[Email] I can't get my email!?

Can't get your email? There are several different causes of why you wouldn't be able to get your email. If you follow along, you may just be able to fix your own problems!

The first question you should ask yourself is "Am I able to get web pages?" Now, if you don't understand the question I'll elaborate: "Am I able to open up my browser (like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.) and get to one of my favorites/bookmarks?"

If you know what a browser is and your answer to this question is "No" then STOP! Your troubleshooting is going into the wrong direction. The problem you are having is a connection issue and NOT a problem with your email.

If you do not know what a browser is or where yours is located, you can do one of the following:

A) For Windows machines, You can go to the Start Menu and click on Run ("Search" in Microsoft Vista). Type "http://www.google.com" in the textbox. When you click "Ok" it should try and pull up your default web browser and go to google.com.

B) For Windows XP & Vista, look in your start menu and look at the top left of the menu for "Internet Explorer" Or "Firefox". On Macs, you can just look down at your doc bar. Safari should be the nice little icon there that looks like a nautical compass.

Once you have established that you can get web pages (after all, if you're reading this and the computer that you're having email issues is the one you are currently using, then you know your connection works! :) ), you can then focus on the alternate source of the problem (i.e. NOT your connection, right? So it must be the email program, email settings or the email server). It is important to NOT immediately assume that the email service is broken. Server hardware and software typically is much, much more stable than your desktop computer. This doesn't mean that it's definitely NOT the email server; however, it's more likely that it's something on your computer that is causing the issue.

There are a few things locally on the computer that can cause the issue. The first and foremost is anti-virus software. This used to be the last thing to check before calling your service provider; however, there are some oddities with the way that the real-time protection for email works with these applications in which they sometimes just stop working. The only consistency that I've been able to come up with is if the software patches itself and then "breaks" the email scanner. The fastest solution to this would be to disable the email scanning. It is important to remember to keep the real-time protection enabled to ensure that you are protected from opening up viruses.

If the email is still not working at this point we'll assume that it may be a settings issue (some AV email scanning software changes email settings when you enable email scanning, this can sometimes cause some issues of course). Depending on the email software you are using, you will need to take different steps to check these settings. If you'd like specifics for a piece of software, send in a question regarding "How to check settings for XXXX email application" and we'll do a whole blog about it if I know the directions or if I can find directions on how to do just that (some applications such as Pegasus are more difficult to find directions on how to get around the application, though Pegasus DOES have documentation out there! :) ). After verifying that the settings are correct (make sure that the incoming mail server (POP/IMAP/etc.), outgoing mail server (SMTP), username (either just username or full email address) and password are all accurate. Once you have verified this, try to get your email again.

So you've gotten this far and haven't resolved your issue, it may be that the email account itself in the email program is corrupted. Now, there are some applications that will remove email from the inbox if it is associated with an account that is deleted. If you are using any version of Outlook or Outlook Express, you can feel comfortable deleting the account as this isn't the case. If you are using an older version of Netscape (I THINK they have fixed this in the latest version of Netscape, but I haven't confirmed this), DON'T delete the account unless you have exported your messages and contacts!!! If you HAVE deleted your account, go through the new account wizard for whichever application you are using and set up the account once more. If there was an issue with the account being corrupted then this should resolve it.

Still here? Ok, so then next step is to contact your service provider to check on the status of the email server... Below, I will give you some encouragement on how to approach your service provider and how NOT to approach your service provider:

DO
"Hello. My name is [full name here]. I have been having some email issues and was wondering if there were any known issues with the email server. I have already disabled my anti-virus email scanning, checked my email settings and recreated my email account."

"Good morning. I was wondering if there were any known issues with the email server as I have already done a little troubleshooting on my end and the problem doesn't appear to have been resolved."

Be polite and courteous and you will find that the service personnel will respond in kind. Even when having a horrible day of support work, personnel will commonly greet most callers respectfully and courteously and you should return in kind. If by chance the person is not being courteous or respectful, telling them in a level tone and being adult about it will usually fix the problem.

DO NOT
"The server is broken. I can't get my email. Why is your service not working?!"

DO NOT yell at the service personnel. This is NOT going to resolve your problem and will likely just piss off the person you are talking to. Do not talk to someone in a manner that you would find disrespectful to yourself (i.e. if I were to talk to YOU this way, would YOU get pissed off? If you would, DON'T TALK LIKE THAT TO A SERVICE REP!).

So all in all, if you follow these directions MOST of your email issues should be resolved. There should be no email issues that cannot be fixed.

Have questions? Feel free to send me a message using the form to the right.

Take care.

[Holiday] Enjoy Your Holiday, Love Your Tech Support

As I'm sure many of you are going to do, you are going to buy electronics for the holiday for your loved ones. Very well you should as they are fantastic gifts and provide hours and hours of enjoyment regardless of what type of electronic it is. As my holiday message before I leave for a while to visit family I ask each of you to remember that there is a reason we celebrate holidays and spend time with loved ones. Remember that sometimes the gifts you buy can be difficult to set up or use initially until you learn how to use them. And lastly, remember that if you should call tech support for your new gifts to remember that THEY are working on the holiday while YOU are not. Share your joy and thankfulness with them and treat them like the humans they are.

