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Old 08-02-2008, 09:23 PM
 
3,724 posts, read 9,282,038 times
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I stopped getting email 7/31. Normally I get from 150-500/day, so I called AT&T to find out what was going on. First, they said there were 'iissues' with their email servers. Next, they said I had to re-create my account - which I did, about 6 or 7 times. Then they said - finally - there was nothing wrong at their end, I'd have to use the webmail site, there was something corrupted in my OE. Well, I don't LIKE using the webmail, I want my OE to work. For one thing, that's where all my email addys are, in the address book. Oh, and they also gave me an 800# to call Microsoft, but the number is non-existent.

Is there any way to fix it, short of buying a whole new Office Swuite? I don't like/use MSWord, or any of the other stuff they include. I just want a functional OE - the version I have is 6.0, and I wouldn't mind having a slightly later one, but not if it was going to wipe out all my addresses. I've checked every place I can think of, and it's not a separate program, it's bundled with the various Office whatsits. And I certainly don't want to pay that kind of price for just OE.
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Old 08-03-2008, 01:18 AM
 
522 posts, read 1,673,401 times
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First of all -- calm down. Maybe it's the way I read your post, but your frustration is palpable.

Next -- IF your problem is with Outlook Express, you cannot buy a new version per se. Outlook Express is NOT a part of Microsoft's Office Suite. Outlook is; Outlook Express is part of your Microsoft Windows operating system.

Now, let's be logical. Outlook Express will not "break" out of the blue. If indeed, it's "broken" on your system, then something must have changed on that system. What changed between receipt of the last mail and the next time you tried to receive mail on that sytem?

I assume you have anti-virus software. Is it up-to-date? Are regular and live scans preformed? Can you be absolutely sure it's not a virus issue?

If you do see all your mail on your provider's web-based mail app, then you know that your mail is coming into your account.

Since you have MS Office, depending upon the version/level, you may have Outlook. If so, set up your email account within Outlook. See if your email starts to come in. If it does and if you want to continue to use Outlook, you can import your address book from Outlook Express into Outlook.

These are just some ideas. There are more steps to take, but I don't want to write a book at this moment without knowing more about your system and your technical knowledge. Others here will post suggestions, I'm sure.
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Old 08-03-2008, 08:55 AM
 
Location: West Virginia
16,583 posts, read 15,502,808 times
Reputation: 10819
There certainly are many issues with Outlook Express, but your description does not show us anything abnormal. Assuming you can connect to the Internet, you should check to make sure OE shares the connection with Internet Explorer. That's in Tools|Options|Connection. Also make sure your account is set to be included when you receive or syncronize mail. That's in Tools|Accounts|Properties.

Another popular option is to download Thunderbird and use it as your email client. It is the mail program from the people that made Firefox.

A more drastic approach is to export all your messages and addresses, noting all your account settings. Then remove Outlook Express and reinstall it. This is done in the Control Panel|Add/Remove Programs|Add/Remove Windows Components. Uncheck Outlook Express, follow that process through. A restart would be a good idea then. Next go back to Add/Remove Windows components and recheck it to reinstall Outlook Express.

It's possible that using the Windows CD, you could repair Windows to fix Outlook Express, but I have never seen Outlook Express crash where the program wouldn't even start, so that is probably not what you need to do.

Does Outlook Express generate any error messages? When messages are there on the server but can't be downloaded, it is normal to see a message like "Can't connect to Server," or "Server can't Authenticate," etc.
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Old 08-03-2008, 10:14 AM
 
3,724 posts, read 9,282,038 times
Reputation: 1427
Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nancy-NJ-NY-ME? View Post
First of all -- calm down. Maybe it's the way I read your post, but your frustration is palpable.

Next -- IF your problem is with Outlook Express, you cannot buy a new version per se. Outlook Express is NOT a part of Microsoft's Office Suite. Outlook is; Outlook Express is part of your Microsoft Windows operating system.
I wouldn't describe it as frustration - what I'd like to call it would get me banned!

I have XP Home edition, upgraded from 98SE about a year ago.

Quote:
Now, let's be logical. Outlook Express will not "break" out of the blue. If indeed, it's "broken" on your system, then something must have changed on that system. What changed between receipt of the last mail and the next time you tried to receive mail on that sytem?
Absolutely nothing. I turned it off - properly - and the next time I turned it on - no email. Zip, nada, zilch. AT&T's tech support told me there were issues with their email servers, and there were outages in many places, including where I live.

Quote:
I assume you have anti-virus software. Is it up-to-date? Are regular and live scans preformed? Can you be absolutely sure it's not a virus issue?

If you do see all your mail on your provider's web-based mail app, then you know that your mail is coming into your account.
I have AVG. I used to have ZoneAlarm, but it caused so many problems with Microsoft's updates I first had to disable it, then uninstall it, at the direction of Microsoft's tech support. But that was 2 weeks before the no-email thing started.

Quote:
Since you have MS Office, depending upon the version/level, you may have Outlook. If so, set up your email account within Outlook. See if your email starts to come in. If it does and if you want to continue to use Outlook, you can import your address book from Outlook Express into Outlook.
I don't have Office in any way, shape, or form. I don't like it, don't/won't use it.

Quote:
These are just some ideas. There are more steps to take, but I don't want to write a book at this moment without knowing more about your system and your technical knowledge. Others here will post suggestions, I'm sure.
Feel free to write a book! As long as it helps, anyway.
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Old 08-03-2008, 10:40 AM
 
3,724 posts, read 9,282,038 times
Reputation: 1427
Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by mensaguy View Post
There certainly are many issues with Outlook Express, but your description does not show us anything abnormal. Assuming you can connect to the Internet, you should check to make sure OE shares the connection with Internet Explorer. That's in Tools|Options|Connection. Also make sure your account is set to be included when you receive or syncronize mail. That's in Tools|Accounts|Properties.
IE connects just fine, OE says it shares the connection with IE.

