Web Mail Blog

Reading attached mail still a major problem; too long between advertisements; not happy with the set up at all.

Hello Again!

Re.: A handy clue you're connected (assumes you're using Dial-Up Networking, a.k.a. DUN)

Since *all* DUN connections are prone to getting bumped off several times a day, I find the following *very* useful. (I use a cellular modem with Verizon Wireless (VzW), who provides me with an excellent "Road Warrior Class" connection everywhere I travel throughout the southern US. As good as it is, I still get bumped at least once daily, totally independent of the signal strength. VzW, Are you paying attention?)

On Mac OS X you can go to the System Preferences, Network Pane, and hunt for the "modem" subtab. There you'll find a check box to put a cute little status icon in the system's main menu bar. It looks like an old-fashioned phone handset - when it's online there are darkened (instead of grayed-out) sound waves next to it. (If you can remember actually using a 300 bit per second acoustic coupler, the inspiration for that icon, you're OLD!)

For you youngsters who have no idea what I'm talking about, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_coupler

Re.: The BCC info getting thrown away.

Even if you otherwise have no reason to do so, first save the e-mail with the BCC's to the "Drafts" folder. Next reopen the draft containing the BCC's and make some meaningless and invisible edit, like adding a space at the end of the document. Now save the tweaked copy to the "Drafts" folder. Finally open the tweaked copy and send it.

Voila! Your mail goes out, the tweaked copy vanishes from "Drafts" but you still have a valid copy in "Drafts" with the intact BCC's.

The tweaked copy that vanished from "Drafts" ends up in the "Trash" with the intact BCC's. Unless you set your "Trash" to never empty, you can NOT count on it staying there.

Beware: If you move that backup draft to any other folder (except maybe "Trash"), the BCC's will be stripped from it.

Is that clever, or what? :-p

I Hope This Helps,

Brad

Still have not seen any movement on the ign Out Icon. Still think that moving it to the top would be a nice addition. When a user accesses webmail and there are no messages they have to scroll down to get to the Log Off. If it was under "write message" you would not have to scroll to click on the Sign Out Icon. My two cents...............again

Re: 175

Hi again, hope you had (are having?) a nice weekend. In your last reply, you said:

"The auth server supports both port 25 and port 587. 587 is the standard one as that is never blocked and can be used even when you are off-network (traveling for example) since many ISPs do block port 25 traffic to any server other than their own. To be clear, the auth server is smtpauth.earthlink.net. The old server, smtp.earthlink.net, is obsolete and should not be used by any users, and yes, it is being progressively blocked across all of our network (by us) and that is nearly done. That server hasn't been published or officially supported for three years, it just happened to still be online."

Hmm...maybe that's why I didn't get a notification. I wasn't using smtp.earthlink.net -- I was using mail.earthlink.net! Tells you how long ago I set everything up, I guess :-) .

"See note above, that information is correct. Don't confuse port with using the correct server which is smtpauth.earthlink.net. Both ports are supported by us on that server, but 25 is blocked by some networks if you are not on an EarthLink connection. Our call centers do not support old software like Netscape 4.x but that isn't because it won't work. For the same reason we don't support Windows 3.1, but some people still have it and use it. It is just old, and we have to limit the number of versions of software that we train on and document for call centers.

If you have set the right server in your Netscape 4.x and turned on authentication, using the full email address for authentication, and it fails on both port 25 and port 587, then I need to know what happens to help you further. The error message you indicated in your first comment was saying that you did not have authentication enabled."

Playing around with the server settings in Netscape 4 was one of the early things I tried -- and perhaps we've found the problem. Here's what I did to check/change the settings: Select Preferences from edit menu, then select Mail & Newsgroups, then select Mail Servers. Incoming server is pop.earthlink.net. Outgoing server is smptauth.earthlink.net . Outgoing mail server user name is my user name, without the email address. Use SSL or TLS for outgoing messages is set to "never". When I attempt to send email with these settings, I do get asked to type in my password -- then I get an error message of:
"An error occurred while sending mail:SMTP server error.
The server responded:
elasmtp-banded.atl.sa.earthlink.net Hello
earthlink.net [4.156.189.106]
SIZE 14680064
PIPELINING
AUTH PLAIN LOGIN CRAM-MD5"