I work in a US based call center taking care of lots of hardware, software and techs and I'm sure each and every one of them would definitely value a thank you or gratitude on the phone instead of screaming at them because your new electronic keyboard won't do function F5E2 and duplicate the midi sound from a 1970s synthesizer even though it says so on the package! Take the time to listen to their direction. They want to help you and that's why they are in the job they are. Let them help you and let them share the knowledge they've acquired by working in the industry they have.

Happy Holidays and Take Care.

iPod won't sync?!?!

Question
"The other day, I had to reload all of my music to itunes (because last week we had to have the computer restored to its original settings?) and then I plugged in my ipod and the computer detected that it was there but it said it had to restart and that didn’t work so I just ejected it and unplugged it. So then last night, I plugged it in again and the computer recognized that something was plugged in but nothing came up on itunes so I could not sync my music. Then I tried to eject it so I clicked “Safely Remove Hardware” but it said something like “Can’t remove device, try again later”. So I left it plugged in overnight. This morning I tried again but it will still not allow me to remove it, although the ipod screen doesn’t say “Connected – eject before disconnecting”, it is just the normal music screen. So now I don’t know if I can unplug it and if/how to sync my music."

Answer
Well, this issue likely goes into the realm of iPod/USB issues (clearly, right? :) ). Many times, as mentioned in the previous iPod inquiry, USB devices will just refuse to "let go" when you try to unplug them. Sometimes this is caused because the device was removed without choosing "safely remove hardware" from the taskbar. Sometimes it's not. In this particular case I'd bet that it was the iPod locking up while connected, then causing the OS to malfunction. Likely the OS is seeing that the device is there; however, since the device's USB port is locked up (on the device itself) it is not receiving any response from the device. This causes the OS to say, "Ok, I am getting no response. I can't remove this device or it may cause issue as it's currently not responding and must be doing something." Obviously that's giving a non-human entity a human voice, but you get my drift.

My initial advice would be for you to turn off the power to your iPod while it's connected to the computer. Restart the computer and unplug the iPod while the computer is going through the boot process (after the POST beeps, you can disconnect it). When the computer comes up, it should come up with no device listed as being on the particular port. Turn the iPod back on, wait for the iPod's OS to boot and you are readily able to choose music, etc. Once the iPod is live go ahead and plug the cable into the iPod and then into the computer. The OS should then detect a device plugged in which will initiate the driver for the iPod's mass storage device. Open iTunes once you see the bubble in the systray say your iPod is connected and see if iTunes recognizes it.

If all of this fails, you can always follow the links right here to find out if there is something further wrong with the iPod. ALWAYS start with a troubleshooter, DON'T restore your iPod unless you know for sure that it's a problem with the iPod or have exhausted all other avenues... This restores it back to when you pulled it out of the box and you'll lose all of your songs. Of course, if it's the data on the little drive that is causing the issue, THIS would be a likely solution.

Use Apple's 5 Rs Troubleshooter

Use the following link for iPod sync issues.

If you're running a Mac, all of this document may apply to you. If you are running Windows, likely just SOME of the document will apply to you.

All in all, an iPod or other MP3 device may be a music player but in the end it is really just another USB storage device (think USB flash drive!) that happens to have an OS (operating system) that can send music/videos/etc. to the speaker port/screen. It follows the same rules, regulations and reality that the rest of the devices follow.

I hope this takes you in the right direction and solves your iPod connectivity issues. As always, I'm happy to help and love teaching and sharing knowledge with others! :)

Take care.

My Apple computer can't be infected by viruses, right? RIGHT?!

Well, unfortunately this isn't true. For YEARS people who are fanatics of the Apple operating system Macintosh, or "Mac", (I lovingly refer to them as Mac-heads) have toted that their system is impervious to viruses (or virii, depending on your source of English). Well, while not impervious to them they have NOT been the target of viruses, spyware and other malware for quite some time. A lot of this could be attributed to the fact that MOST virus writers at the beginning were using the Windows OS to begin with... And many of them weren't writing them themselves but using "virus creation lab" software created by people who knew what they were doing. Most of those viruses are easily bypassed by antivirus (AV) software because they tag all creations with their own signature to note that they were written with that particular lab.

As for spyware, only a fool would believe that the Mac OS was EVER immune to spyware. Spyware by definition includes many things that are NOT programmatic in nature (such as cookie entries that ad companies use to track where you have been and where you are at and tailor the ads on the current page based on your previous visitation). This by all means should NOT be considered a bad thing. People embrace AdSense by Google simply because Google created it... It's no different, but does this on a single page instance instead of a series of instances.

On an additional note to address the security of the Mac OS, an interesting read:

Mac Hacked In 2 Minutes (Ok, much longer to discover but 2 minutes to impliment)

Same story, different source

And the coup-de-grace, the event that it occured at, PWN 2 OWN

So, now that the humor has been shared everyone can rejoice that we are all as vulnerable as the other!

Remember, we should never assume that we are fully protected. The only way your system is 100% secure is if you aren't on the internet and keep it locked in a room with the power off. Pointless? I'd say so. So stop worrying and just remember to keep your auto-updates on and flowing and don't encourage panic.

Take Care.