Quote:
Another popular option is to download Thunderbird and use it as your email client. It is the mail program from the people that made Firefox.
Would Thunderbird work with IE? I can't use Firefox, something about the colors are off just enough to give me major headaches. I have vision problems enough as it is, I don't want to make them worse.

Quote:
A more drastic approach is to export all your messages and addresses, noting all your account settings. Then remove Outlook Express and reinstall it. This is done in the Control Panel|Add/Remove Programs|Add/Remove Windows Components. Uncheck Outlook Express, follow that process through. A restart would be a good idea then. Next go back to Add/Remove Windows components and recheck it to reinstall Outlook Express.

It's possible that using the Windows CD, you could repair Windows to fix Outlook Express, but I have never seen Outlook Express crash where the program wouldn't even start, so that is probably not what you need to do.
It hasn't crashed, it starts just fine. It just doesn't DO anything, once it's up. Exporting all the emails would be very drastic indeed - I have thousands of them, and one of the techs who walked me through the 're-building' of my email account said I had too many and needed to dump some - so I dumped around 8,500 of them. I use them as an ongoing diary, it's easier than copying and pasting them into a WP document.

Quote:
Does Outlook Express generate any error messages? When messages are there on the server but can't be downloaded, it is normal to see a message like "Can't connect to Server," or "Server can't Authenticate," etc.
The only error message I get is something about not being able to authenticate the certificate for the email server.

I don't have an actual Windows CD any more. I used to, but it was a casualty of one of many moves. Now all I have is the XP Home Ed upgrade. And I am notorious among every tech I've ever known for having weird problems - the last one, the one who built this system for me, said he always enjoyed working on my machine, he always learned something new, as in how to fix something he'd never heard of going wrong before.
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Old 08-03-2008, 11:08 AM
 
Location: West Virginia
16,583 posts, read 15,502,808 times
Reputation: 10819
Thunderbird and Firefox are two separate programs.

Check IE Tools|Accounts|{your account}|Properties|Security. Most people need nothing in the first two boxes. The third on mine says 3DES.

However, it sounds like you have a check in the box ...{your account}|Properties|Servers that says Log On Using Secure Password Authentication.
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Old 08-03-2008, 11:47 AM
 
3,724 posts, read 9,282,038 times
Reputation: 1427
Quote:
Originally Posted by mensaguy View Post
Thunderbird and Firefox are two separate programs.

Check IE Tools|Accounts|{your account}|Properties|Security. Most people need nothing in the first two boxes. The third on mine says 3DES.

However, it sounds like you have a check in the box ...{your account}|Properties|Servers that says Log On Using Secure Password Authentication.
Nope, no box checked.
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Old 08-03-2008, 12:06 PM
 
Location: West Virginia
16,583 posts, read 15,502,808 times
Reputation: 10819
There's another thing I just thought of that can apply to any mail program. Sometimes a problem occurs with a single message on your server, causing your mail client to fail to download it and then stop downloading messages at all. You can fix it by logging into the web mail server and deleting some of the messages there. Try going back to the time the problem started and delete some messages from the server. I've seen this happen with very large messages, but I would assume it could happen with anything.
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Old 08-03-2008, 01:26 PM
 
3,724 posts, read 9,282,038 times
Reputation: 1427
Quote:
Originally Posted by mensaguy View Post
There's another thing I just thought of that can apply to any mail program. Sometimes a problem occurs with a single message on your server, causing your mail client to fail to download it and then stop downloading messages at all. You can fix it by logging into the web mail server and deleting some of the messages there. Try going back to the time the problem started and delete some messages from the server. I've seen this happen with very large messages, but I would assume it could happen with anything.
My computer isn't - or wasn't - set up to leave messages on the server. Once they downloaded they were gone. Until the last go-round with still another tech support person who said to check the box to save them, so I could read them as webmail. Then whatever I want to keep, I have to copy and paste, before I delete it - then, supposedly, it's gone. I don't generally get large messages, with the rare exception of photos, which are definitely the ones I want to keep - but I have been saving the photos and printing them, just in case. That's the only way I get some pix, like the ones of my daughter's wedding, and I really don't want to lose those!
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Old 08-03-2008, 04:08 PM
 
28,803 posts, read 47,480,102 times
Reputation: 37905
Quote:
Originally Posted by mensaguy View Post
Thunderbird and Firefox are two separate programs.

Check IE Tools|Accounts|{your account}|Properties|Security. Most people need nothing in the first two boxes. The third on mine says 3DES.

However, it sounds like you have a check in the box ...{your account}|Properties|Servers that says Log On Using Secure Password Authentication.
How about on the Server tab? Just below your password box are two boxes that can have a check in them. Test OE with both empty or one empty and one checked, then flip the empty/checked status. I don't think you ever need both checked.

BTW the Microsoft tech that had you unload ZoneAlarm because it was causing problems was a bald-faced liar. The culprit was a security update download from Microsoft that caused ZA to block Internet Access. If you download the latest ZA version it will work, ZA found the problem and fixed it. They knew it would take MS a year to get around to it so they did it.

Try unloading AVG and check your email also. I have had problems at client sites with AVG email scanning taking forever to let mail through. To the point that OE gives up and times out. I think you can turn off just the email scan in the program, but the interface keeps changing so I can't tell you where for sure. Look through AVG and you'll find it.
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