CAn anyone help me with MAIL and my earthlink account?

Question

CAn anyone help me with MAIL and my earthlink account?

I've had DSL with Earthlink for several years now and never had connection problems. In the past two weeks, however, MAIL will sometimes fail to send email and sometimes fail to retrieve email from my Earthlink webmail account. The strangest thing is that this happens intermittently, even though no settings have been changed. Most of the time I can retrieve email, but other times I get the error message that "port 110 has timed out". Most of the time, I cannot send email, but other times the email shoots right through when I open mail.
I called Earthlink about this and we set up my MAIL program step by step according to Earthlink guidelines. Unfortunately, this did not help the matter.
My MAIL preference settings are as follows:
My incoming mail server is pop.mindspring.com on port 110.
My outgoing mail server is smtpauth.earthlink.net. The outgoing server port is 587. SSL is not checked. Authentication is by password.
All of these settings are correct according to the Earthlink tech.
If this matters, my G5 is connected wirelessly to an Airport Express base station.
Again, I'm puzzled that I've only just begun to have these issues and they seem to happen randomly.I also see that similar discussions have been had on this forum with Earthlink and MAIL, but I don't see any resolutions. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

Message was edited by: Kevin Robinson

Message was edited by: Kevin Robinson

iMAC G5, Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Posted on Sep 5, 2007 7:50 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 5, 2007 8:27 AM in response to Kevin Robinson

Kevin,

I do not have Earthlink (once did before they pulled out of my area), but I am wondering if there is a problem on their end, since this is random, with completion of authentication since you have a mindspring account, but are, by policy, using the Earthlink SMTP, which must be authenticated, using the full email address as the Username, per instructions on their support pages? The continued use of mindspring and sprintmail domains must be challenging, as efforts to limit the use of the smtpauth.earthlink.net must be a bit challenging, and the time to complete might be the source of the error, again since random.

Have you asked them about this aspect, and furthermore could they provide you with an Earthlink domain email address in addition to your Mindspring domain address -- the former could then be used in the Authentication of the SMTP, even for the mindspring address, I think.

Ernie

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Answer 2

Sep 5, 2007 8:38 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Ernie-
Thanks for the quick response! That's not a bad idea. I didn't think about having a mindspring account having to be authenticated by an earthlink server. I'll investigate and post any results.

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Answer 3

Sep 5, 2007 10:20 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Well, the tech says that could not be the case. We also tried plugging the ethernet cable directly into the Mac instead of using Airport to see if that could be causing the timeout. No luck.

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Answer 4

Sep 5, 2007 10:49 AM in response to Kevin Robinson

Kevin,

That is all you can do with that question for now, although I think he may have been too quick to dismiss, given it is working part of the time.

What frequency of checking for New Mail are you using? If less than five minutes change immediately, and for some testing, I would set it to 10 minutes for a bit.

What version of OSX 10.4 are you running -- your info says 10.4.4? Do you have any problems with updating to the latest, or have you already?

Ernie

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Answer 5

Sep 5, 2007 11:01 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Thanks Ernie, I had the setting on checking every minute. I changed that to checking every 15 minutes.
The tech seemed intent on proving it was the Airport Express base station that was the problem with the connection. BTW- I am running OSX 10.4.10. I just need to update my listing.
Thanks.

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Answer 6

Sep 5, 2007 12:48 PM in response to Kevin Robinson

Keep me posted on how it functions with less frequent checking.

Ernie

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Answer 7

Sep 5, 2007 7:12 PM in response to Kevin Robinson

In addition to Ernie’s suggestions, go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Network, choose Network Port Configurations from the Show popup menu, and make sure that the configuration used to connect to Internet appears at the top of the list. Leave checked (enabled) only the port configuration needed to connect to Internet and Built-in Ethernet (in that order if not the same), uncheck (disable) the rest of network port configurations and see whether that helps — if it doesn’t, turn ON again the ones you want enabled.

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Answer 8

WDawson

Level 1

8 points

Sep 7, 2007 5:32 PM in response to David Gimeno Gost

I've been having similar problems with Earthlink accounts and Mail for the last few weeks. Posted elsewhere in these discussions, tried Earthlink Support, searched the internet for tips. Nothing worked until I came upon this suggestion. It seems to have fixed the problem! Thanks, David.

