Web Mail Blog

We're investigating recent reports of Apple Safari 3.0x crashing when using Web Mail.

UPDATE: I'm seeking more reports of this problem and we need some specific information to help isolate it. Please provide your OSX version, and your Safari version, and describe the action you took that preceded the crash.

When Safari 3.0 first came out, it crashed on many web sites including EarthLink Web Mail. Then Apple pushed out a software update some time in January that fixed it for a while. See this blog article for more information.

In the past week or so it appears Apple may have pushed out another update that created new problems. We haven't changed anything in Web Mail for several months that would be likely to affect the actions where users are reporting crashes. But a lot of reports have come in the past few days where Safari users are experiencing crashes. I checked Apple's support forums and I see that many users are experiencing these problems on lots of other web sites too. Some users say that the more recent updates from Apple caused this. Some users say they have reverted certain updates to earlier versions to clear up the trouble. We're going to do some tests to see what we can figure out.

In the meantime you might find help and information here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=876&start=0

My suggestions are:

Make sure you have the latest updates from Apple, and see if that clears up the trouble. If you have a new Mac with the first version of Safari 3.0 on it, it definitely has to be updated to stop Safari from crashing. This is a well-known issue not just affecting EarthLink users. Or if you just have the earlier versions of Safari 3.0 and don't have the recent updates, that may solve the problem. It has for some users.

We're working on tracking down any compatibilty problems that we may be able to control.

UPDATE: A little research seems to indicate that these problems might be related to the Flash player used with Safari. There is a discussion thread about the problem here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6631475

Some users have reported fixing the problem by uninstalling the Flash plugin and then reinstalling the correct one from Adobe. Several users on that Apple forum report that this solution works (copied from the Apple forum, not verified yet):

Adobe FlashPlayer should first be uninstalled using the appropriate uninstaller available here: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=2 and then the latest version obtained from here: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash and installed.

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Users report problems when viewing messages sent from Mac Mail software, particularly when the message includes file attachments.

If your sender from Mac Mail attaches the file before they enter the message text, you sometimes won't be able to see the attachment in Web Mail. It seems to only fail on plain text messages, not on HTML text. If they reverse the order and enter their text before they add the file attachment, you will get the attachment just fine. This problem is unique to messages sent from Mac Mail.

There is a related problem where if the Mac Mail sender attaches a file, and then enters HTML text afterward, then sometimes you will get the attachment but won't see the text. Reversing the order when sending fixes it, and it also doesn't seem to occur with plain text, only formatted text. This problem is NOT unique to viewing messages in Web Mail, but happens in most (or all) non-Mac email programs when viewing these messages from Mac Mail, and this one is definitely a bug in Mac Mail. It will happen when viewing the messages in Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, and most other email programs.

Both of these are due to the unique non-standard way that Mac Mail constructs multi-part messages, and these don't happen with email from other sources. We will try to get it fixed, at least the attachment problem. The text problem mentioned second is in Mac Mail and we may not be able to do a workaround for it. Apple should fix it.

In the meantime, ask senders using Mac Mail to enter their message text first before attaching files instead of the other way around, and there shouldn't be any problems.

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After a number of user reports, we were able to reproduce two bugs that seem to have been introduced in this latest release. We're working on fixing them now. Both are just minor annoyances so it may be a few weeks before we get the fix out, but I wanted to let you know that we are aware of them already.

Here's the two bugs:

• ( FIXED ) - When you have checked the box on the login page for "Remember my login" this prefills your username when you navigate to that page. When you use that feature, the input cursor should load in the password box automatically so that you can begin typing, but it isn't. The cursor is coming up in the username box whether you have that saved or not. So you have to click the password box or press the tab key to put the cursor in the right place. It will take that extra step until we get this fixed.

• ( FIXED ) - When you have changed your Preference setting for the "Signout Destination" and set it to go to the Web Mail login page, that's what you expect to happen. There is one circumstance where this is failing, and the logout is always going to the MyEarthLink page (the other option in Preferences). If you have used the column sorting feature during that session, by clicking on the Sender or Subject column header (or any column) above the message listing, then when you sign out it will go to MyEarthLink regardless of your preference.

I've awarded this second one our "Bizarre Bug of the Year" prize, which began just this year (just today in fact). What does column sorting have to do with the logout preference? I'm sure the developers will figure it out.

Thanks for the reports that helped us find these.

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This morning we released a minor update to fix a few bugs. We're still working on some bigger changes and improvements that will be announced soon.

Today's release was actually a big update for our domain hosting customers who access Web mail at webmail.hosting.earthlink.net, since they have not gotten the past few releases and were still on version 5.16.4, while the regular consumer Web Mail at webmail.earthlink.net was already up to version 5.53. So our hosting customers are getting all the updates released in the past five months, all at once. Hosting users can read the prior release notes for 5.50 and 5.51 to catch up on the changes (other release numbers didn't have significant user-facing changes).

The changes included in release 5.54 today are:

1. We fixed problem that would sometimes cause the cursor on the login page to jump back to the username box while you were typing the password. This caused quite a few complaints from users who inadvertently had their password saved in plain text in the username box. It's fixed now and that shouldn't happen anymore.

2. New accounts will now properly save the user's "From Name" entered on the first time user screen. This was not being saved properly since the last release, and is fixed now. The "From Name" is what appears on outgoing email with your email address.

3. Users who have a blank "From Name" saved had been unable to update it and save anything, and that is now fixed. All users should now be able to set and save a "From Name". To set it, just click Preferences / Web Mail Options and scroll down to the From Name setting.

4. Fixed a bug where the Preference setting for Sign-out Destination was not always being honored correctly.

Stay tuned for more updates coming soon, and continue to let us know about any problems, either here or by using the Feedback link in Web Mail.

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Users frequently ask for instructions to insert pictures inline in outgoing messages using Web Mail.

Web Mail is one convenient way to access your EarthLink email, but like many other Web Mail services (browser-accessed email) EarthLink Web Mail does not currently have a feature to insert pictures inline in outgoing messages. We will be adding the ability to do this in an upcoming release. Currently you can only attach pictures as files to be opened by the recipient. To add attachments to a message, click on Browse at the bottom of the compose window.

You can put pictures inline using most installed email software with your EarthLink account, including EarthLink Mailbox or Outlook Express. You can download EarthLink Mailbox software here, and get setup instructions for that and other email software here.

Like most other users, I look forward to having this feature added to Web Mail and I'm pushing to get it done as soon as we can.

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Lately we've had reports of scammers setting up an EarthLink mailbox with an official sounding name like "accountupdate@earthlink.net" or something similar. Then they send out email to all the earthlink addresses they can find (or randomly hit) asking you to "confirm" your account information by sending back your password. They are very clever at making the email look and sound official.

NEVER ever send your password to anyone in an email. EarthLink will never ask any user to do this under any circumstances. If you are ever asked for information like this in an official-looking email, it is a scam, 100% of the time. Do not reply to the message. Once the scammer has your password, they usually begin sending out spam from your account, thus hiding their own identity. This also can result in your own access being suspended due to no fault of your own, and your account can be turned off until you call in and get it straightened out.

When we get these reports or we catch them through our own monitoring, we immediately shut down the scammer accounts. But beware, as scammers are persistent and will keep trying, and we usually can't catch them until after some damage is done. Always safeguard your account information, particularly your password.

If you think you might have been a victim and need to change your password, just click on My Account at the top of any EarthLink web page. Log in there, select the email profile you need to update, and click on the Edit link beside Password. Change it to something new that is known only to you.

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