email not working?

 

Symptom: mail client keeps prompting you for username and password.
Solution: mail server is down, or client's settings are incorrect, such as servers, username, password. If user has changed nothing, check the mail server. else check the client settings.

1. See if the server is up.

  1. Make sure you are connected to the internet. you should be able to open up a web browser (internet explorer, firefox, safari, or chrome) and browse to google.com. If you can't do this, this is why you can't get your email. You need to check your cables to see if maybe one of them is loose, or your cable/dsl modem may need to be reset, or the cable/dsl modem has died (is the power light on?). I have seen dialup modems blown out by storms, so make sure if you use something phone-line based that you use a phone line surge suppressor. that may not work with some DSL lines.
  2. bring up a cmd shell or command shell by holding down the windows logo key and hitting R. type cmd and press enter. If you have windows 9x/me, hold down the windows logo key and hitting R. type command and press enter.
  3. ping the pop3 and smtp servers. remember the servers listed in your email client's settings or from your ISP's email setup help and type something like ping smtp.someisp.net and press enter. you should see response times if there is successful communication, or "Request timed out." if the server is down.
  4. if there is a separate pop3 server address, ping it. try something like ping mail.someisp.net and press enter. you should see response times if there is successful communication, or "Request timed out." if the server is down.
  5. If the server is down ( you are getting "Request timed out."), and you are connected to the internet, contact your ISP and tell them that their mail server is down.

2. Check your mail client's settings.

  1. check to see that the server addresses are correct.
  2. make sure that the password you entered is correct. You can usually tell it's wrong if you keep getting prompted for a username and password (a downed mail server can also cause this [outlook]).