|
| |
What to do when you don't
know what to do:
Call Accent on Computers! 203-625-7575.
February 8, 2008
Cleaning Out Your Mailbox
Dear Larry,
I use Windows Mail under Vista to receive my Optimum Online e-mail. Now it’s
constantly freezing up half-way through downloading my new mail. Any idea what’s
wrong with Windows Mail?
P. N.
Dear P. N.,
The problem isn’t with Windows Mail but with your e-mail; actually, one
particular e-mail message. The problem you describe can be caused by a message
that is either extremely large or is damaged in some way. In any case, it’s
causing a bottleneck and preventing the rest of your e-mail from being
downloaded properly. The solution is to try and identify the guilty e-mail and
delete it at the source via the web.
To do so, you first have to access your mailbox on the mail server itself. When
someone sends you an e-mail message, it gets delivered to your central mail
server first, in much the same way that snail mail is initially dropped off at
your local Post Office. So if your e-mail address is myname@optonline.net, your
e-mail is received and deposited in your mailbox, which resides on an Optimum
Online mail server somewhere.
Downloading your e-mail via Windows Mail, Outlook Express, or a similar program
is like reaching your hand into your box at the Post Office and pulling out the
mail. Unfortunately, in your case, someone has sent you an e-mail in the form of
a mousetrap. Every time you reach into that box to receive your mail, your
fingers get snapped. The solution therefore is not to reach in blindly, but
rather to examine each piece of mail one by one. When you locate the mousetrap,
you’ll be able to carefully remove it, and once again, make your mailbox safe
for your hand!
Accessing your Optimum Online mailbox on the web is easy. You simply log on at
www.optonline.net. If you have an e-mail
account with a different company, you’ll have to speak with your particular
vendor to see how to access it over the web. Alternatively, you can use a
service like mail2web; see
http://www.accentoncomputers.com/logon/2006/20060915.htm for more
information.
Once you’re examining your mailbox over the web, look for a particular e-mail
message that’s significantly larger than the others. Read it, save it if
necessary, and then delete it from your mailbox. Next, return to Windows Mail
(or whatever e-mail program you might be using such as Outlook Express or
Microsoft Outlook) and try downloading your mail again. Repeat as necessary
until you’ve identified and deleted the culprit and can successfully receive
your e-mail. If yours is an especially difficult case, you may end up having to
empty your entire mailbox completely before you can get this working again.
This is Larry Schneider, logging off.
|
