Tech: Outlook express problem

Subject: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: kendall
Date: 22 May 06 - 09:48 AM

I recently tried to send an identical e mail to everyone on my list, and after all the bother, I get a error notice that says, "Unable to deliver...server rejected one or more addresses. So, I sent one friend a single email and he answered so there was no problem there. Now, I keep getting the same box, Error..some e MaILS COULD NOT BE DELIVERED ETC.
Now, I can't see what to do next, and I can't even delete this mess. Any ideas?

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 May 06 - 09:55 AM

Kendall, when you sent the single email to your friend did you type it in or did you get it from your list? I ask because it's possible that there are errors on the list addresses. That's something I have done.

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 06 - 10:23 AM

Sometimes the way you separate addresses makes a difference. It usually likes a ; between each address. If you open your address book and select all of the names at once (you may have to hold the control key down to do this) then click to send to each of them they should by default have the proper punctuation between names.

I hope you're using BCC--Blind Carbon Copy--when you send to a bunch of people. Then recipients don't see everyone else's email address. When you use that it is often best to mail the post to yourself and put the list in BCC.

I hope this helps.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 May 06 - 11:44 AM

It may also depend on your email service.

With the minimal "free" Hotmail accounts, as an example, any attempt to send more than 10 messages the same day may cause them to assume you're sending spam, and they'll block all outgoing from your account for a few hours (or at least that's supposedly what happened to me once a few months ago). ¹My account was not one they were supposed to do that with, but they f$#%@ up. Their explanation was a little unclear, since I don't speak fluent weasel, but that's the gist of what I was told.

¹ On hotmail accounts where they were supposed to be applying that rule you generally can't use OE, since they're "webmail only" accounts. Different rules, also mostly unpublished, seem to apply to the extra cost accounts and/or "charter accounts".

They apparently were (are?) really inconsistent about when/if they apply this and other similar "rules," so confusion is to be expected.

I have heard of other email services applying similar rules, such as vague limits on maximum number of addressees (CC or BCC) on each transmission.

Policies of this sort can and do shift about frequently, and are seldom published to users when changes are made; but it's supposedly all to help cut down the spam.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: open mike
Date: 22 May 06 - 12:18 PM

maybe judst that one address didn't go thru
but all the others did...
usually if i send a group message
and one does not get thru
i will get a bounced message
from that one explaingin..
box full, user unknown, etc.

i use mozilla firefox browser and
the mozilla thunderbird e-mail client

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 22 May 06 - 12:38 PM

The error message usually tells you which address is bad, but the others will usually go through. With my service, if I try to send more than 25 bcc's it will stop them (which is a problem sending notices to our band email list). There are ways around this if you contact your ISP or spend hours reading their tech pages.

Check the error message again and see if it lists specific addresses that didn't work. Check the original email to be sure each address was separated by a semicolon. Limit the number to 25 at a time for each send.

Let us know how you make out. Hey, and I'm in your address book and I didn't get anything from you!

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: kendall
Date: 22 May 06 - 01:55 PM

It did mention one address in particular, so I sent a separate e mail to him and he replied, so I know it's valid.

Now, how do I get rid of that damned error notice?

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 May 06 - 02:06 PM

Delete?

I often send out a BCC from a distribution list of 150 people. I always get back half a dozen that didn't go through, whether because they are over-quota or the message was 'rejected' or 'unknown'.

Whenever I can, I call those people and often the reason is that they had not notified me that they had changed their email address. I then change their addresses in my book. But next time there's another half dozen or so...

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 22 May 06 - 02:07 PM

Was the error message an email that came in to Outlook Express? Where are you getting this message? Does it pop up when you try to send the note? Try sending the note without the one address that caused a problem. Maybe it just happened to push you over the quota. Maybe that one address refuses blind copies. Maybe it's just not your day...

(Keep on smilin')

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 May 06 - 02:34 PM

OE does occasionally give "pop-up" notices, but usually with a failed delivery it's a return email, with the original message that you sent as an attachment. The difference may hinge on whether the error occurs internal to your own machine, at your own email provider's server, or from the recipient's server (or an intermediate server between the end points).

The pop-up notices usually have a "cancel" or "close" button somewhere on the face of the window, or like most windows, an "X" at the top right that you can click to close the message. If you sent a large bunch of messages all with the same problem, you may be getting a large sequence of "error reports" that could make it look like one that's refusing to be cancelled. When you close one, the next one is waiting in line to pop up.

The notice that probably irritates me most is the one that says something like "an error has occured, click for complete description" and when you click all you get is a blank window. On my primitive connection, the error message often pops up before the dial-up has finished negotiating the connection, so it isn't an error, nothing is wrong, but OE just likes to brag. Just a case of premature e... $#%#@%

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: kendall
Date: 22 May 06 - 04:11 PM

I don't see any way to cancel this crap. Damn OE!

