IT Queries: Computer problems answered

During the past week I changed from Ozemail to Bigpond. Besides other problems with bigpond, I find they will not support Thunderbird. The result is that my extra mail box must be accessed via the Web.  Could you please help to set up Thunderbird?

The Thunderbird setup process is straightforward. Open Thunderbird, click File, New and then Account.

In the Account setup box choose Email Account and click Next.

For identity, you should put the name you want to appear on the emails in the Your Name box and your email address in the Email Address box.

Next is the Server Information page this is where you put in the incoming server settings.  For Bigpond you need to enter mail.bigpond.com in the Incoming Server box. Leave the POP button and the use global inbox options selected. Click Next

The next box is the User Names page. Enter your ISP username in the Incoming User Name box. For Bigpond users this is your email address. Click Next to continue.

In the following box you’re asked to name the account. You can put in anything you’d like to call it; Tony’s account, work email, whatever suits you.

That’s it! When you first go to check email, you’ll be asked for your password. Enter it and tick the box asking to remember your password and you are up and running.

Hi !, when I attempt to send or recieve an e-mail I get the following message x800ccc90 

We’ve answered part of that question previously. What the error message means is the computer can’t find your ISPs email server.

If you can surf the net then you need to check your firewall isn’t blocking your email program. If it isn’t, then there is a problem with the email program.

For Sympatico the settings are pophm.sympatico.ca for the incoming email and smtphm.sympatico.ca for the outgoing mail. Sympatico have step by step instructions on their website.

I have four messages in my outbox. One of them won’t display because an error message appears saying low memory or low disk drive. Because of this error message, it won’t send any of these four messages.

The first thing to check is you have enough hard drive space. If the drive is full then the computer will choke. We’ve covered freeing up space on your hard drive previously.

If you do have enough hard drive space then one of those outgoing emails is damaged and it’s blocking the others from leaving.

To fix it, turn off the auto-preview screen by clicking View and then Autoview in Outlook. If you are using Outlook Express or Windows Mail click View, Layout and take the tick off the Show Preview Pane box.

Once you’ve done that, go into your Outbox folder and drag all four of the emails into your drafts folder. Delete any you don’t need to send then open the ones you do want to resend and click the resend button.

I am operating Vista, with a Bigpond account.  I continue to have problems with my e-mail account.  Bigpond instruct me to have no firewall, so it is turned off.  I am not comfortable with this solution, however they say the firewall interfers with the e-mail.

Can you give me some advice on this please?

It sounds like the firewall or anti-virus program is blocking access to the mail server. You’ll need to make sure your email program is trusted by the firewall and the email server is trusted, in Bigpond’s case this is mail.bigpond.com.

In the Windows firewall,  you should add your email program to the trusted applications list by Start, Control Panel and Network Connections. Select your Internet connection, the name will vary with your computer.

In the General tab of the Internet connection properties, click the Properties button and the Advanced tab. Click Settings under the Firewall heading and click Exceptions.

In the Exceptions list, select your email program by ticking the box beside or clicking the Add Program if it isn’t listed.

There are some settings in Norton Antivirus where you can make similar exceptions. In recent versions, this has been under the heading of Internet Worm Protection.  The location of these settings varies between programs.

I use Outlook for my e-mail as well as the Calendar which is linked to my smartphone which is using Mobile 6 software.

Does Mozilla support my calendar function or is there a way of linking these if I change?

Unfortunately Sunbird, the calendar function for Mozilla, is still under development and we’re reluctant to recommend beta software.

The next version of Thunderbird will include calendar support, but we wouldn’t be too optimistic about getting it to work with the Windows Mobile ActiveSync.

For the present we’d recommend sticking with Outlook.

Over the past week or two every time I send a single e-mail using Outlook the bottom right side of my screen shows 1 of 2 messages being sent even though there is only 1 e-mail in my Outbox.

Can you advise me on what to check for? I do use Adaware, Spybot, Windows Defender & AVG.

The problem lies in your Outbox. You’ve created an email that wants to use your mobile email settings rather than the one you use at home or office. Your work or home email server is refusing to send it because the settings are incorrect.

Open the Outbox and you will see the email. Drag it to the drafts folder.

You might get a message saying Outlook is sending the message. If that happens, cancel the Send/Receive and then try again.

If you still want to send the message, open it and click on the Accounts tab in the top left hand corner. Make sure the correct email account is selected. Once it is, click send.

