Won't download email

K

K.D.

Hi,

I have had Entourage for a couple of years and it has recently decided
that it doesn't recognize that I am hooked up to the internet and won't
download email. I get the following message:

Entourage cannot connect to the server. Verify that your computer is
connected to the network.

My Mac is always connected to the internet via a cable connection. I
have checked my preferences and all settings I can think of. Does
anyone here have any recommendation as to how to fix this annoying
problem?

Thank you!
 
A

Allen Watson

Hi,

I have had Entourage for a couple of years and it has recently decided
that it doesn't recognize that I am hooked up to the internet and won't
download email. I get the following message:

Entourage cannot connect to the server. Verify that your computer is
connected to the network.

My Mac is always connected to the internet via a cable connection. I
have checked my preferences and all settings I can think of. Does
anyone here have any recommendation as to how to fix this annoying
problem?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
This may not be your problem, but... When I have seen this error occur, it
usually indicates some real problem with my internet connection. Usually
that is resolved, for me, by powering off my cable modem and router, waiting
2 minutes, and powering them back on again.

Is your problem a constant problem? You just can't receive mail in Entourage
at all? I see you sent via googlegroups, so obviously you were online for
that. If Entourage was not working at that time, it must be something in
Entourage. The most logical candidate would be the mail server address in
your accounts...
 
A

Allen Watson

Hi,

I have had Entourage for a couple of years and it has recently decided
that it doesn't recognize that I am hooked up to the internet and won't
download email. I get the following message:

Entourage cannot connect to the server. Verify that your computer is
connected to the network.

My Mac is always connected to the internet via a cable connection. I
have checked my preferences and all settings I can think of. Does
anyone here have any recommendation as to how to fix this annoying
problem?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
This may not be your problem, but... When I have seen this error occur, it
usually indicates some real problem with my internet connection. Usually
that is resolved, for me, by powering off my cable modem and router, waiting
2 minutes, and powering them back on again.

Is your problem a constant problem? You just can't receive mail in Entourage
at all? I see you sent via googlegroups, so obviously you were online for
that. If Entourage was not working at that time, it must be something in
Entourage. The most logical candidate would be the mail server address in
your accounts...
 
K

K.D.

This may not be your problem, but... When I have seen this error occur, it
usually indicates some real problem with my internet connection. Usually
that is resolved, for me, by powering off my cable modem and router, waiting
2 minutes, and powering them back on again.

Is your problem a constant problem? You just can't receive mail in Entourage
at all? I see you sent via googlegroups, so obviously you were online for
that. If Entourage was not working at that time, it must be something in
Entourage. The most logical candidate would be the mail server address in
your accounts...
Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice. I tried it and still have the same problem.
I have two Macs and both are being affected so I doubt it is a software
problem. Strangely my internet connection isn't affected. Any other
ideas?
 
D

Diane Ross

Check for a bad message. Go to Options on that Account and select Allow
Online Access. You will see an icon at the bottom of your folders. Click on
this and find the offending message and delete. Be sure that you turn off
the "preview" pane when looking at your online message LIST. If you are
unable to use Online Access, try accessing your mail account through your
ISP/organization¹s web based interface, or through a web-based POP retrieval
system like Mail2Web.

The "bad" message is usually one of the oldest messages. I run into this
occasionally where Apple mail will download the message and Entourage balks.
No clue as to what happens.

If you run tcpflow, you might be able to pinpoint the message where download
stalls.

Download the Mac OS X versions here.
tcpflow-0.21.pkg.tar.gz (Mac OS X 10.3.x / Panther)
tcpflow-0.20-jaguar.pkg.tar.gz (Mac OS 10.2 / Jaguar)

When you install, you do not see an application.

To run the test for email, quit all other apps that might be connecting to
the internet like your browser, ftp client.

Copy/paste in this command in the Terminal:

sudo /usr/local/bin/tcpflow -i en0 -c


Now try to download your email and watch the traffic in the window of the
Terminal. You should see what is failing.

Once you clean up your cache of email on the server, hopefully you'll be
back to normal.

--
Diane Ross, Microsoft Mac MVP
Entourage Help Page
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/>
The Entourage Blog lists the EHP as one of the top five Microsoft Entourage
resources.
<http://blogs.msdn.com/entourage/>
 
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