Receiving mail stops working after awhile on Outlook

  • Thread starter Thread starter KC-Pins
  • Start date Start date
K

KC-Pins

I need to expert help here. Something on my PC gets flaky after being on and
working for awhile, I will stop receiving emails on certain accounts, but
it's like it's cached info or something because other accounts will work
fine. All my accounts are set up under Outlook, with the only differences
being the names. In other words, I have six emails set up under my
Mindspring account, so all are really duplicates as far as SMTP and POP
information. Eventually within a 12-48 hour period, one account out of the 6
will not receive messages any more, even though it will send just fine!! The
error I get is the notoriously vague "unable to connect to the server.
(Account: 'Todd',POP3 server: pop.mindspring.com, Error number 0x800ccc0e)".
If I reboot and/or reload Outlook, it's back to working. I'll
all-of-a-sudden receive the 20 or so emails I missed overnight, then it will
be working fine until it stops again. USUALLY it's my main email account,
but not always.

Other strangeness I've had to live with:

In Outlook Express, Upon initial startup, it ALWAYS tells me I'm offline,
and asks if I want to work offline or Try again. This is AFTER I sit there
and watch it read headers.

When exiting Outlook, it tells me Outlook.exe has generated errors and will
be closed by Windows and a report is being generated (what error? Where's
the log?

My setup is a simple LAN with Ethernet, a LinkSYS router, cable modem, and
this has been going on for awhile, but sure seems worse in the past week.

Any help appreciated. Please post the response here for future reference but
also copy me in email

Todd
 
Comments will be inline to your post...

KC-Pins said:
I need to expert help here. Something on my PC gets flaky after being on and
working for awhile, I will stop receiving emails on certain accounts, but
it's like it's cached info or something because other accounts will work
fine. All my accounts are set up under Outlook, with the only differences
being the names. In other words, I have six emails set up under my
Mindspring account, so all are really duplicates as far as SMTP and POP
information. Eventually within a 12-48 hour period, one account out of the 6
will not receive messages any more, even though it will send just fine!! The
error I get is the notoriously vague "unable to connect to the server.
(Account: 'Todd',POP3 server: pop.mindspring.com, Error number 0x800ccc0e)".
If I reboot and/or reload Outlook, it's back to working. I'll
all-of-a-sudden receive the 20 or so emails I missed overnight, then it will
be working fine until it stops again. USUALLY it's my main email account,
but not always.

Other strangeness I've had to live with:

In Outlook Express, Upon initial startup, it ALWAYS tells me I'm offline,
and asks if I want to work offline or Try again. This is AFTER I sit there
and watch it read headers.

When exiting Outlook, it tells me Outlook.exe has generated errors and will
be closed by Windows and a report is being generated (what error? Where's
the log?
Click to expand...

You are looking for the dr. watson log. Since you didn't specify what
operating system, you might find it under \documents and settings\all
users\documents if running windows 2000. Under Windows XP, you would find
it at \documents and settings\all users\application data\microsoft\dr
watson.

My setup is a simple LAN with Ethernet, a LinkSYS router, cable modem, and
this has been going on for awhile, but sure seems worse in the past week.
Click to expand...

Seems worse in the last week could be because of the latest worm outbreaks
(blaster and sobig.f), but here are some things to watch for.

1) Do you have an antivirus package installed (e.g. Norton AV, Trend's
PC-cillian) that scans POP3 mail as it is downloaded? If yes, try disabling
it temporarily to see if it helps. (There is a known race condition in the
latest version of Outlook.)

2) Linksys routers are notorious for corrupting data flow and/or not
reporting back to the PC to adjust packet sizes. (More or less the PC can't
detect what is known as black hole routers.) You could try adjusting your
MAXMTU to something smaller than 1500. (Good values are 1492 and 1460).
 
Back
Top