I am having problems accessing my Yahoo mail. It was all OK until about a week ago. I installed Nortons 360 about a month ago but it worked OK with that for a while. I now get a bland screen coming up with just blue text and no pictures or boxes etc.  I have 3 computers linked and it is happening on all 3. I am with Bigpond. It is most frustrating as I am running a project and all my operating files are stored in the emails.

I have Windows and am using Internet Explorer as my browser. I am wondering if ther is anything in the properties which may have been unchecked with regard to the Yahoo website. I can access all other websites OK. The problem sometimes fixes itself for a few hours then it seems to freeze and I have to restart it and it comes back as only text. PLEASE HELP!

We’ve had a  few reports of Yahoo! Mail having these problems recently. It appears there’s been some changes to their system which causes these problems.

The first thing we would suggest is to install the latest version of Java. Before doing it, it’s worthwhile uninstalling the earlier versions.

It’s also a good opportunity to update your Flash Player and Windows Scripting Host.

If the problem continues you could try using Mozilla Firefox, this will show if the problem is with Internet explorer or deeper in the system.

The final suggestion is to exclude the Yahoo! domains from the Norton 360 firewall. To fix this open Norton 360, click Tasks and Settings then Advanced Settings and Firewall Protection Settings, Symantec have full instructions on doing this at their website.  You may need to ask Yahoo! what addresses should be added to the trusted list.

I have recently changed to broadband from a dialup connection and each time I go into Outlook (2007) it tries to connect using my old dialup connection instead of the new broadband connection. I have removed all the links to the dialup connection as far as I can see, but still the problem persists. I am using Vista home premium and Outlook 2007

The problem is in Outlook. It thinks the dial up setting is still there and tries to connect through it.

To fix this, click on the Tools menu and choose email settings. Select your email account and choose view or change existing settings, if you have more than one email account you’ll have to do this for each one.

Once in the the change account screen, click the More Settings button and then the Connections Tab. You’ll find the rogue dial up connection sitting there.

If you are connecting over broadband, then choose the Connect using my local area network.

The Canadian Pharmacy keeps sending me ads for viagra. They are sent with a different sender name each time, to get past the “Block Sender”.

How else can I stop them?

Is it illegal for them to do do?

HOW do they get in? Have I checked something out of curiouslity and become exposed?

As my provider, is Bigpond required to give every assistance in this matter? I subscribed to Bigpond Security: Does this mean they definitely have a duty to assist?

It’s unlikely the spam is a result of you visiting somewhere untoward, it’s more likely someone you know is infected with a Trojan and their computer is pumping out spam email to everyone who’s address it can find.

Unfortunately, once your address starts moving in these circles you’ll find this rubbish keeps coming in.

You can set up Mail Rules to delete this stuff automatically, but the nature of the people sending this stuff means they will keep changing the keywords and addresses to get around the rules.

Generally we’d recommend you get your Internet provider to block spam in the first instance, but you appear to have done this already by subscribing to the Bigpond security package. It may be that there is a configuration problem at their end that is letting this stuff through. You should contact them to discuss this.

If you aren’t getting any satisfaction from your ISP, you can get a third party filtering service like Mailguard or get a filtering program that sits on your computer. One of our favourites is Mailwasher which comes in a free and paid for pro version.

I want to configure Outlook Express what are the steps I have to follow?

First you will need your Internet provider’s mail server settings, your email address, user name and password. If you don’t know these, you will have to call your provider.

To set up your mail accounts, open Outlook Express, click the Tools menu and select Accounts.

In the Accounts, click Add then click Mail. The Internet Connection Wizard will start.

The first box is the Your Name box, type the name you’d like to appear on your emails when they are received. Generally we recommend using your full name and perhaps add your business name as well (eg; Paul Wallbank, PC Rescue).

In the next screen, type your email address. This should be exactly how your ISP described it. A mistake will mean replies and returned emails won’t get to you and it may upset spam filters.

The next screen is the email server settings. Type your outgoing and incoming mail server addresses in the boxes. Normally the POP3 setting should be set as the server type.

In the final box you’ll be asked for your Account Name and password. Enter your user name into the first box and the password into the second. Tick the box “remember password” unless you want to be nagged about it every time you check your mail.

That’s it! Send a few emails to friends or relatives and see if they are returned. If they are, you are up and running.