E-mail problems

Chase · Aug 10, 2009

Please help using small words.

I'm using Google's Gmail. However, it was going through Windows Mail, which was a bit more user-friendly, at least to me.

Suddenly last week, Windows Mail decided to ask me my user name and password; however, it won't take the responses, and consequently won't deliver or send the mail.

I've tried Windows helps to reset the user name and password, but Windows "Help" sent me around in circles. For one thing, I'm deaf and cannot telephone, but "helpers" ignore that and insist I contact them via phone.

I've done an end run and opened G-mail direct, so at least I have access to the outside world. But I would like to have a more accessable and user-friendly e-mail as before -- of course without barring me because it won't recognize my user name and/or password.

Any thoughts that don't involve calling the less-than-helpful techs?

Chase

Maryn · Aug 10, 2009

No solutions from me (I'm seriously low-tech), but I'll keep you company until the tech folks come by. Care for a brownie?

Maryn, whose computer confounds and amazes

Carmy · Aug 10, 2009

Chase - when you say "Windows Mail" do you mean Live Mail?

Long time ago, I used Outlook Express. Then Live Mail came out and I switched. A few weeks ago, Live Mail started doing weird things like asking for my name and password. Worse than that, a complete folder disappeared. I closed my account, booted it out and reverted to Outlook Express.

Yesterday, Gmail refused to accept my password. I knew I was using the correct one because I have it written down and I use the same one on a couple of sites. I had to email them for my password, got the link in a reply mail, went in and changed the password to the one I had already been using. By the way, with OE, I have to go direct into my gmail direct rather than through anything else. Yes, it's a pain but, after Live Mail lost a complete folder, I'll put up with it.

I think gremlins are at work.

Chase · Aug 10, 2009

Ha ha ha, thanks Maryn. A brownie and kind words actually work.

I have another friend who says Windows Live Mail is currently trying to replace the old Windows Mail, but like all Microsoft programs, there are more bugs than you get from an evening outside with shorts sleeves after spraying on sugar water.

Chase · Aug 10, 2009

Carmy,

Sorry, I was writing while you were writing. I was speaking about the problems had by our mutual friend whose name begins with P.

Are you saying you had to give up Outlook Express altogether and just go directly to your G-mail? If so, I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world as we know it.

Chase

backslashbaby · Aug 10, 2009

You could try the community support center [or whatever it's called] for LiveMail. MS no longer offers its own tech support for LiveMail. sigh.

LiveMail says the community forum is better. It may be, given MS tech support

http://windowslivehelp.com/help.aspx

Carmy · Aug 10, 2009

Hi Chase.

Yep, it's our mutual friend. She's using Outlook Express for her main server mail address but goes directly into Gmail for the other mail. She says it's a pain in the you-know-what.

But the other thing she told me was that, before Live Mail came along, she had more than one email address showing up on one OE page. So there has to be a way of doing it.

Carmy

Carmy · Aug 10, 2009

Hi Backslashbaby,

Trust me, I've been all around the Live Mail community forum, asked numerous questions, too, but no one could solve the problems I was having. Then a little birdie on a site I can't remember (I searched in so many places for an answer) mentioned how Microsoft had lost a bundle on Vista (replacing it with Windows 7) and on a couple of other things they "invented." I suspect one was Live Mail.

Yes, it was easy to use, but what's the point if it deleted a complete folder? That particular folder had all my user names and passwords listed. I got most of them back by resurrecting an old Hotmail account. I had closed it weeks earlier but Hotmail keeps the account active for 120 days and records all new posts and replies. Lucky for me, huh?

Carmy

Carmy · Aug 10, 2009

Chase,

P tells me she has gmail saved in her favourites. By putting AAA- before the entry, it shows up toward the top of the list so it's easier to find.

Carmy

Chase · Aug 10, 2009

I appreciate responses and brownies.

I tried the community helps, but could only find them for Windows Live Mail, not the old Windows Mail which I have. I'll try again.

I did put G-mail on favorites near the top. Helps to speed accessing mail.

I'm in the country, so I can't get Comcast or another broadband that has an e-mail service. Are there any other suggestions for improving my e-mail situation?

backslashbaby · Aug 10, 2009

I have a couple of old accounts on Juno. I believe it costs a nominal fee for just email, but I find it user-friendly. I really like their search capabilities.

Chase · Aug 11, 2009

Backslashbabe, are you saying Juno will be accepted by Windows better? Or are you saying Juno will provide one-touch e-mail on my computer, such as Comcast or Bresnan does, only Juno is available in the countryside?

My problem isn't that G-mail is bad. It's that I'm deaf and can't use a telephone, so e-mail is my prime means of communication, and I check it many, many times a day. I'd like to access it with one keystroke as with Windows Mail, instead of the several required to go directly to G-mail every time.

Sorry I wasn't clear.

backslashbaby · Aug 11, 2009

Ah! Hmmmm, Juno could easily be made to be one-touch, and it does open straight to your inbox if you've logged in within 2 weeks or so. Yeah, that would work if that's what you are looking for

Matera the Mad · Aug 11, 2009

Yuck, Juno. I still don't know what you mean by "Windows mail", but it sounds like Outlook Express to me. Big PITA, subject to usual bitrot and corruption, and no longer supported by Microrot. I use a free e-mail client (program that fetches mail in one click

) called KomaMail that is easy to use and seems very reliable. It has probably been quite a while since you set up whatever it was to fetch your gmail, so you may need to use the gmail help to get back in the saddle.

