Next time your email starts acting up, do nothing

My sister had problems recently receiving her email with Outlook Express. After talking to her on the phone for a few minutes I was able to resolve the problem. Turns out the username for her email account was incorrect and just needed to be reset.

My sister then asked me how this happened and what she could do to prevent this from happening in the future. I told her that I couldn't truly know the exact reason why her username was changed but I could take an educated guess. After hearing my own account of what probably happened I realized that the explanation could serve useful to many others who experience this same type of problem.

Don't do anything

So here's some advice for anyone that experiences problems sending or receiving email. Don't do anything

The reason I say that is because there are so many pieces to the Internet puzzle it is often difficult to determine which piece is broken. Just because your email software can't send and receive email doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the software. It could be a bad network card, a bad Ethernet cable, a bad modem, a bad router, a dropped connection from your Internet provider or the email provider itself experiencing downtime issues.

You aren't as good at puzzles as you think you are

My point is that you probably won't know which one it is. And as long as it isn't a physical piece of hardware in your home (ie., bad network card, bad cable, etc.) then odds are the party responsible for the connection issue will resolve the problem quickly. And believe me, 9 times out of 10 it will be a problem with something outside of your home. Trust me.

The problem is that many noobies think the problem is with the email software and start tinkering around with settings. They might try re-entering the user name or password or changing the mail server names based on some article they Google'd on the Internet. But all that does is create a bigger problem. If the issue is with your Internet Service Provider or your email provider, you've just done yourself an injustice since once they restore the connection, the issue will be your fault if you have tinkered one time too many with your email settings.

What to do next time

So the next time your email software throws up an error saying it can't send or receive your email, close the error message and walk away. Go brew a pot of coffee, throw in a load of laundry or take a hot shower. Then try again. If after an hour or so things still aren't working, then it's time to call Noobie or that geeky teenager across the street.