Define the nature of the problem:
- Is the problem Email software / Login
related?
Unable to login with email software
Unable to login via WebMail
- Is the problem email delivery related?
Mail bouncing, undeliverable, returned
Email software related problems:
- Verify that you are online. Can you access www.linkline.com?
- Make sure you've entered your username and
password correctly in your email client software
(Outlook, Messenger, etc.) It wouldn't hurt to
retype your password since you cannot see it. Verify
your username as well. Check to make sure you
are using the correct case (UPPER CASE or lower
case).
- Try accessing your email account via the WebMail
Server AND your email client software.
If you can't gain access using either method, it may
be a username/password issue.
- If WebMail login works, but your email software
does not - compare your email software settings
against the correct
settings..
- Write down any error messages you get when
trying to access your email account. Include
the name and version of your email software and the
exact text of all error message if you need to
contact technical support, This will greatly speed
up the troubleshooting process if this information
is included.
Email Delivery Problems:
- Is the problem with incoming our outgoing mail?
- Is email bouncing for a particular email
address or all addresses at your domain?
- Do you have more than one email account
configured in your email client software?
There could be a conflict with another account you
have setup in your email software.
- New WebHosting Customers: Has your domain
name transferred to linkLINE?
- New WebHosting Customers: customers: Has your
old ISP removed your domain from their email and
DNS servers and completely removed all outdated
references to your domain from all servers on their
network?
- Existing WebHosting Customers: Has your domain
name expired?
- Can you collect several copies of bounced mail
messages to forward to technical support?
Don't forget to include full email headers with
routing information intact if possible.
Common Error Messages
or Problems
I am being told that my username or
password is not correct.
Unless you are using a POP Mailbox, your mail
password will be identical to your Internet access
password. Therefore, if you are able to connect to the
Internet just fine with the given password, you should
be able to connect just fine to your email as well. If
you are able to connect to linkLINE and use other
services (like the World Wide Web or FTP), but your
email software is giving you this error, it would
indicate that your email configuration was not properly
set up or has somehow been altered since the last time
you used it.
First, be sure that you are using the correct
settings for your email program as describers on our
instructions page.
Most often when this problem occurs, it's because the
information above has not been entered properly. If your
server name configuration is set to a different mail
server that actually exists (say, the mail server for
your previous ISP), it will be able to find the server
and connect you to it, but when the server looks for
your account information, you don't exist. Even if your
account name and password are correct for our
server, the other server doesn't know you from Adam, and
will hand you this error.
Just make sure that all your configuration
information is correct and try again. If that doesn't
work, you might want to try rebooting your machine. If
all else fails, contact us
for assistance.
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When I try to download mail, the
software just hangs and I have to cancel it.
Unless you receive some kind of time-out error
message, this is probably because someone has sent you a
very large file as an attachment to an email
message. If someone attaches a 7 MB file to an email
message, it can take just as long or longer to download
through your email software than it would to download
such a large file with your web browser or FTP software.
The biggest problem is that you are not informed when
the software is downloading a message with an attachment
as opposed to just a plain message. The excessively long
time required to complete the checking of mail when a
large file is attached leads many users to suspect that
their software or our mail server isn't working.
Actually everything is working just fine - it just takes
a long time to download large files from the
Internet.
Again, the key here is that you are not getting
any error messages, it's just taking an unbelievably
long time to finish checking your mail. If you are
receiving some kind of error message, please return to
the top and look under another topic for help.
Unless you do not want the attached file, you are
unfortunately just going to have to wait until the whole
thing is finished downloading before you will be able to
get any of your other mail. Depending on the size of the
file and your connection speed, it could possibly take
hours to check your mail when large attachments are
present. No joke.
If you suspect that you have an oversized attachment
in your mail on our server, you can always go in via WebMail
and check/delete your mail directly on the server.
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When I try to send mail to a specific
address, it keeps getting returned as
"undeliverable."
When you receive an email message that tells you of
a problem with delivery, that means that the mail was
properly sent from our system, but for some reason, the
receiving mail server didn't like something about the
message.
