Next possibility is that someone who's sending you stuff may have a bad clock. The "sent" date should be stamped into the message header, and except for the "magic date" things from MSN and Hotmail (and a very few other senders) the sent date shouldn't change. I've never thought about whether the date is determined by the clock on the machine that sends it or the one on the first server that passes it.

The received date should be posted when you download the message (by your machine's clock or maybe by the server you get it from).

You might want to try sorting on the "received" date instead of the "sent" date if you figure out that your problem is someone with a messed up clock who is sending stuff to you.

An erratic clock is one of the first symptoms of a failed or failing CMOS battery. All PCs have a battery attached to the motherboard that's supposed to keep the BIOS CMOS memory alive when there's no power to the computer, and keep the clock running when the machine is turned off. In older units, they're usually on pigtails that plug into terminals on the board, and are often held in place with Velcro pads. The older batteries usually lasted 5 to 7 years, but replacement was fairly common. Newer boards typically have the battery soldered onto the board, and they can be difficult just to find, much less to replace. (I'm not sure if they think the new batteries are "forever" devices, or just assume nobody will keep a computer long enough to wear one out.)

If you are getting mail from a specific person who's clock is off, you might want to suggest a battery check. If the battery goes dead, the clock has to be reset every time the machine is booted. There actually are few other problems from a dead battery with Win98 and later, if your setup is simple, since the PNP setup detects and reinstalls most stuff that the CMOS memory would "omit."

John