If I try to set the "outgoing server user name" field to xxxxxxxxxxx@earthlink.net I get a pop-up box warning about "Your POP User Name is just your user name (e.g. user), not your full POP address (e.g. user@internet.com)." And it returns the field to the previous value of xxxxxxxxxxx . My full email address is set on the "Email address" field on the "identity" page , but I can't find any way to do it on the "Mail Servers" page. This appears to be the intended behavior of Netscape 4.75 as the help file says "At Outgoing mail server user name: enter your login name as provided by your system administrator or Internet service provider. Do not enter your entire email address."

Since your message indicated that the full email address is required for authentication, maybe we've found the problem? If so, then maybe you can tell me how you all worked it out during your testing. I've tried everything I can think of.

"It isn't about the port, it is about using the correct server. We sent all users notifications by email in 2004, 2005, and 2006, several times. Evidently you didn't get one, so I apologize for that."

You are being wonderfully helpful, and I doubt it was your job to see that I got the notifications -- I more wanted to make someone at Earthlink aware that the notification process didn't quite work, so that if there's a future large-scale change someone knows to check that user notifications really DO get to everyone.

Thanks for the changes. Most helpful. Is it possible to have the option of font size, bold, underline on email messages?

I generally like Earthlink web mail very much and don't have many complaints.

I do however DISLIKE intensely being forced to the my web mail page when I sign off of one account and move to another. I don't use it, don't like it, and find it an annoyance. I want to go directly to the plain vanilla web mail page and resent being forced elsewhere.

I have complained about this several time and been told that's the way it is.

If there is a way to set up so that I am not forced to the no doubt useful (to some) my web mail, please let me know!

Thanks.

Can't you remove the 3 attachment limit on the "write message" dialog box?

This is a real nuisance. I often need to include more attachments!

And where did the option to "Mark" the email go? YOu used to be able to mark it as read, unread, etc?

I haven't been able to import my address book from my Mac Mail Address Book. I converted the exported Address Book file (.abbu) into a .csv (with a small utility) and when I tried to import it with Web Mail, I got the following message:
.
The uploded file doesn't seem to be an Outlook Express CSV file.
Is there any way to import my Mac Mail Ad.Bk.?

Also, I'm not seeing the option to add color or graphics to my messages. I don't see a Color and Graphics link next to Write. I'm not even seeiong an option to change fonts. This is my 1st day with a Web Mail account. Am I missing something??

Re search engine -- I would like to be able to have a go to page
I am on a list serve and get over 2 mb every day and a half. If I am not paying attention - it quickly adds up. I like to use the server to check my email from any location. Yet moving page by page is timeconsuming. Therefore how about a button allowing for go to email number 2200. (for example. ) thank you. or a quick way to move between buttons.

My problem, when signing in to my e mail can take up to 3-4 min.
never less than 2 min. totally un excepable. PC experts have
told me it is earthlink that is slow. eather change your email
server or contact earthlink. phillip seaborn

in webmail, it might save some bit traffic to revert to the original message, following a 'reply' or 'forward' - most often, that message is what needs to be cleaned out at that point. Presently, just goes to INBOX following those actions.

Since changes have been made I find on my screen:

Sign-in failed. A personal firewall or other security software is blocking the temporary cookie required by Web Mail. Please disable cookie blocking or configure your software to allow cookies from earthlink.net.

Cookies are fully enabled. Have made no changes to firewall or security. ???

Can access mail only by using Mozilla/Firefox instead of usual Netscape (I won't use Microsnot). I guess this is a clue but I'm too old and doddering to figure it out.

Any ideas?

Thank you.

Hello, eMail Guy!

Re.: the item Posted by: Carl Anderson on December 6, 2007 7:56 PM

You referred Carl to http://www.earthlink.net/webmail/help/earthlink/en_US/import_help.html
for help with importing CSV formated entries into the WebMail Address Book.

At the bottom of the referenced page I see an anomaly:
"Anniversary
Profession
Nickname
Nickname
Birthday
Categories"

Is "Nickname" really supposed to appear twice? In every other occurrence of multiple tags, *all* of the extras are numbered. What's up with this?

