Hoping someone can help! Some (about 5%) of my sent emails aren't getting
through to recipients, or are getting delayed by hours. They ARE appearing
in my Sent folder. My server (Yahoo Small Business - I know - Yuck!) says
their system is working perfectly (ha!). My ISP (Comcast) seems to be
working fine (after all, 95% of the emails are going through fine). Any
thoughts on what the problem could be, and how to get this solved? I even
Bcc'd myself on a message I sent today and didn't receive it back for over 2
hours! Note - there are never more than 1-2 people in the "To" line - this
isn't mass email stuff. Thanks!!

It is very possible that your ISP is responsible, but you can try the
following to help eliminate the possibility that it is OE.

Do the following for the Outbox, and if the problem persists, repeat for
Sent Items after you move any messages you wish to save to a local folder
you create.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise, write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, Win2K & Win2K03 the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable
Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options |
View.

With OE closed, find the DBX file for the folder in question {Outbox.dbx}
and delete it. A new one will be created automatically when you open OE.

General precautions for Outlook Express:

Make sure you are fully up-to-date at Windows Updates.

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move your
mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created
folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are
open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the
Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until
the compacting is completed.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as
time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will
continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and
leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Jessica Hahn" wrote in message
...
Hoping someone can help! Some (about 5%) of my sent emails aren't getting
through to recipients, or are getting delayed by hours. They ARE
appearing
in my Sent folder. My server (Yahoo Small Business - I know - Yuck!) says
their system is working perfectly (ha!). My ISP (Comcast) seems to be
working fine (after all, 95% of the emails are going through fine). Any
thoughts on what the problem could be, and how to get this solved? I even
Bcc'd myself on a message I sent today and didn't receive it back for over
2
hours! Note - there are never more than 1-2 people in the "To" line -
this
isn't mass email stuff. Thanks!!

I will try this - thanks Bruce!!

"Bruce Hagen" wrote:

It is very possible that your ISP is responsible, but you can try the
following to help eliminate the possibility that it is OE.

Do the following for the Outbox, and if the problem persists, repeat for
Sent Items after you move any messages you wish to save to a local folder
you create.

Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder will reveal the location of
your Outlook Express files. Press the Tab key to highlight the folder
location, then Ctrl+C. Close OE, then Start | Run | Ctrl+V will put the
location in the box - Click OK and you'll see the OE files. Otherwise, write
the location down and navigate to it in Windows Explorer.

In WinXP, Win2K & Win2K03 the OE user files (DBX and WAB) are by default
marked as hidden. To view these files in Windows Explorer, you must enable
Show Hidden Files and Folders under Start | Control Panel | Folder Options |
View.

With OE closed, find the DBX file for the folder in question {Outbox.dbx}
and delete it. A new one will be created automatically when you open OE.

General precautions for Outlook Express:

Make sure you are fully up-to-date at Windows Updates.

Do not archive mail in default OE folders. They will eventually become
corrupt. Create your own user defined folders for storing mail and move your
mail to them. Empty Deleted Items folder regularly. Keep user created
folders under 100MB, and Default folders as empty as is feasible.

After you are done, follow up by compacting your folders manually while
working *offline* and do it often.

Click on Outlook Express at the top of the folder tree so no folders are
open. Then: File | Work Offline (or double click Working Online in the
Status Bar). File | Folder | Compact all folders. Don't touch anything until
the compacting is completed.

Turn off e-mail scanning in your anti-virus program. It is a redundant layer
of protection that eats up CPUs and causes a multitude of problems such as
time-outs and account setting changes. Your up-to-date A/V program will
continue to protect you sufficiently. For more, see:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

In Tools | Options | Maintenance: Uncheck Compact messages in background and
leave it unchecked. {N/A if running XP/SP2}.
--
Bruce Hagen
MS MVP - Outlook Express
~IB-CA~

"Jessica Hahn" wrote in message
...
Hoping someone can help! Some (about 5%) of my sent emails aren't getting
through to recipients, or are getting delayed by hours. They ARE
appearing
in my Sent folder. My server (Yahoo Small Business - I know - Yuck!) says
their system is working perfectly (ha!). My ISP (Comcast) seems to be
working fine (after all, 95% of the emails are going through fine). Any
thoughts on what the problem could be, and how to get this solved? I even
Bcc'd myself on a message I sent today and didn't receive it back for over
2
hours! Note - there are never more than 1-2 people in the "To" line -
this
isn't mass email stuff. Thanks!!