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Answer 9

WDawson

Level 1

8 points

Sep 7, 2007 5:41 PM in response to WDawson

Spoke too soon. The problem is recurring. This was the pattern when Earthlink suggested new server settings, etc. Their advice would fix the problem initially, then it would happen again. As things stand now, I can very intermittently receive mail through the Earthlink accounts, but never send. I can send and receive fine through my Gmail and .Mac accounts, also set up on Mail.

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Answer 10

Sep 9, 2007 7:59 AM in response to WDawson

Just to keep this thread going, I can now receive mail when I first open the Mail program, but it times out soon after. If I create a message, the outgoing server will time out. However, the next time I open Mail, the message will sometimes be sent on its way. This is obviously a communication problem between Mail and the Earthlink servers. I hope they come up with a solution soon.

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Answer 11

noapple

Level 1

14 points

Sep 9, 2007 10:17 AM in response to Kevin Robinson

I have used earthlink for six years with no problem. For the past two weeks have had exactly the same problems. It is intermittent. It is worse with sending mail than receiving mail. Also cannot go to the status report in the earthlink support page and cannot go to webmail from the earthink page in my browser. Spent one hour with upper level support today and no progress. They are going to check lines which come from COVAD. Very frustrating problem. Would also be interested to know if others have the problem going to status report or web mail from earthlink server.

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Answer 12

Sep 9, 2007 12:55 PM in response to noapple

Yes, exactly the same problem. Cannot check webmail on the earthlink homepage and have used both Safari and Camino to try to access. I just received and sent email with Mail, but now both connections are timed out. Yes, pretty frustrating.

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Answer 13

Cathy Z

Level 1

0 points

Sep 9, 2007 4:34 PM in response to Kevin Robinson

Yes, I have had the same difficulty all day today. I cannot access Web Mail from my Earthlink home page, nor from my browser at all. Both Safari on my Apple IBook and Internet Explorer (on another home PC) cannot connect with Web Mail today. Very frustrating, since the Earthlink people had me delete my mail account on my Apple (ouch! All my messages on inbox and send folders are permanently gone) and told me to use Web Mail. Earthlink says it is an Apple problem; I talked to an Apple support person who seemed to indicate it was a connectivity problem with Earthlink's server. Given all that I've read on this discussion and all the tips that everyone has suggested, and connections still can't be made, no matter what model of Apple computer, my bet is that the problem rests with Earthlink's servers.

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Answer 14

goodinuf

Level 1

0 points

Sep 9, 2007 7:30 PM in response to Cathy Z

I had problems with my Earthlink DSL quitting about a month ago. I went through some of the same Earthlink tech support troubleshooting hoops, hooking directly into my ethernet port not into the Airport etc. Eventually an Earthlink senior tech said my Netopia modem was defective. After some financial haggling they sent me a new Zycel modem, that didn't work either. Earthlink made an appointment and sent out an AT&T tech to the house. He hooked in and said it was a defective phone company circuit board. The AT&T tech called in for the phone company to change the circuit board now both the Netopia and Zycel modems work.

Note: while checking the line, the AT&T tech it my DSL line was sending one protocol it would work if my modem was set up to receive it. (protocol is my word I don't remember his exact word).

Another Note: Also when Earthlink wanted to replace my modem they wanted my to pay (the dollar amounts are approximate) $80 for an new modem, or get a free modem with an exorbitant $40 shipping fee and commit to an other year of service. I eventually bargained down to a free modem, free shipping and $20 off the monthly fee.

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Answer 15

Sep 10, 2007 1:14 PM in response to Kevin Robinson

I have had identical problems with the e-mail not
connecting but occasionally. "time out port 110"
This started about three weeks ago. I called Earthlink and went
through the standard routine of checking settings. The
service representative said it was best for me to call Apple.
I believe this to be an Earthlink connection problem
and not Apple. Then again it may be the telephone lines/circuits
faulty but it is Earthlink's responsibility to get to the problem
wherever it exists.

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