[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.

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.