outlook express problems

Question

Four weeks ago I bought a Inspiron 9300 with Win XP (Media Centre 2005) and have a problem with Outlook Express. I have 4 accounts, 3 with one ISP and 1 with a different ISP. Last week when I tried to set up all the accounts and connect to the internet, all of them work, if I close Outlook Express and then re-open it, all the accounts work. However, if I switch off the computer and restart it, then open Outlook Express, 3 things can happen,

1. 1 or more accounts will work normally,

2. some or more accounts will appear to connect and tell me there are no emails ( if I use webmail I can see that there are emails in these accounts waiting to be downloaded), and

3. a box will open asking to reinsert passwords, if I do this it will either do no 2 again or repeatedly ask for passwords,

when I contacted Dell Tech Support they told me they only deal with Hardware issues and gave me another phone number for which I needed a credit card to pay for the service, as the computer was only 3 weeks old at this stage, I rang Tech Support again to speak to someone different but got the same reply.

I tried the paid-up number anyway and the guy I spoke to was very helpful but transferred me to another phone number, this section was busy and said they would ring back, needless to say they didn’t.

To my surprise the second guy I spoke to in Tech Support phoned me later to see how I got on, he said he would send me some discs that may solve the problem. I ran SFC and this found some files that needed changing but kept prompting me to insert Windows Professional XP CD No 2, I don’t have this, I was sent a DVD with Windows on. I tried it anyway and something seemed to happen as a new screen appeared on start up saying please wait with some timing marks moving, however if I run SFC again the same thing happens and the problem continues.

I have noticed that if I go Outlook Express/tools/accounts/properties/servers my servers keep changing from pop.ntlworld.com and mail.tesco.net to 270.0.0.1, on my old computer with the same setup this does not change and works fine.

Sorry this is so long but am getting a bit fed up with this as the computer is only a month old and can’t seem to get much help from DELL.

joe53 · Answer

Hi: Check your Anti-virus, firewall, and anti-spyware programs and disable any email scanning or anti-spam options found. They can cause this problem, and are unnecessary.

ken and the dog · Answer

Thanks for that, computer came with McAfee pre-installed and I have disabled Spam Filter from the begining, I would have thought it was dangerous to disable email scanning ???

joe53 · Answer

@ken and the dog wrote:
Thanks for that, computer came with McAfee pre-installed and I have disabled Spam Filter from the begining, I would have thought it was dangerous to disable email scanning ???

No, you are still protected. See this: http://www.eudora.com/techsupport/kb/2720hq.html

ken and the dog · Answer

joe53, many thanks for info, is it safe to assume that because it works with eudora it will work with Outlook Express, thanks again for taking the time to help     ken and the dog

ken and the dog · Answer

joe53, many,many thanks, read the link again but I was unable to find an option in Add/Remove Progs just to delete Spam Filter, had to do all of McAfee or none,  I checked the spam settings and remove all 4 email accounts from it and left it disabled, I left the Scan email option set to scan emails and sent some test messages and all worked OK. Rebooted computer and sent some more test emails and again it worked fine, believe with your help the problem has been sorted, again many thanks. Ken and the dog.

joe53 · Answer

Glad you sorted it out, and thanks for the feedback.   As you discovered, the way to disable spam filters (and email scanners) is from within the parent program, not by deletion from Add/remove Programs.

Windows General

outlook express problems

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