Mail Troubleshooting Guide

Common EMAIL Problems & Fixes

#1 - You must be online to send & receive E-mail
I'm sorry to bring that up before all you seasoned users, but brand new users really don't know this one and we want all our customers to know as much as you do. when you are online an Icon will be visable next to the time in the lower right hand part of your screen. It may look like 2 small computers blinking red & green lights or a green square with a C inside it. Left Double click this icon and it will tell you if you are online right now and for how long.

#2 - If messages are being constantly bounced back to you: You MUST format an email address correctly. The proper format of an internet email address is:something@somewhere.com  Everyone's Email address with USAonline should look like this:  [email protected] Always use lower case throughout the entire email address.
Blank spaces anywhere in an email address are not allowed. Underlines are valid but NOT a wise selection for an email address because they look like a space. i.e. [email protected]  (OK..But Not recommended)

Attachments: Email was never designed to carry large attachments. But, it does. Most Webservers allocate only a 1 megabyte area for each user for storage of email, incoming and outgoing because most email programs will time-out with anything bigger..ANOTHER CONSIDERATION: Your mail may go through up to 15 mail servers before it gets to it's destination. Any one of those servers may strip a large attachment from your mail thinking it is SPAM. If you must send a large file to someone: use FTP. Better yet, send them the url and let them go get the file themselves.

Responsibility :Make sure your friends know your proper Email address. If they are spelling or formatting it wrong, spelling "usaonline.net" (correct)  like "usonline.net" (incorrect) or using .com instead of .net.... you will never receive messages from them. They will bounce back to the originator. If you do not format your friends email address properly, your messages will never get to them either.

MAIL ACCOUNT SELF TEST: To Check if your email is functioning properly, send a message to yourself. If you receive it ok then "reply" to it. If the reply comes in OK your account is working fine.

What Browser do you have??? While on the net, look at the top of the browser's window, select "Help" then select "About" for your browser's version and type info.

FOR Netscape Browser's (Most)

  1. Click on "Options"
  2. Select "Mail & News Preferences"
  3. Select the tab "Server"

    Check for the following settings:

    SMTP Server: mail.yourdomain.net
    POP3 Server: mail.yourdomain.net
    Username: Enter the username you received when signing up. 
    Check the following box:   After delivery "remove from server"

If You are Using the: Internet Explorer Browser 3.1 & 3.2
Internet Mail

  1. Click on the "Mail" button
  2. Select "Read Mail"
  3. In the mail program, select "Mail" from the pulldown menu
  4. Click on "Options"
  5. Click on the tab "Server"

    Check for the following settings:

    Name: Your real name, first and last
    E-mail address: [email protected]
    Incoming Mail Server: mail.yourdomain.net
    Outgoing Mail Server: mail.yourdomain.net
    Account: the username you received when signing up.
    Password: You may want to retype your password, just be to sure.
    Click on "Advanced Settings": Uncheck the box "Leave a copy of mail on server"

Receiving the same messages over and over: When you download your email, do you get the same messages over and over??? If so...you have probably been mail-bombed. Maybe unintentionally, but bombed all the same.This situation is NOT unique to yourdomain. At ISP conventions, one of the popular topics of conversation is about this same problem. Large file attachments to users email, coming and going. Many ISP's will automatically close a repeat offender's account. We think that is too extreme, but we also know that the problem must be handled in order to avoid system failures.

If someone sends you a file that is very large (over 500 kb) your mail client may time-out before it gets a chance to fully download all your mail from the server. This is a function of YOUR mail program NOT our server. Our server could care less if you want to send or receive a large file attachment and are willing to wait 45 minutes to do it. But think of the recipient, he or she may not be as patient as you are and may take offense that you are clogging up his/her mail box with some unsolicited ,cutesy program or pictures of Monica Lewinsky witholding evidence.

Solutions:

1.- Tell your friends that large files are clogging your mailbox making it impossible for you to send & receive mail. Ask them to avoid attachments larger than 50k.

2. - If you absoloutly MUST send or receive large file attachments you will probably want to switch to a more sophisticated mail client such as: Pegasus or Eudora  (NOT free) you can safely download trial versions of theses programs at: http://www.hotfiles.com/

3. - Use FTP to send files to friends. It's much faster anyway.

4. - Get an FTP DROPBOX

5. - Instead of attaching a file to your email, why not send your friend the URL of the file and let him/her download it directly. ( his browser will use FTP to do this automatically )

6. - If all of the above advice fails to help you, please call support .

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