Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2020 May 6
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May 6[edit]
Timeout on Receiving Email[edit]
I have an email account that uses Outlook as the client and POP to receive email and SMTP to send it. I have it set up on three devices, a smartphone with Android, a desktop computer running Windows 10, and a laptop computer running Windows 10. What frequently happens is that the email client on the desktop computer stops receiving. It is configured to check every 30 minutes, and will also check when I push the Send-Receive All Folders button, but sometimes it times out. When this happens, the message that I get is:
Task 'xxxx.yyyy@zzzzzz.xyz- Receiving' reported error (0x8004210A) : 'The operation timed out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'
That is, it says to call the ISP. However, the laptop and the phone are receiving, so the timeout isn't at the ISP end. Sometimes stopping Outlook and restarting it solves the problem, but more often it doesn't. The Internet connection is otherwise working; that is, HTTP is working. What does work is restarting the desktop computer, but that takes ten minutes and involves opening things up and so on, and I would for obvious reason prefer not to go through all that. Is this a known problem with a known solution? Robert McClenon (talk) 15:01, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
- Robert McClenon, are all three devices sharing the same Internet connection? Are they using IPv4 or IPv6 or both? When you close and restart Outlook, have you verified on Task Manager and the Services panel that Outlook indeed closed? Elizium23 (talk) 17:40, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
- I will presume that you have clicked "Leave mail on server". How much mail do you have in your mailboxes that are being checked? Large attachments, large number of messages? Elizium23 (talk) 17:41, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
- User:Elizium23 - I must be leaving the mail on the server, because I see the same incoming items on all three devices. Are they sharing the same Internet connection? I think so, in that I know I have one wireless router that is serving the three devices. The total number of messages is large. I know that if the laptop goes to sleep, and then I wake it up several days later, it pulls in between 100 and 300 emails (most of them of course being spam). A way I know to know whether they are using IPv4 or IPv6 is to log out from Wikipedia and see who it says I am. It displays an IPv6 address beginning with 2601. I remember that there is supposed to be a command I can issue from a DOS box that displays my IP address, but I forget what it is and don't feel like looking it up, but I see that, at least right now, I have an IPv6 address. If I close down Outlook, I do verify that it is closed down. Sometimes I close it down via End Task from the Task Manager, or even End Process from the Resource Monitor thing. I did restart it again this morning. I don't think that it is a size issue, because this happens on my desktop computer often enough to annoy me, and it doesn't happen on the laptop, but the desktop has four times as much memory as the laptop. It also doesn't happen on the phone, but the phone is running a different operating system. Are there any other questions I should try to look into? Robert McClenon (talk) 19:01, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
- BTW the command is "ipconfig /all". Think of "IP" and "configuration", it helps. 2003:F5:6F0A:C00:51B6:83CB:F4AC:3C08 (talk) 11:17, 8 May 2020 (UTC) Marco PB
- Is there a way to switch to IMAP for this? POP3 was really not designed for multiple-access messages-on-server operation.
- Your ISP may have implemented some kind of rate-limiting that is tripping up your desktop PC. I don't know. It is probably futile to contact them asking questions if all you have is a consumer-oriented connection. Elizium23 (talk) 20:12, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
- User:Elizium23 - I must be leaving the mail on the server, because I see the same incoming items on all three devices. Are they sharing the same Internet connection? I think so, in that I know I have one wireless router that is serving the three devices. The total number of messages is large. I know that if the laptop goes to sleep, and then I wake it up several days later, it pulls in between 100 and 300 emails (most of them of course being spam). A way I know to know whether they are using IPv4 or IPv6 is to log out from Wikipedia and see who it says I am. It displays an IPv6 address beginning with 2601. I remember that there is supposed to be a command I can issue from a DOS box that displays my IP address, but I forget what it is and don't feel like looking it up, but I see that, at least right now, I have an IPv6 address. If I close down Outlook, I do verify that it is closed down. Sometimes I close it down via End Task from the Task Manager, or even End Process from the Resource Monitor thing. I did restart it again this morning. I don't think that it is a size issue, because this happens on my desktop computer often enough to annoy me, and it doesn't happen on the laptop, but the desktop has four times as much memory as the laptop. It also doesn't happen on the phone, but the phone is running a different operating system. Are there any other questions I should try to look into? Robert McClenon (talk) 19:01, 6 May 2020 (UTC)
- I realize this sounds unhelpful, but honestly, if you're getting dozens - or hundreds? - of spam emails a day, you need a different email service. I honestly thought email spam was more or less defunct, though I do get a spam email at work about once a quarter or so. I can't recall the last time I got one on my personal email (via Gmail). There's really no need for you to wade through that much crap; this ain't 1998 any more. :) Matt Deres (talk) 02:10, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
- User:Matt Deres - That isn't hundreds of spams a day, but a week, and they are mainstream spam (from real businesses), not rogue spam. I only get one or two rogue spams a week. The mainstream spams are routed into my spam folder. I just don't bother to unsubscribe them. It is true that most of the con men/women who were doing the rogue spam a few years ago have moved on to something else, probably telephone spam. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:33, 8 May 2020 (UTC)
- Have you changed the timeout on your computer's end? It is not easy because you have to click and click and click. (Go Windows!) Go to the account settings in outlook. Select the POP server and edit that. You will likely have to go to More Settings because this is a hidden one. Then, you will likely have to to to Advanced Settings because it is very hidden. Finally, after you dig deep enough, you should see Server Timeout. It is normally set very short. Make it long. Save everything, reboot (the easiest way to make sure your settings are used), and try it again. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 18:11, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
- Thank you, 97.82. The labels for the settings and more settings and advanced settings are slightly different than you described, but we expected that. I went into Advanced Settings and changed the server timeout from 10 seconds to 1 minute. In the process, the server has timed out, and now Outlook is hung again. I will try restarting Outlook shortly. If that doesn't work, I will use the phone to read mail and the laptop to respond to mail until I reboot the desktop. (I don't want to use the phone to send outgoing email because the keyboard is too small.) Thank you. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:14, 8 May 2020 (UTC)