The E-mail troubles started around Oct 8 2008 So last week the networks went
casters up but no one really knows why.
Microsoft released a bunch of urgent fixes and there is even fixes for
their Office program. After that my E-mails stopped and my usual testing
failed. I have 3 different E-mail accounts on 3 different services. I
have changed nothing on any of my E-mail setups and I have several
computers to do the testing so it's easy for me.

I sent a test message to my other accounts from Yahoo and they all
bounced for several days. When they stopped bouncing and I could get
them on my computer I figured the network was fixed. I was happily
sending out messages and getting no errors so I thought they all went
through. After I got a telephone call that no one had heard from me I
did some testing again. I just sent E-mails to myself which is the quick
and dirty test to see if my E-mail server is working. Well none of those
worked so I thought I had a virus.

My next step to test was to swap out my 160 GB drive with my older 40
GB drive that I have not used in 5 months. The test worked fine with it
and I did the Microsoft updates and it stopped working. I then checked
my Comcast provider's E-mail web site and found my test messages in the
"screened file". The test messages had all been marked as spam. When I
marked them as "not spam" I could get them on my computer.

I just called Comcast and they said they are buried in calls about
E-mail troubles but I lucked out and had an intelligent person there. I
explained the steps I took and that I had worked in tech support for
years. Now as far as I could tell my Outlook Express and Thunderbird
E-mails were getting trapped but not my MS Office Outlook. In talking
with him and trying to figure out when my messages were marked as Spam I
decided to try one other thing. All my messages just had Test as the
header and Test as the message "BUT" the MS Office Outlook did not have
the same signature line inserted that I have used for 12 years now. I
removed my signature line and the E-mails are no longer bouncing.

If you think you are having an Email trouble and not seeing your own
generated E-mails but can do a reply to an Email then send an Email to
yourself with no inserted signature lines and let me know if it clears
your trouble.

Asked/Answered on 26 Oct-08. Please stick to your original thread:
http://www.microsoft.com/communities...5-94b6f3587183
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Desktop Experience - since 2002
AumHa VSOP & Admin http://aumha.net
DTS-L http://dts-l.net/

Don Armstrong wrote:
The E-mail troubles started around Oct 8 2008 So last week the networks
went
casters up but no one really knows why.
Microsoft released a bunch of urgent fixes and there is even fixes for
their Office program. After that my E-mails stopped and my usual testing
failed. I have 3 different E-mail accounts on 3 different services. I
have changed nothing on any of my E-mail setups and I have several
computers to do the testing so it's easy for me.

I sent a test message to my other accounts from Yahoo and they all
bounced for several days. When they stopped bouncing and I could get
them on my computer I figured the network was fixed. I was happily
sending out messages and getting no errors so I thought they all went
through. After I got a telephone call that no one had heard from me I
did some testing again. I just sent E-mails to myself which is the quick
and dirty test to see if my E-mail server is working. Well none of those
worked so I thought I had a virus.

My next step to test was to swap out my 160 GB drive with my older 40
GB drive that I have not used in 5 months. The test worked fine with it
and I did the Microsoft updates and it stopped working. I then checked
my Comcast provider's E-mail web site and found my test messages in the
"screened file". The test messages had all been marked as spam. When I
marked them as "not spam" I could get them on my computer.

I just called Comcast and they said they are buried in calls about
E-mail troubles but I lucked out and had an intelligent person there. I
explained the steps I took and that I had worked in tech support for
years. Now as far as I could tell my Outlook Express and Thunderbird
E-mails were getting trapped but not my MS Office Outlook. In talking
with him and trying to figure out when my messages were marked as Spam I
decided to try one other thing. All my messages just had Test as the
header and Test as the message "BUT" the MS Office Outlook did not have
the same signature line inserted that I have used for 12 years now. I
removed my signature line and the E-mails are no longer bouncing.

If you think you are having an Email trouble and not seeing your own
generated E-mails but can do a reply to an Email then send an Email to
yourself with no inserted signature lines and let me know if it clears
your trouble.

On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:26:44 -0400, Don Armstrong wrote:

The E-mail troubles started around Oct 8 2008 So last week the networks went
casters up but no one really knows why.

Seems to be a rehash of:

Message-ID:

Microsoft released a bunch of urgent fixes and there is even fixes for
their Office program. After that my E-mails stopped and my usual testing
failed. I have 3 different E-mail accounts on 3 different services. I
have changed nothing on any of my E-mail setups and I have several
computers to do the testing so it's easy for me.

Sounds like the common /Post hoc, ergo propter hoc/ logical fallacy. Didn't
change since your first post.

I sent a test message to my other accounts from Yahoo and they all
bounced for several days. When they stopped bouncing and I could get
them on my computer I figured the network was fixed.

The computer wasn't broken in the first place.

I was happily sending out messages and getting no errors so I thought they
all went through. After I got a telephone call that no one had heard from me I
did some testing again. I just sent E-mails to myself which is the quick
and dirty test to see if my E-mail server is working. Well none of those
worked so I thought I had a virus.

Why?

I just called Comcast and they said they are buried in calls about
E-mail troubles but I lucked out and had an intelligent person there. I
explained the steps I took and that I had worked in tech support for
years. Now as far as I could tell my Outlook Express and Thunderbird
E-mails were getting trapped but not my MS Office Outlook. In talking
with him and trying to figure out when my messages were marked as Spam I
decided to try one other thing. All my messages just had Test as the
header and Test as the message "BUT" the MS Office Outlook did not have
the same signature line inserted that I have used for 12 years now. I
removed my signature line and the E-mails are no longer bouncing.

If you think you are having an Email trouble and not seeing your own
generated E-mails but can do a reply to an Email then send an Email to
yourself with no inserted signature lines and let me know if it clears
your trouble.

Here's a news flash. Comcast has been changing their email service over to
something that they call SmartZone the last couple of months. Could it be
that SmartZone (i.e., Comcast) was the source of your problems. I have no
way to provide positive proof; but, as an 'at&t Yahoo! HSI' customer who
installed the exact same Microsoft Updates as you, I can assure you that I
have had no troubles with the AT&T/Yahoo! Mail servers. Of course, I also
don't use HTML signatures, and those have proved problematic in the past, as
well.

So, despite all your help desk experience, and your assumptions about MSFT
Updates, it turned out to be your ISP!

--
Norman
~Shine, bright morning light,
~now in the air the spring is coming.
~Sweet, blowing wind,
~singing down the hills and valleys.