As we continue to evolve
into the world of e-mail that is part of
our everyday life, sometimes little problems
arise that bother the user. Previously we
talked about returned messages and lost
connections, both which can be aggravating,
and supplied solutions. But there are a
few more problems that can affect an e-mail
user causing frustration and we will address
these here, and again provide reasonable
solutions to over come them.
Problem 1 - You Cannot Send a Message
Even when there is not a connection problem,
you may attempt to send email, but find
that it continues to remain in your outbox.
Solution
Typically this is a software problem, the
result of otherwise unapparent damage or
corruption to one or more e-mail messages.
To address this problem, first copy any
unsent messages as text. Then save them
on the computer's hard drive or a back-up
storage medium. After all messages have
been saved, highlight all the messages in
your outbox and click on "delete"
or "clear". When clearing your
outbox, start over. Just copy unsent messages
from the text files, pass them into new
e-mail messages and resend.
Problem 2 - The E-mail is Missing an Attachment
or the Attachment Won't Open
An especially handy feature of e-mail is
the ability to send and receive attachments.
Transmitting documents, photos or other
such information can save time and money
compared to the U.S. Mail or express delivery
services. At the same time, attachments
can be real headaches. A common frustration
is to receive an e-mail message that refers
to an attachment, but then find nothing
is there.
Solutions
Often the best solution is to request that
the sender try once again, since it is not
unusual for the writer to refer to an attachment,
but then forget to attach it. Even if this
is not the case, your request might prompt
the sender to re-think the attachment's
format before transmitting again. If the
problem continues, consider asking the sender
to paste the contents inside an e-mail message
and try again. This may disrupt formatting,
but can be an effective way to circumvent
attachment problems.
If you see a message that the attachment
has been deleted, it may be that your anti-virus
software has detected a virus, and you're
better off without it anyway. But if you
find that all attachments are indiscriminately
being deleted, check your mail properties.
If a box is checked that blocks all attachments,
remove the check mark so that you can receive
attachments. If you then receive a message
from an unknown person, or if the message
or attachment seems suspicious, delete the
message without opening the attachment.
A related problem is to see that an attachment
has been transmitted, but find that you
are unable to open it. The causes (and thus
the solutions) vary. In some cases, the
problem is that the software used by the
sender does not match that of the recipient.
As with a missing attachment, a simple fix
is to ask the sender to copy and paste the
contents of the attachment within a follow
up mail message. Even if formatting is disrupted,
you can still get the gist of the information.
You can also use your own copying and pasting
process to reformat the contents, if that
is important.
Another strategy is to save the document
to your hard drive, and then open the software
program that was used initially to create
it. Once this program is in use, your computer
may be able to recognize what had been the
attachment, and open it. If you do not have
the appropriate software loaded on your
computer, you may be able to download it
from the Internet; just follow the on screen
prompts to proceed.
Problem 3 - You Have too Much Incoming
Mail or Cannot Download What You Have
If you are receiving large volumes of e-mail,
you may be vulnerable to several difficulties.
Solutions
Many Internet service providers place limits
on the amount of storage provided to each
user (although some have recently increased
storage limits). If a pre-set limit is reached
(perhaps because you've gone too long without
downloading your e-mail, or have been inundated
by SPAM or virus induced flood of messages),
additional messages will be bounced back
to those who sent them.
Of course the direct approach is to download
your mail and then weed it out, but a smarter
move may be to access your e-mail account
via Web mail. That way you can see a listing
of all messages and quickly delete any that
do not appear to be of interest. The end
result is the same, but this step can save
a great deal of downloading time if you're
using a dial up modem. It also adds an extra
measure of virus protection even if you
have a broadband connection. Since you're
deleting messages from your ISP's server
before they ever have a chance to infect
your computer, it's like killing mosquitoes
before they bite you - instead of afterwards.
If you do not have a Web mail account,
it's easy to get one. Simply go to a provider
such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) or Lycos (www.lycos.com)
and register. You can also use a site such
as mail2web (www.mail2web.com) or webmail4free.com
without even registering. Go to the site
and enter you e-mail address and password.
You will see a listing of all incoming mail,
which you can read and then retain for downloading,
or delete, as you choose.
A similar challenge may be caused by unusually
large message. Again, this problem is more
common with dial-up modems, where hefty
messages may take an annoyingly long time
to download. In the worst cases, you may
find yourself unable to receive other messages,
because the connection with the server where
your messages are stored is severed when
a time limit has been reached.
Use of Web mail can also do the trick here.
Just log on to the third-party site, peruse
the list of messages in your inbox, and
choose the one that is the largest (most
Web mail programs automatically list the
size of each message). If the message seems
of potential interest, open and read it,
and then delete it. Or if it is obviously
spam or something in which you have no interest,
you can delete the message without even
bothering to read it. Once you have removed
the offending message, your other incoming
mail will no longer be blocked.
If you do not have Web mail, an option
is to contact your Internet Service Provider
and ask for help. Once a customer service
representative deletes the offending message
from the ISP's server, you can then download
all remaining messages.
Also keep in mind that retaining too much
e-mail can be an organizational problem,
if not a technical one. Take time to delete
e-mail that does not need to be saved for
future reference. Allowing too many messages
to accumulate wastes storage space and makes
it more difficult to find important messages
when you need to refer to them. For messages
that merit retention, create a series of
folders so that they can be readily located,
and so that your inbox will not become too
full.
About the Author
Marv Ko has many years of experience in
business, marketing, security, writing,
and varied hobbies. He is is the senior
editor of www.upublish.info
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