Chase · Aug 12, 2009

Matera the Mad said:
I still don't know what you mean by "Windows mail."

Windows Mail is a program of Windows XP and Windows Vista. It's supposed to be a cool, super slick, user-friendly e-mail format.

It was until constant updating made it incompatible with WordPerfect and eventually wouldn't let me in with my own name and password. It's like reloaders constantly fiddling with new primers and powders until the gun blows up.

I am slowly, one at a time following all suggestions posted. So far they haven't worked (or I haven't been able to work them).

In the meantime, I'm using 241 keystrokes each time I go directly into G-mail. I think my temper is showing, because all the bobcats, coyotes, and bears usually hanging out in the nearby woods are slinking out of range.

Thanks. Need more helps.

Chase

Deleted member 42 · Aug 12, 2009

You might try downloading Thunderbird, a free email client from the Firefox group.

You can fill out the server information for each email account to be downloaded via POP or IMAP, two email technologies, so that it all goes into Thunderbird. You can read all email and answer and file it within Thuderbird. You can set it so that you can also still use Webmail in emergencies or when traveling.

You will need to know, for each email account:

1. POP or IMAP
IMAP is increasingly popular and stadard; it's designed so that the Web email and the email client on your computer know the same things/mark the same things read /unread or deleted or filed.

POP is older; you set the email client to delete or keep mail on the server for X number of days, etc.

Both POP and IMAP have an incoming server and outgoing server; the outgoing server with POP is likely going to be called SMTP. You need a server address for incoming and outgoing.

You will need to know the user ID and Password for each account as well; keep in mind that these may be case-sensitive, in that R is perceived as a different letter than r.

Chase · Aug 12, 2009

Thanks, Medievalist, I have Firefox and will give Thunderbird a try.

I'm familiar with IMAP, POP3, and SMTP. I tried setting up gmail with IMAP. No luck. One of the so far worthless "community helps" advised trying POP, so I did that, too. Still nothing after several tries with both. The error repeats several possibilities, including insufficent memory and my own clumsiness, yet the memory is sufficient and I had someone else try. Still no luck, yet hope springs eternal.

Thanks again to all.

Matera the Mad · Aug 12, 2009

Oh, I see. Windows Mail is that souped-up modernized version of Outhouse Espresso that is even worse. I'm sure I forgot about it on purpose. I've never had the least intention of trying it out

Make sure that you have the right port -- gmail doesn't use the default port, it must have its very own. My notes, copied down in case I need to set up something and forget how (as one does after a few moons):

Incoming Mail (POP3) Server - requires SSL: pop.gmail.com
Use SSL: Yes
Port: 995
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server - requires TLS: smtp.gmail.com (use authentication)
Use Authentication: Yes
Use STARTTLS: Yes (some clients call this SSL)
Port: 465 or 587
Account Name: your Gmail username (including @gmail.com)
Email Address: your full Gmail email address ([email protected])
Password: your Gmail password

Please note that if your client does not support SMTP authentication, you won't be able to send mail through your client using your Gmail address.

I used Thunderbird a couple of years ago and had such a horrid experience that I forgot to save some mail when I nuked it. I would have loved it if it hadn't fouled things up with one Yahoot account (that I no longer use).... I'm sure Tbird has improved since then. It has some admirable features. However, I tried Koma and enjoy its smaller size, so I'm happily settled. Thing is I was looking for an alternative to Foxmail (no relation to Firefox) because, although I used it for years, it can be hard to update. It's Chinese, and sometimes the newest installer is a little hard to deal with

lol

Deleted member 42 · Aug 12, 2009

Chase said:
Thanks, Medievalist, I have Firefox and will give Thunderbird a try.

There's some pretty good help on gmail:

How to use POP3 with various clients, and gmail

How to use IMAP with various clients and gmail

These are pretty helpful in terms of settings, and what goes where, and ports, and security settings, etc.

Chase · Aug 13, 2009

Medievalist,

Merely switching to Firefox seemed to put a patch on my problem. I don't know how long it will last, but perhaps long enough to shop for e-mail replacements.

Firefox has gicen G-mail one-touch access. On the serendipity side, I don't have to change my main e-mail address.

I want to thank you and the other thoughful helpers here for your collective patience and use of small words.

Matera,

I can only agree with you about ubiquitous Microsoft and its plot to take over the world. Works and its likewise barely literate sibling Word are okay for using the computer as an expensive typewriter and teletype machine, but for serious writing, both missed all the automobiles, trains, and planes. The apostrophe fiasco you mention in another thread is just one of huge number of blunders.

In some ways, ignorance is a blissful thing. Those happy with Microsoft programs are perhaps lucky to never being exposed to anything better.

Again, thanks all.

Chase

Ann · Aug 18, 2009

Help! I use Outlook Express. I've had no problems mailing queries until recently. Now, all of a sudden, microsoft has a window appear that asks me if I want to email it by Unicode or regular email. Then it goes on to tell me the problems with each. What do I use? Can someone help? Thanks! I appreciate it! Ann

E-mail problems

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Maryn

I Tried

Carmy

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

backslashbaby

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Carmy

Carmy

Carmy

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

backslashbaby

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Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

backslashbaby

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Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Deleted member 42

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

Deleted member 42

Chase

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Ann

E-mail problems

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

I Tried

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

~~~~*~~~~

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

~~~~*~~~~

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

~~~~*~~~~

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Deleted member 42

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

Deleted member 42

It Takes All of Us to End Racism

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