Email Probs

Hello, wonder if any help can be given to a friend who has asked this question? OK, on the whole I like vista, but the errors I keep getting when using outlook for emails is driving me mad. Firstly, every time I close outlook and then reopen it I have to enter the passwords, every time I select remember this password but it doesnt. Secondly every so often I get error messages when trying to send emails, sometimes errors logging on, sometimes errors about smpt, I keep checking all the email properties and they look ok, so unsent mail sits in my outbox, and then after a while it just manages to send it without me altering anything. Any ideas please???

Hi jamboray, Sorry to hear about your friend's computer problem. Although Vista has been out for some time now, we still find that the majority of machines that come in for repair are running XP and so our experience with fixing Vista is still at an early stage! Having said that there are some steps you can recommend that should help narrow down the problem and indicate the way forward for your friend. 1 The fact that eventually the emails get sent indicates that although there may be a configuration error in the computers email/Internet set up it can only be minor, so the first thing to do is to check with the ISP to see if all the configurations are correctly applied on your friends machine. 2 If the ISP confirms that the settings are Ok then it may be a problem with the ISP's servers, ask them to check…Orange/Wanadoo/Freeserve and Tiscali have been having major problems with their servers in the past few months and if the problem is at their end there is little that you can do apart from use another service! 3 Ask your friend to try and access his email using webmail as if he can, this will provide us with important clues, 4 See if he can set up a hotmail account (a free one will be fine) as if he can and it functions properly in both send and receive mode this will help us with the next step. 5 Finally, ask your friend to configure Outlook Express as his email client and see how he goes ( he can always configure it to leave messages on the server if he wants to use Microsoft Outlook as his permanent, default email client. Post back and let us know how he goes and the individual results of the above Regards paws

Hi jamboray,
Sorry to hear about your friend's computer problem.
Although Vista has been out for some time now, we still find that the majority of machines that come in for repair are running XP and so our experience with fixing Vista is still at an early stage!

Having said that there are some steps you can recommend that should help narrow down the problem and indicate the way forward for your friend.

1 The fact that eventually the emails get sent indicates that although there may be a configuration error in the computers email/Internet set up it can only be minor, so the first thing to do is to check with the ISP to see if all the configurations are correctly applied on your friends machine.

2 If the ISP confirms that the settings are Ok then it may be a problem with the ISP's servers, ask them to check…Orange/Wanadoo/Freeserve and Tiscali have been having major problems with their servers in the past few months and if the problem is at their end there is little that you can do apart from use another service!

3 Ask your friend to try and access his email using webmail as if he can, this will provide us with important clues,

4 See if he can set up a hotmail account (a free one will be fine) as if he can and it functions properly in both send and receive mode this will help us with the next step.

5 Finally, ask your friend to configure Outlook Express as his email client and see how he goes ( he can always configure it to leave messages on the server if he wants to use Microsoft Outlook as his permanent, default email client.

Post back and let us know how he goes and the individual results of the above
Regards
paws

Update

I have done all the above steps (sort of) now. Point 1 - all confirmed correct. Point 2 - Im with BT they deny having any problems.
Point 3 - webmail? is this like windows mail, if so then its working correctly. Point 4 - not a hotmail account but I have a free yahoo one and that works fine (but I only access that online rather than with outlook, does that matter? Point 5 - now using microsoft webmail, which I believe is the new outlook express, and it works fine. I am happy to use it but hate the thought that outlook has beat me!!!!

Hi Jamboray, Well done on checking the points out, The fact that all other email works just fine with the exception of when he uses Microsoft Outlook points to 2 possible areas: 1 Microsoft Outlook is incorrectly configured or 2 Microsoft Outlook has some damaged/missing files leading to the problem. so the next steps are clear: 1 Check Microsoft Outlook configuration/settings if these are found to be 100% OK (reconfigure anyway) then 2 Uninstall Microsoft Outlook, do a Microsoft Installer Clean up Tool, clean up, followed by a disc clean up then a reboot and then a fresh reinstall of Microsoft Outlook. Good luck with this and I hope you get it fixed for your friend OK Regards paws