computer first aid

Emails Problems & Solutions

Some commonly experienced email problems and their solutions:

1. Problem:

Sometimes, large or corrupt emails or emails prevent you from downloading newer email. Until you download every email from the server into the Inbox on your computer, the mail on the server is not deleted and you repeatedly receive all mail on each new attempt.

Solution:

Most ISP's have a Webmail facility on the their Home Page which allows you to log in to your account and read email.

However, before you log in to delete a currently downloading email you should close your Mail Program and stop any current download.
To do this, it may be necessary to use Ctrl-Alt-Delete, then End Program.

If this doesn't succeed, you should disconnect from the internet and reboot your computer. To do this -
Click | Start |Turn off | Restart.

Reconnect to the internet - WITHOUT opening your Mail Program, then log on to Webmail at your ISP's website. Scan down the list of mail until you locate the offending email.
(HINT: it will probably be the next one in the queue after those you have already received

Delete this along with any mail you know has already been downloaded, then re-open your Mail Program and click Send/Receive to download any remaining emai to your computer's Inbox.

2. Problem:

Outlook Express disconnects the modem as soon as you download or send email.

Solution:

Click on Tools| Options| Connection
Remove the tick in the box "Hang up after sending and receiving"

3. Problem:

Outlook Express disconnects the modem when you attempt to download email.

Solution:

This can occur when there are multiple email accounts, if a specific ISP is nominated for one or the other. To check whether this is causing your problem:
Click on Tools| Accounts| MAIL Tab (at top)
Highlight the name of your email account

Cllick PROPERTIES (on right) | CONNECTION Tab (at top)
Remove the tick from the "Always connect to this account using" box.

4. Problem:

Error 550 - Relaying denied.

Solution:

This error message is coming from the mail server, not from Outlook Express itself. It means that the SMTP (outgoing) mail server did not recognise you as an authorised user and so rejected your message. Most ISPs configure their SMTP servers to recognise only those whose IP address is on the accepted list.

So if you are using a different ISP to connect to the internet than the ISP your email account is with, the solution is to change the SMTP server for that mail account under Tools| Accounts| <account name> Properties| Servers to whatever is required by the outgoing ISP.

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