For example, if you get a message that reads like
this...
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2001 11:03:31 -0700 (PST)
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <MAILER-DAEMON>
To: <joeschmoe@linkline.com>
Subject: Returned mail: User unknown
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated (failure)
The original message was received at Fri, 22
Jul 2001 11:03:31 -0700 (PST)
from smtp1.linkline.com [192.216.128.16]
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<username@hotmail.com>
----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to mxpool01.netaddress.usa.net.:
>>> RCPT To:<username@hotmail.com>
<<< 551 <username@hotmail.com>... User not known
550 <username@hotmail.com>... User unknown
..it means that the receiving mail server does not
handle mail for the user as you have specified it.
If you receive a message such as this in response to
a message you have sent out, double check the address to
be sure you have not typed it incorrectly, or included
any spaces. Email addresses have a very specific format,
and if they are not entered according to this format,
your message will "bounce" (be returned to
you).
You might also receive a bounced message if the
recipient has "moved" to a different address
or is no longer using the Internet. If you are
absolutely sure that you have entered the address
properly (no spaces, no misspellings, etc.), you should
try to contact the intended recipient by other means and
verify that they are still accessible with the address
they gave you.
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I am getting an error message that
states my message cannot be sent with the specified
address.
This error is going to come from your email client
software, before it even attempts to send the message
(as opposed to a notice that is mailed to you from an
Internet mail server, as with a bounce notice). You will
receive this kind of notice when the recipient's address
as you have specified it does not meet the
specifications for email addressing.
Usually, this means that you have a space or some
other character that is not allowed in an email address.
If someone has given you their email address and
included a space in the address, they have given it to
you incorrectly. Perhaps the space is represented by an
underscore character ("_"), or perhaps there
is no space, and the user name is all run together but
only sounds like it has a space. In either case,
a space within the email address will cause your email
client software to reject the message and not send it.
To fix this, double check the email address listed in
the "To:" field of the message. Make sure
there are no spaces or other "funny"
characters in the address.
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I am trying to check my mail, but I am
being told that the server address cannot be resolved.
This error indicates that the DNS system is not
working somewhere along the line. Usually, this is
either because your machine is not currently connected
to the Internet, or your DNS server configuration
information is not correct.
First, check to make sure that your machine is in
fact connected as you think it is. If you are connected
to our system but idle for 20 minutes, you will be
automatically disconnected. Often users will spend more
time typing up a message than they think they did, and
the system will disconnect them before they are
finished. When the user tries to send the message,
because they are no longer connected to the system, they
will get this message.
It is also possible that you have tried to send the
message before connecting to the system manually. While
some operating systems support automatic connection
launching whenever an Internet connection is required,
some have problems with doing this. It might act like it
is connecting but it isn't, or it might connect but does
not properly establish the connection to properly
communicate.
If you suspect the connection is down, just
re-connect manually, then try to send the
message. That should work, but if you still get the same
message, it could be that your DNS server or mail server
configuration in your software is not correct.
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Email is being Delivered
Slowly
Unfortunately email delivery time when sent outside
our network can be slow and at times unreliable. This is
the nature of the Internet and there is unfortunately
never a single contact to correct a problem. The problem
can also be compounded by the many inter-connected
networks. Even email within our network can be delayed
at peak times to handle large loads of email. Check the Network
Status Page for any known problems within our
network (meaning mail delivery is slow within our
network). You can test the efficiency of our network by
sending a test message to yourself, it does not leave
our network.
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If you are unable to Download email,
but email is sent successfully:
- Verify your email settings are correct
(your POP server, POP username and login password
must be correctly listed in your email software).
- If it has worked before, check the System
Status for mail outages.
- If you experienced an abrupt disconnection, wait
about 15 minutes to retry downloading mail.
Otherwise you may receive "0 messages"
or "previous process found" until
the POP server restores your mail.
- Test your mailbox by logging into your account via
our WebMail
system.
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If you are unable to Send email, but
email is downloaded successfully:
- Verify your email settings are correct (the
SMTP server and email address must be correctly
listed in your email software).
