why can't I receive emails

M

Maddison

We have been experiencing problems now for over a week, we can send emails
but not receive also the few that are getting through (example if a do a
test from
a friends computer to our email address it can take around 7 hours to arrive
or even days. I tried uninstalling our virus software ( just in case that
was the problem ) but it has not made any difference.
Can anyone please advise ( unfortunately I am not at expert when it comes to
computers ) I only know the basics.
Any suggestions please.
 
J

Joe Grover

Have you contacted your mail provider?

The first thing I'd check is the message headers of one of the emails that
you received hours/days after it was sent. From that you can determine
where the delay occurred (each "hop" the message takes will have a time and
date stamp when the message was processed. If you look at the time the
message was accepted by your friend's email server is several hours before
it was received by your mail provider's server, then that particular email
was delayed by your friend's server. However, if you see that your mail
provider's server accepted the message from your friend's provider's server
only minutes afterward, then you'll want to contact your mail host and ask
them what's up (and provide the headers).

What if you send an email to yourself? Does it go right through?
 
M

Maddison

Thank you for replying to my query. Yes have been on to our mail provider
for help on numerous occasions. They are telling me that they have limited
support with Outlook and the few checks they asked me to do I had already
done.
As mentioned previously I am not the world greatest expert with computers
but my
son did a test and sent an email from his email address at 5.00 p.m. this
evening and we received it at 22.14p.m. I sent emails from my office today
to my husbands email address and we are still waiting for them. Obviously it
is concerning for us as this is my husbands business email address. We have
checked email settings etc.,
all looks o.k. We have now come to a stanstill so it looks like we will
have to take
our server to a computer expert to sort out.
Once again many thanks.
 
G

Gordon

Maddison said:
Thank you for replying to my query. Yes have been on to our mail provider
for help on numerous occasions. They are telling me that they have
limited
support with Outlook and the few checks they asked me to do I had already
done.
As mentioned previously I am not the world greatest expert with computers
but my
son did a test and sent an email from his email address at 5.00 p.m. this
evening and we received it at 22.14p.m. I sent emails from my office
today
to my husbands email address and we are still waiting for them. Obviously
it
is concerning for us as this is my husbands business email address. We
have
checked email settings etc.,
all looks o.k. We have now come to a stanstill so it looks like we will
have to take
our server to a computer expert to sort out.
Once again many thanks.
Click to expand...


Have you used the "Test Account" function within Outlook? That usually
throws up interesting error messages if there are any.
In Outlook do Tools-Account Settings, highlight the account and click on
Change. The Test Account Settings button is on the first page...
 
M

Maddison

Hello Gordon,
Just did the test and everything is o.k. we have been receiving a few
emails but some for definate are not getting through. A company sent us an
email 4 days ago and we still have not received. Today I sent an email to my
husbands email address that we have a problem with an did a copy to our son.
Our son received it in a matter of minutes and we are still waiting for it to
come through on my husbands. We have checked everything possible, we have
done all the tests that have been suggested, this is why we think it is best
to give it to a computer expert in the hope that he can find something.
 
G

Gordon

Maddison said:
Hello Gordon,
Just did the test and everything is o.k. we have been receiving a few
emails but some for definate are not getting through. A company sent us
an
email 4 days ago and we still have not received. Today I sent an email to
my
husbands email address that we have a problem with an did a copy to our
son.
Our son received it in a matter of minutes and we are still waiting for it
to
come through on my husbands. We have checked everything possible, we have
done all the tests that have been suggested, this is why we think it is
best
to give it to a computer expert in the hope that he can find something.
Click to expand...

It sounds to me as if the problem is with your ISP/Mail provider.
Try setting up a free hotmail or Yahoo account, and see if you get the same
problems.
 
M

Maddison

Gordon, thank you very much for your suggestions. I will give it a try and
let you know the outcome.
 
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