3 More Common E-Mail Problems And What To Do About Them As we continue to evolve into the world of e-mail that is partof our everyday life, sometimes little problems arise thatbother the user. Previously we talked about returned messagesand lost connections, both which can be aggravating, andsupplied solutions. But there are a few more problems that canaffect an e-mail user causing frustration and we will addressthese here, and again provide reasonable solutions to over comethem.
Problem 1 - You Cannot Send a Message
Even when there is not a connection problem, you may attempt tosend email, but find that it continues to remain in your outbox.
Solution
Typically this is a software problem, the result of otherwiseunapparent damage or corruption to one or more e-mail messages.To address this problem, first copy any unsent messages as text.Then save them on the computer's hard drive or a back-up storagemedium. After all messages have been saved, highlight all themessages in your outbox and click on "delete" or "clear". Whenclearing your outbox, start over. Just copy unsent messages fromthe text files, pass them into new e-mail messages and resend.
Problem 2 - The E-mail is Missing an Attachment or theAttachment Won't Open
An especially handy feature of e-mail is the ability to send andreceive attachments. Transmitting documents, photos or othersuch information can save time and money compared to the U.S.Mail or express delivery services. At the same time, attachmentscan be real headaches. A common frustration is to receive ane-mail message that refers to an attachment, but then findnothing is there.
Solutions
Often the best solution is to request that the sender try onceagain, since it is not unusual for the writer to refer to anattachment, but then forget to attach it. Even if this is notthe case, your request might prompt the sender to re-think theattachment's format before transmitting again. If the problemcontinues, consider asking the sender to paste the contentsinside an e-mail message and try again. This may disruptformatting, but can be an effective way to circumvent attachmentproblems.
If you see a message that the attachment has been deleted, itmay be that your anti-virus software has detected a virus, andyou're better off without it anyway. But if you find that allattachments are indiscriminately being deleted, check your mailproperties. If a box is checked that blocks all attachments,remove the check mark so that you can receive attachments. Ifyou then receive a message from an unknown person, or if themessage or attachment seems suspicious, delete the messagewithout opening the attachment.
A related problem is to see that an attachment has beentransmitted, but find that you are unable to open it. The causes(and thus the solutions) vary. In some cases, the problem isthat the software used by the sender does not match that of therecipient. As with a missing attachment, a simple fix is to askthe sender to copy and paste the contents of the attachmentwithin a follow up mail message. Even if formatting isdisrupted, you can still get the gist of the information. Youcan also use your own copying and pasting process to reformatthe contents, if that is important.
Another strategy is to save the document to your hard drive, andthen open the software program that was used initially to createit. Once this program is in use, your computer may be able torecognize what had been the attachment, and open it. If you donot have the appropriate software loaded on your computer, youmay be able to download it from the Internet; just follow the onscreen prompts to
proceed.
Problem 3 - You Have too Much Incoming Mail or Cannot DownloadWhat You Have
If you are receiving large volumes of e-mail, you may bevulnerable to several difficulties.
Solutions
Many Internet service providers place limits on the amount ofstorage provided to each user (although some have recentlyincreased storage limits). If a pre-set limit is reached(perhaps because you've gone too long without downloading youre-mail, or have been inundated by SPAM or virus induced flood ofmessages), additional messages will be bounced back to those whosent them.
Of course the direct approach is to download your mail and thenweed it out, but a smarter move may be to access your e-mailaccount via Web mail. That way you can see a listing of allmessages and quickly delete any that do not appear to be ofinterest. The end result is the same, but this step can save agreat deal of downloading time if you're using a dial up modem.It also adds an extra measure of virus protection even if youhave a broadband connection. Since you're deleting messages fromyour ISP's server before they ever have a chance to infect yourcomputer, it's like killing mosquitoes before they bite you -instead of afterwards.
If you do not have a Web mail account, it's easy to get one.Simply go to a provider such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) or Lycos(www.lycos.com) and register. You can also use a site such asmail2web (www.mail2web.com) or webmail4free.com without evenregistering. Go to the site and enter you e-mail address andpassword. You will see a listing of all incoming mail, which youcan read and then retain for downloading, or delete, as youchoose.
A similar challenge may be caused by unusually large message.Again, this problem is more common with dial-up modems, wherehefty messages may take an annoyingly long time to download. Inthe worst cases, you may find yourself unable to receive othermessages, because the connection with the server where yourmessages are stored is severed when a time limit has beenreached.
Use of Web mail can also do the trick here. Just log on to thethird-party site, peruse the list of messages in your inbox, andchoose the one that is the largest (most Web mail programsautomatically list the size of each message). If the messageseems of potential interest, open and read it, and then deleteit. Or if it is obviously spam or something in which you have nointerest, you can delete the message without even bothering toread it. Once you have removed the offending message, your otherincoming mail will no longer be blocked.
If you do not have Web mail, an option is to contact yourInternet Service Provider and ask for help. Once a customerservice representative deletes the offending message from theISP's server, you can then download all remaining messages.
Also keep in mind that retaining too much e-mail can be anorganizational problem, if not a technical one. Take time todelete e-mail that does not need to be saved for futurereference. Allowing too many messages to accumulate wastesstorage space and makes it more difficult to find importantmessages when you need to refer to them. For messages that meritretention, create a series of folders so that they can bereadily located, and so that your inbox will not become toofull.
About the author:
Marv Ko has many years of experience in business, marketing,security, writing, and varied hobbies. He is is the senioreditor of
www.upublish.info ... yoursource for Original ContentArticles. Authors wanted!
