Outlook Express - The Connection To The Server Has Failed

Hello there, I have windows xp and I use outlook express for email. just recently it stopped working properly. My husband and I have one profile each set up and whoever looks at their email first gets connected to the server. If the other profile tries to get their email next it return this error message: The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'mail.optonline.net', Server: 'mail.optonline.net', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10061, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E and I will need to reboot the computer and get my email first. anyone else have this problem? Thanks

Hi,
Sorry to hear of the problems with your email.
There could be a number of reasons for this so its a good idea to write down on paper each step you have taken, and the results achieved. Create an audit/undo trail)

Some folks have different profiles set up and others have different identities in OE and its important to know how these work. (so check out the help files)
OE uses (usually) the IE settings for Internet access so check that both are set to the same configuration details.

Visit your ISP's website and download the configuration settings for OE (print them out if necessary )and then check each individual one of your settings (port numbers and ssl authentication must be exactly right so check and double check against your ISP's recommended settings.

If you are very careful it can be helpful to retype in your configuration settings even though they look the same, (user names and passwords are particularly prone to damage/corruption.)

If you are still having problems despite checking everything then before contacting your ISP helpdesk for a talkthrough with a helpdesk tech you could try this:

Open a command prompt
(Click on Start then Run then type in cmd )
On the screen which opens, type in:
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt (note the spaces)
Press the enter Key
type
exit
(to clear the command prompt window.)
If still no joy then its time to phone the ISP
Regards
paws

Thanks Paws, I tried everything you suggested. I have contacted my ISP provider three times and each time they're rebooted my modem, blah, blah, blah and still nothing. I even tried downloading a new email software, but I'm getting the same errors. Not sure what to do next. Thanks for your help. Nicole

Hi, One final check that you can do please. See if you can access your email by webmail. I.E. use your web browser to visit your ISP site, log on to email with user name and password and see if you can both log on and collect mail this way. Send a few test messages, if this works OK (as I suspect it will) then the fault is with your Outlook Express identities/User profiles/conflict between OE and IE settings. After your ISP Help Tech had you reboot your router and presumably perform other configuration checks, how was it left with them? what was their recommendation for the next step? and have you implemented this? You may decide that ithe problem is worth living with, or you may be prepared to go to some trouble to fix it, Before you do anything with this however and especially with user profiles, please heed the following warning. To be on the safe side I strongly recommend that you check that your back up/archive/copy of all your important data, files, settings, work, emails, address book, etc is 100% up to date accurate and reproducible, (even if your back up is even only a day or so out of date, its worth updating it now.) Also don't forget to check that you have all your application Installation CD's to hand together with the product keys (including those for Windows itself) you may not want to do a reinstallation of Windows to cure this fault but it is as well to be prepared for all eventualities. Regards paws