Outlook 2000 problems

[mrmaxx]

I have two users now who suddenly are unable to get their email. No error messages, just no messages downloaded. I tried various things including changing passwords. I suspected something was wrong when I changed the password on the server and changed it in Outlook and started getting password errors. Then I tried deleting the server and setting up a new one.

When I did a "send/receive" I noticed it came up with the name of the "old" server, so I went back into the account settings and sure enough the "old"server was there. I added a new server and tried to delete the old server, but it's still there.

At least the users are getting email now, but I'd like to get rid of the invalid server settings. Anyone ever run into this before? It's Outlook 2000 on Windows XP.

[Wazoo]

I have two users now who suddenly are unable to get their email. No error messages, just no messages downloaded.

That seems a bit odd. Based on your further description, it would sure seem like that at least a "timed out" error should have popped up (or can;t connect, something along that line)

I tried various things including changing passwords. I suspected something was wrong when I changed the password on the server and changed it in Outlook and started getting password errors. Then I tried deleting the server and setting up a new one.

When I did a "send/receive" I noticed it came up with the name of the "old" server, so I went back into the account settings and sure enough the "old"server was there. I added a new server and tried to delete the old server, but it's still there.

One thing that come to mind ... what are the odds that there are multiple identities (if that's the right word for Outlook?) are in use? Worst case, a bit of Editing of the Registry?

At least the users are getting email now, but I'd like to get rid of the invalid server settings. Anyone ever run into this before? It's Outlook 2000 on Windows XP.

Would either user recall any issues involved with installing Outlook 2000 onto an XP (Home or Pro?) platform? As I stated somewhere else, my last Office installs were Office 97/Outlook 98 onto Win-98(SE) systems, which saw Microsoft's heavy-handed 'upgrade' process of replacing numerous core Windows files, as it was assumed that your system was far from 'up-to-date' .... I do have an unopened Office 2000 Premium box here, but based on the previous package/experience, have not been willing to try to install it onto any of the XP systems I have floating around right now. Specifically, does the Office 2000 install code recognize 'newer' files or does it replace files blindly ..????

[mrmaxx]

That seems a bit odd. Based on your further description, it would sure seem like that at least a "timed out" error should have popped up (or can;t connect, something along that line)

Let me give you some background here... We were having some massive spam problems and so our ISP switched us off their Barracuda onto another spam/virus filtering server called RedCondor. Unfortunately it appears to have been unable to handle the load and mail was backed up for a long time. One thing that our ISP tried was switching us onto a different mail server they use for hosted email. That's why I thought maybe I ought to use a different server name.

That being said, I don't think the users are "techy" enough to go messing around with different profiles. That's one of the things I thought about doing for them, but I couldn't remember how to create a new profile.

[Spamnophobic]

From your description it sounds as if you are not using any kind of corporate mail server(s), but that your users have Outlook clients that are POP3ing over Internet from your ISP's server. If that is the case, you can remove spurious servers as follows. With Outlook closed, double-click the Mail icon in Control Panel. In the tool that appears, click "Show profiles" (or similarly named button - I'm translating from a Dutch version). If there is any other profile than "Microsoft Outlook", click Properties to check and perhaps note what it contains, then delete it. Click the Properties of the Microsoft Outlook profile. If there is an item there (in the window under "Services") called "Internet e-mail", click Properties. Otherwise create a new service ("Add" button) and select "Internet e-mail" to add POP3 and SMTP servers. If there is already an Internet e-mail service, set the servers in its properties to the correct ones if they are wrong. If there is any other Internet e-mail service, delete it (after noting contents if you think them relevant). When you have finished, save the settings and start Outlook. The whole procedure is a little unintuitive. It's been made a little clearer and easier to manage by the time we get to Outlook 2003. See here for a related thread, but note that Outlook 2000 doesn't yet call them "E-mail accounts".

Sorry for the delay in posting.