- If it has worked before, check the System
Status for mail outages.
- Send a message to your email address as a test.
Make sure to type the full email address in the
correct location of the message window.
- If the Reply To or Email Address setting has an
invalid domain name, mail will fail to be sent and
return the error "451 Unresolvable Domain"
(email addresses have the format username@domain).
If you want an anti-spam address, try something like
useridREMOVE@domain.
- Verify you connected into OUR service (via
Dial-Up, DSL, etc) before accessing our SMTP server.
If using another provider (Lan or Dial) you should
use their SMTP server to send out email.
If not you may receive the error "550 Access
Denied". If you receive this error dialed
into our service find the local IP address in the
dialer messages window.
Perform an NSLookup to verify it resolves to a
domain name (in Windows 95/98/NT issue "ping -a
IP.address" from an MS-Dos prompt to perform a
lookup).
If it fails to resolve OR if you are unable to
perform these procedures submit a problem to the
online helpdesk on our web page. Provide the local
IP address and dial access number being used.
- If you fail to connect smtp.linkline.com you may
want to try using the other name smtp1.linkline.com.
There is no difference between these servers because
they point to the same machines underneath the
covers, but switching may help your email software
clear its cache.
- If you are using Windows 95/98/NT open the Network
icon from Control Panel. Under the Identification
tab verify the Computer Name and Workgroup are only
alpha-numeric characters without any spaces. If not,
sending email may return an error "501
Invalid Domain".
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If you are unable to Send AND Download
email:
- Verify your email settings are correct (SMTP
server, email address, POP server, POP username and
login password should be setup).
- If it has worked before, check the System
Status for mail outages.
- If using an email application for Windows
95/98/NT/2000, or Mac, verify you are connected to
the Internet and can surf the web.
- Test your dial connection using ping. You can try
to ping your home page, the POP or SMTP server(s) to
see if you have a dial connection. In Windows
95/98/NT open an MS-Dos prompt and issue the
command: "ping mail.linkline.com"
without quotes. It should return replies. If you are
unable to Ping it is probably a connection problem.
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If you are unable to send email to a
Single (or few) addresses:
- Verify you typed out the full email address
in the correct location without using an address
book. Contact the owner of the email address to
verify it is valid (most problems relate to invalid
addresses).
- Anytime email fails to be delivered it should bounce
(or return) to the sender. The bounced email message
should contain a complete mail header with server
information (your email software should have an
option to display all headers).
The message header and errors in the message body
MUST be available to troubleshoot these problems.
Our outgoing and incoming mail system will bounce
any message that fails to reach its destination. We
can not control outside email systems which can
delete failed messages instead of bouncing them.
Once you have the email header information check for
the following:
- The recipient's email address should be
correctly listed in the message header. If not,
the message is being sent incorrectly. Check
your software settings and/or the message
window.
- If you see messages regarding "Too
many hops" on servers outside our
network, there is unfortunately nothing we can
do. This is because that system is too far off
the Internet backbone.
- If the header shows a failure in a certain
system, the header should be sent to the owning
network administration. If you suspect a
problem on our system submit the header through
the Support Form
on our web page.
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Other users are unable to reply to
your email messages:
If you do not specific an email address your email
software may default you userid@pop.server which is
invalid. Verify your email address or Reply to setting
contains your valid email address.
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Help with email attachments, once
downloaded:
When you send files through email it cannot be
transmitted as-is. Usually it is necessary to encode the
file in a particular way so the recipient's mail
software can understand it. Most email applications
automatically encode and decode files. However older
email applications may not support some of encoding
types. If you are having problems decoding an
attachment, contact the sender to determine what email
program they are using. Verify you have compatible
encoding schemes in use. If you were able to decode the
file but unable to view it, contact the sender to find
which reader program should be used to view the file.
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Receiving the same email message many
times:
If you continually download the same email
message(s) verify the option "delete retrieved
mail" is enabled in your software. If that fails
you may have a corrupt message your software can not
delete. Login to WebMail, to view your mailbox and to
delete the message manually.
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