For some reason, I can't seem to receive all my emails - I've
increased the timeout but the "receive status" stops at 20%.
However, I have got some emails! I'm using Outlook 2002 and Windows
XP. Any help gratefully accepted!
"Phillipa Bloom" said in
If you have anti-virus software that scans incoming e-mails, try disabling
its e-mail scan function or disabling the anti-virus software itself to see
if the problem goes away. Norton's has an option to prevent timeouts for
e-mail so make sure it is enabled.
Could be you have a corrupted e-mail in your mailbox that the POP3 server
screws up on when trying to deliver it. If your mailbox has a webmail
interface, use your browser to read your e-mails, delete them, and then
check if subsequent e-mails get retrieved okay by Outlook.
Ping your mail server to check if there are lots of dropped packets or very
long delays:
ping -n 100 <mailserver>
I show a ping of 100 times so you can get a decent average of delay and
number of lost packets. The default of 4 pings isn't sufficient to tell you
if there are problems. If there are lots of dropped packets, you'll need to
talk to your ISP.
If you use a cable modem, try unplugging its power cord (don't just use the
Power button), wait one minute, then plug it back it, let it initialize, and
test again. If you use dial-up, could be you have a very noisy telephone
line. You can call the telco to have them run a test on the line but that
only checks for voice quality, not for data quality. If you make a call toa
friend but both you and your friend remain absolutely silent, do you hear
any crosstalk (clicking noises, faint bits of conversations, hiss, humm)?
If you are using DSL, have your telco run a check of the effective distance
between you and their trunk station. Could be you are at the limit or
outside the limit. The check checks the effective distance, not the true
distance. Lots of connections, bad solder joints, high-resistive wiring,
and the fact that the line can loop out further before it comes back to you
can make the effective distance longer than the true distance which will
always be longer than the straight line distance. The farther out you are
on a DSL line, the worse the line quality and the lower the effective
bandwidth. Although you might be just within their max reach, you really
don't want to be near their max reach.
See if you can telnet into your mail server on its default port 110:
telnet <mailserver> 110
Trying to use telnet to manage your e-mail isn't for the faint of heart. I
mention this not to try using telnet to get your e-mails but just to check
that you can manage to make an okay connect to the mail server. Pinging
only tells you that the host is up on which the mail server program is
supposed to be running. Telnetting into the mail server program will tell
you if the mail server program is actually running and responsive. All you
want to see is that you can make a connection to the mail server.