Tech Team: In the Trenches

June 2008 Volume 6 Issue 5

Table of Contents


Email problems got you down?

Email is possibly the most commonly used form of communication today – at least during the work day. With so much of our personal data, as well as work-related data relying on email providers to seamlessly transport information across the "cyber" highway, we thought we’d take this month’s issue to cover some common email problems and solutions.

And remember, if none of these solutions work for you, don’t stress yourself out – call the Tech Helpline!

AOL Users
America Online – perhaps one of the largest email providers worldwide, AOL provides user friendly features but often times can create frustration for its users. Below are some common questions we hear.

"Why don’t I get emails that other people have sent me?"
The three most common reasons your emails are not reaching you are:
  1. You are blocking that sender or all senders (most often, inadvertently). Check your AOL Mail Controls to make sure you remove any blocks that may have been placed on those senders.
  2. AOL received the email, but filtered it as Spam. Check your Junk Email folders to see if AOL categorized it as junk. If so, add this user to your Address Book to prevent them from being filtered to Spam in the future.
  3. AOL could be blocking the sender’s email provider from sending mail because there have been complaints of abuse. Have your contact see AOL's Postmaster.Info: AOL Member FAQ for more information on how to make sure their messages get through. If this is the problem, they would be unable to get mail through to any AOL members, not just you.
"Why do I get a "Mailer Daemon" error message back when I send out emails?"
The Mailer Daemon message comes from an automated program which returns email back to the sender if the email is undeliverable. Email may be undeliverable if the recipient's mailbox is full, their email server is experiencing difficulty, or if the email address is incorrect.

When a mail server returns an email as undeliverable, the domain’s postmaster normally generates an automatic message including the error. The most common error is an incorrectly typed email address. Be sure to check the spelling of the address, and make sure there are no extra spaces or characters in the address (i.e., parentheses or quotation marks).

Of course, a Mailer Daemon message could also be due to issues outside your control. For example, the computers located at that Internet address could be temporarily unavailable, or the receiving site could be down, or the AOL service could be experiencing problems communicating with the receiving site.

"Why does mail sent to me, or mail I send to others take so long to arrive?"
For AOL users sending to other email providers, the transfer should occur within a few minutes (no longer than 15 minutes). But of course there are times when it takes longer. Here are some possible reasons for this:
  1. Some mail sites only connect to the Internet at certain times of the day, and stores mail to be sent and received until those periodic connections.
  2. Some mail sites have smaller bandwidth and take them longer to transmit mail.
  3. Smaller mail servers, less complex than the larger Internet Service Providers like AOL, can have trouble communicating with AOL servers properly. In this case, their mail can be rejected totally.
  4. Mail sites can be incorrectly configured resulting in failed email attempts on the first try. This causes a delay where mail is retried over many hours, even days before its delivered, or an error message is returned to sender.
For AOL users sending to other AOL users, transmittal should be almost instantaneous. If you do experience delays or receive error messages, it could be from temporary problems with AOL’s mail system. In this instance, you may just have to wait for an hour or so until the issue is resolved.

Outlook Users
Most companies and homes use Microsoft Outlook as their email provider. There are so many features and options that can be customized to make each user’s experience fit their needs. Below are a couple scenarios that you might run into.

"Is there a way to download my Gmail messages into my Outlook account?"
Yes, in today’s world where we all have multiple email accounts, this is a common request. Maintaining multiple email accounts can be difficult, but there is a way to have them all available in your Outlook email. Most ISPs (Internet Service Provider) will have an option to do this by using one of two protocols, POP or IMAP.

But before you make any selections, you need to understand the difference between POP and IMAP.
POP (Post Office Protocol) lets you download messages from Gmail's servers onto your computer’s Outlook program. This way even when you aren't connected to the Internet, you can still access and edit your emails or attached files.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) does the same as POP would, but it also offers a constant connection between your Gmail and your Outlook. For example, if you move some of your Gmail messages to a "clients" folder in Outlook, it will give these messages a "clients" label in Gmail. Most experts agree that IMAP is the stronger choice to access your mail from multiple devices, as well as offering a more stable experience.
Once determining which option to use, in Gmail you go to your Settings button and select the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab. You will simply select the option for Enable POP or Enable IMAP. Once you chose the option you follow the Configuration Instructions provided. We’ve provided the links here for you, but you’ll see the same links in the Gmail settings.
POP instructions
IMAP instructions

The instructions will allow you to choose which version of Outlook to configure with (2003, 2007, Outlook Express). Once you choose your version, it will walk you through step by step instructions, with screenshots. If you choose 2003, it even includes a demo – for those who are visual learners.

"When I try to print my calendar for the year, it cuts off some of the dates at the end of the month."
There is a known issue in Outlook 2007, where months that exceed five or six weeks do not print properly. If the first month included in the print job is five weeks, than all months printed will contain only five weeks – even those which contain six weeks (like March and November 2008).

You can install Outlook 2007 Service Pack (SP) 1 to fix this issue, but it still may print differently than expected. If you’re still unhappy after installing the service pack, you can also install the Calendar Printing Assistant to help modify your printing options.

If you’ve never tried to print your calendar, here are a few quick steps on how to do it.
  1. Open your calendar view in Microsoft Office
  2. Click File, then Print. In the window that opens, you can select which style you’d like to print:
    1. Daily
    2. Weekly
    3. Monthly
    4. Tri-fold
    5. Calendar details
  3. Once you select the style type, you can make further adjustments to the page setup.
    1. For example, you can choose how many pages should make up each month (one, or two for more space); you can choose to include an area for notes or tasks on the calendar; you can even choose to remove the weekend days if you prefer.
    2. Another option you can adjust in your page setup is the actual paper size and type, including margins, headers and footers, and font – just like you would in any other Word document.
  4. After all your selections have been made, you can click on the Preview button to view how your calendar will look once printed. If you have no further changes, click Print and that’s it!
Hope these tips help. And remember if you don’t understand – call the Tech Helpline!

Still having trouble understanding this? Call the Technology Helpline, where we'll be happy to walk you through resolving any of these issues.

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