If copies of the messages appear in Sent Items, chances are that the problem
lies somewhere outside of OE.
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-Windows (IE/OE, Shell/User, Security), Aumha.org VSOP, DTS-L.org

Jessica Hahn wrote:
Hoping someone can help! Some (about 5%) of my sent emails aren't getting
through to recipients, or are getting delayed by hours. They ARE
appearing in my Sent folder. My server (Yahoo Small Business - I know -
Yuck!) says their system is working perfectly (ha!). My ISP (Comcast)
seems to be working fine (after all, 95% of the emails are going through
fine). Any thoughts on what the problem could be, and how to get this
solved? I even Bcc'd myself on a message I sent today and didn't receive
it back for over 2 hours! Note - there are never more than 1-2 people in
the "To" line - this isn't mass email stuff. Thanks!!

Assuming you are using the Send Immediately (Tools, Options, Send) and
you see the message move to your Sent Items right away, the delays are
likely on the servers.

If you look at the Message Source (Ctrl-F3) you can see the "Received:"
headers. Each mail server inserts one as the message is received by
that server. They are in reverse order with the top most one being the
most recent. Looking at the differences in the times may give a clue as
to where the delay was. The problem is that you can't tell whether the
delay was caused by the receiving server or the sending one.

I've also seen cases of where a message was received my ISP's mail
server, yet was not available for download for some time. In some
cases, messages received by the mail server later where available for
download before some received earlier. I suspect that some of this
happens when the ISP has multiple mail servers and there is some delay
in communication between them.

As for the messages gone missing, that's most likely due to some spam
filtering by the recipient's mail server or on their PC. And it may be
nothing obvious in the message that triggers the filter. I've had a
case where 2 short messages where sent from a relative to me a few
minutes apart. One got through OK, the other got trapped by my ISP's
spam filter.

--

Mike - http://pages.prodigy.net/michael_santovec/techhelp.htm


"Jessica Hahn" wrote in message
...
Hoping someone can help! Some (about 5%) of my sent emails aren't
getting
through to recipients, or are getting delayed by hours. They ARE
appearing
in my Sent folder. My server (Yahoo Small Business - I know - Yuck!)
says
their system is working perfectly (ha!). My ISP (Comcast) seems to be
working fine (after all, 95% of the emails are going through fine).
Any
thoughts on what the problem could be, and how to get this solved? I
even
Bcc'd myself on a message I sent today and didn't receive it back for
over 2
hours! Note - there are never more than 1-2 people in the "To" line -
this
isn't mass email stuff. Thanks!!

"Jessica Hahn" wrote in message
...
Hoping someone can help! Some (about 5%) of my sent emails aren't getting
through to recipients, or are getting delayed by hours. They ARE
appearing
in my Sent folder. My server (Yahoo Small Business - I know - Yuck!) says
their system is working perfectly (ha!). My ISP (Comcast) seems to be
working fine (after all, 95% of the emails are going through fine). Any
thoughts on what the problem could be, and how to get this solved? I even
Bcc'd myself on a message I sent today and didn't receive it back for over
2
hours! Note - there are never more than 1-2 people in the "To" line -
this
isn't mass email stuff. Thanks!!

Another possibility is an anti-virus set to scan email. The anti-virus puts
a proxy between OE and the server. It tells OE the mail has been sent and
then scans it in the proxy. If the server drops the connection before the
anti-virus actually gets around to sending, the message never really gets
sent. Turn off all email scanning in your anti-virus. It provides no added
protection over having the anti-virus running in the background without
email scanning.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Please reply in newsgroup. Do NOT send email.