance to keep your Demon.co.uk Email address’.

The gist is that you have to buy a Microsoft-Office Exchange or 365 Cloudy package thing instead and Demon mail will get channelled through that. Namesco offers a 30% discount for a single Office 365 user, it’s £58.68 a year. Trusting nothing to chance, the next question will be whether they discount it in Year Two onwards. This will doubtless finally force some traditional users to move their mail to the cloud, but I won’t be one of them.

There’s a bigger worry about ongoing availability though, because Demon’s FAQ stated you could still use these Demon addresses "for two more years." What happens after that is anybody’s guess, but I won’t be surprised if Vodafone just hives the lot off and Demon email addresses will be lost for ever. [This proved to be the case.]

The perverse thing about this is that I just got a pestering demand from Vodafone to cough up £144.00 for the next year’s service, but they had already been sent a cheque so I called Demon’s customer service to see what gives.

When I asked, they told me the migration to Namesco will be completed by September/ October 2016. I was in shock at the thought of losing my 21-year old address, and pointed out this was news to me as I’d been told nothing. The Demon rep. said it was being done in batches and they would be in touch. Meantime, I’m being hammered to cough up a year’s service only to have to reclaim a refund for ten months of unused service anyway!

Demon always were lousy for forcing customers to give 30 days’ notice before rolling them over into another year's contract, and even when they’re stopping their service anyway, they still hammer you.

Sad to say, epemag.demon.co.uk will soon be no more, I fear: time for a new email address! [Hence epemag.net was born.]

Update on Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 12:40PM by Alan W

The new address is going to be

alan@epemag.net

Now all I have to do is get a refund of the year's balance from Vodafone - easier said than done.

Update on Saturday, March 8, 2025 at 6:01PM by Alan W

I updated it with some Google Street View images. Demon Internet and the epemag.demon.co.uk are now consigned to the history books!