e-mail Hell-Not Being Able to Get Your Correspondence

 Every morning, I start my day by grabbing a cup of coffee, boot up the computer, download and read my e-mail.

Not today.

Grab the coffee, boot up, download e-mail? Got lots of accounts, so it usually takes a couple of sips of java before everything is there. I use Windows Live Mail as my mail client of choice (actually there was no choice using Vista) because it is similar to Outlook Express.

After a little while, and a half a cup of coffee, my Business Account locks up. It says it is receiving mail, but just sits there. It times out. So, I just continue going through my daily routine and figure I can come back to it later. No biggie, plenty to do and the e-mail will still be there later.

After going through everything that should be done in my morning start up and 2 more cups of coffee, I figure I’ll recheck my Business e-mail. Important stuff. Payments, client correspondence, bills. Not fun always, but important.

 Still not working. Still locks up.

Since I was expecting some important information, I decided to go directly to the e-mail on my host account to make sure that it was working and was receiving mail. The stuff I needed was there but I needed to store it on my computer for filing purposes. So, I tried Live Mail again.

Nothing… Time to call Bluehost and ask if they are blocking the account or my IP for some reason. This can happen when someone hacks your e-mail. Been there done that, didn’t want to go through that again.

Nope, everything is fine on their end, we double check my settings (which I did myself twice already) and everything was fine. They told me it had to be ME or something was corrupted in my mail client. After a bit of testiness on both sides of the phone, he suggested I delete my e-mail address and start fresh. Sure, I have 20 some folders with client and business info, NOT gonna happen. More testiness, told him I’d figure it out and decide later if I would stay with Bluehost.

Well, I am going to stay with Bluehost, it seems it wasn’t their fault NOR mine after all.

I logged back into my mail account on the host and went through the mail that was there. I deleted some of the files that were still there as read mail, but left all the unread so I could download them to my computer. Still nothing, same problem.

Went back in again to the host mail account and looked at all the files that were there. No real spam, but there was an advertisement e-mail from a company I have done business with before but had no interest in the product they were selling at this point. So I deleted their e-mail solicitation.

THAT was the culprit all along. It seems that the script they were using for their ad caused a timeout on my system because it activated as soon as I started the download.

Moral?

1) Sometimes an e-mail you get can cause major problems, even if it is from someone you trust.

2) Don’t be quick to blame someone else or yourself, the real problem could be caused from an outside source.

Do you have a way to make sure you get Your Important Information? Have you run into any similar situation yourself?