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 May 06 - 04:48 PM

Hi Kendall
Just to let you know.
I didn't get your e-mail (he,he,he).
You can try me again.
Barry

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: GUEST
Date: 22 May 06 - 04:56 PM

Outlook Express is crap. Use g-mail instead. Hell, even yahoo is better than OE.

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: kendall
Date: 22 May 06 - 05:47 PM

I agree about Yahoo, but it is so loaded with porn and other spam I dumped it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 May 06 - 06:25 PM

Eudora - used to be a free version - you need to set up a popmail connection though - it doesn;t talk direct to webmail only.

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 22 May 06 - 08:13 PM

Kendall

I've been using OE for more than ten years, and have never seen any kind of OE popup or message that wasn't easy to kill. In rare occasions, if your connection to your service doesn't finish a transmission, the entire machine may lock up because you have a program open that's "waiting for a reply" or "waiting for an input," but that locks up everything.

There has been a form of malware phishing that's been very widespread recently, frequently appearing disguised as a "message failure" email. When you click to see what the problem was, you get redirected to a malicious site that installs sypware. If you've run into something of this sort, it doesn't make any difference how (what program and/or protocol you use) you receive your email, since the spyware can be loaded regardless of how you receive your mail. The phony email tells your computer that the "click" is a permission to install a program, regardless of what it tells you in the message. Your computer has to assume that you told it to do this, so your AV and Antispyware programs have to let you do it.

Unless you're really sure this message is coming from OE:

You should be able to close the program using Task Manager if OE doesn't close normally, and/or if the message doesn't disappear when OE is closed.

You can take a look at the programs, and separately at the processes, that are running in Task Manager. If OE is the only thing running, you should be able to select it and "end process" to get it turned off, if that's necessary. If there's a separate "process" running that's producing the message, you most likely have been infected by malware; although if you're not familiar with what usually is running it may be hard to spot.

Close OE and reboot.

Update definitions and run a full system scan with your Antivirus.

Update definitions and run AdAware.

Update definitions and run Spybot.

AdAware OR Spybot should find and remove the most common "undeletable messages" if this is your problem. If you've chosen some other malware scan program, most others should also be able to remove the common scams of this kind.

What you seem to be describing is NOT a normal OE behaviour, and most likely is not even coming from OE - although it may be coming through OE, using it for its display interface.

I've had one other query from a friend who described somewhat similar symptoms, and in particular a "message" that refused to be closed. Friend is a good solid medical practicioner, a certified Shaman, does great beadwork and has written a couple of books; but he nows absolutely squat-from-scat about computers so his descriptions were similarly vague. The AdAware and Spybot scans did clear the problem for him, about 2 months ago.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 06 - 10:37 PM

Kendall, PM me your email address and I'll send you an invitation to get Google's G-mail. You can use it with various programs (like Eudora or Outlook Express or Pegasus, etc., and set it up to download into your computer) or you can leave it completely online. They have users send invitations because I think it might still be a beta version. But I like it for most things. I haven't figured out how to make it attach photos instead of dropping them inline, but the rest works fine.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: kendall
Date: 23 May 06 - 09:00 AM

I have ad aware, and I'm sure the error is coming from OE

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 May 06 - 09:28 AM

G-mail includes Google reading all your messages so they can send you "enhancements" (=spam). I recommend not going there.

If you re-boot and the "message" still appears and freezes OE (without your trying to send your email) there is a strong likelihood of some malware.

If after a re-boot if you don't re-send your message, and can then operate OE: -

1. Paste the body of your original message to clipboard or a simple text editor program. Then save that as a .txt file. Print it. Delete it completely (ie from trash as well).

2. re-boot

3. Delete your "rogue" email completely - ie delete it and then delete it from the deleted folder.

4. Re-boot.

5. Re-type the message. Do not include any "signature".

6. Send it to groups of 5 people at a time until you get a group that contains a problem (you may never get the problem).

7. If you do get a problem, write down delete and re-type the relevant details.

8. Re-boot.

9. If the problem was a "rogue" email you should now have sorted it.

10. If this did not sort it, you definitely have some malware or a corrupted OE.



I learned this the hard way a while back when Outlook 1997 did it to me. COuld not crackit until that original email was deleted.

Subject: RE: Tech: Outlook express problem
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 May 06 - 12:00 PM

Google doesn't "read" your mail any more than any of the others. They scan for keywords and if you view it through a browser and don't have software to block ads a small one appears. But since I download it into an otherwise unused copy of Outlook Express, I don't get any ads at all.

That's an awful lot of work to sort out if an email message is a problem, that copying and printing and sending in groups of five and such. I suspect something that was needed to fix a problem in a 1997 edition of the software is overkill in 2006.

SRS