I Hope This helps,

Brad

I've been traveling since 12/1. By choice, that's the only time I use webmail. In that time--almost 2 weeks now--I've accessed webmail from 2 different computers--a friend's desktop and my own business laptop, and on both a WiFi home network and a wired hotel network. I've been fairly consistently having a problem with signing OUT of my e-mail. I can get in OK, mostly, but logging out, after a bit of delay, produces an Error 500 in Tomcat about 80-90% of the time. I can't tell if I'm really logged out or not, though I don't see any problem if I try to log in again, so I probably am. But the Error 500 is annoying and obviously a server "oops."

Dear Email Guy,
Last night (12/13/07) I had 100 emails in my INBOX and 86 emails in my SENT box. This morning (12/14/2007) I have 0 emails in my INBOX, but still have 86 emails in my SENT box. What happened to the 100 emails in my INBOX and how do I get them back? Appreciate any help you can offer.

PS: The emails did not get transferred to another email program, like Outlook.

Please do something to increase the number of email addresses you can reply to at one time. I have a large email group that I need to keep in contact with and currently I have to break it up into multiple emails in order to contact everyone.

I belong to several mailing lists. I also have the spam blocker on _high_. When I post to a list my own messages are filtered into the _suspect mail_ folder and I must manually OK them. I can't find any combination of addresses that will allow my own messages to get through. Attempts to fix this using Earthlink's chat support have been useless. If this is a bug it needs to be fixed. If its a setting it certainly seems to be obscure. Conversation with others using mailing lists indicates this is not an isolated problem.
BTW, I belong to one list using a second address, this one has the spam blocker set for medium and my own messages to this list get through fine. Why does the spam blocker think my own messages to my primary address are "suspect".

It would be helpful for those of us using HIGH spam blocker, if, when we send an email to someone not on our approved list, we got a dialog box asking if we wanted to place the addressee on our accepted addresses list. I have repeatedly missed or nearly missed replies to requests, inquiries, complaints, etc., because the spam blocker refuses them.
Thanks,
Steve McCarthy

I don't know where this Quick Search came from but this is not good. I can't read my e-mail from this poping up and when it comes up if your trying to do anything with e-mail you lose it. It has taken my e-mail over and I an in the process of changing my ISP because of it. I have tried everything to get rid of it and it's still there. So if this gets to anyone that cares put a stop to it!!!!

This new page "look" is going to make me look around for a new email provider. As far as I can tell, the only change advantage is for you and your advertising page density. Nothing benefits me as an email user. Please attempt to correct me if I am wrong!!

Please move or repeat the log out button at the top. Having it at the bottom is super annoying because of the need to scroll for it.

Other annoyances: Back button doesn't work anymore and "next" is ambiguous. It's also way too difficult to add people to the address book. Why not an add-this-person kind of function that grabs the From or To address depending on whether it's an incoming or outgoing message?

Overall, things are getting better here though. Thanks!

Why is it that when I go to the log in page the pop up warning from Windows comes up, intermittently, stating "You are about to view secure and non secure items on this page"? This never happened prior to the last several upgrades and it's kind of annoying when you are interrupted while trying to log in. Is it your advertising that's hindering a smooth log in?

You know, I find that ad to the right of the webmail login site EXTREMELY annoying. I'm already typing in my user name and password and it (the university of phoenix ad...well at least it is an ad for them in my neck of the woods) and it has not finished loading its graphics yet.....and somehow when it has finished loading its graphics....low and behold the cursor has magically moved from the password blank back up to the user name blank subsequently screwing up the entire deal. I'm so SICK OF THIS!!! I don't want to sit there and wait for that stupid ad to finish its business before I can log in. I mean come on, doesn't earthlink make enough money without having to sleeze itself out for this paltry ad on this webmail login page? And if you really have to, can you not fix this problem?????? And sorry, there was no way I was going to read every single solitary question that has already been posted. i assume if someone else is mad about this then maybe you know about this problem already, but if not.....here ya go!

Can I complete the sign-In phase once on my home computer and not go through the whole process process each time I sighn on?