Multiple emails

[neksmerj]

My internet connection is hobbled, thanks to Telstra, and my son.

This may be why I keep getting multiple copies of the same email, up to half a dozen, all the same.

I reckon my internet connection times out before all the emails have downloaded, so it starts again.

What do you reckon?

I get my allowance back at the end of the month, what a PITA.

Ken

[Groggy]

It is more likely that the person who sent it is using Microsoft Outlook and it is stuck in their outbox, being sent repeatedly. This is a known bug with Outlook. Call them and ask them to check their outbox.

[neksmerj]

Thanks Groggy.

I've sent an email to my mate in Thailand, asking him to check his outbox. In the mean time, is there anyway of extending the Outlook Express timeout period, to give his emails a chance to download before they download again?

Ken

[Groggy]

Can't help you there - sorry. I am currently moving to gmail due to constant irritations with other email clients.

[issatree]

Hi Greg,
You certainly will not be sorry by going to gmail.
I was with Yawho, they really gave me the irratts.
So I went to gmail could not be happier. Easy to work, easy to read.

[Big Shed]

Another vote for Gmail:2tsup: Best email client around, has the best spam filtering, great features etc.

It is on my Google homepage, so as soon as I log on the internet my emails are there, one click and I'm in Gmail.

My daughter used to use Hotmail, what a disaster, she moved to Gmail, problem solved.

Another forumite was with Yahoo and his contact list was hi-jacked, a very common Yahoo occurrence it seems, for a while there I was getting all sorts of spam emails supposedly from him.

The other advantage of going to Gmail is that you can change your ISP whenever you so desire but your email address remains unchanged.

[AlexHW]

I agree - Gmail is the best out there.

A few years ago it was a bit of a joke but gmail has really started to take over. :)

[pellcorp]

Gmail is awesome and they give you free pop access so if you wanted to use a non web client you could. I have gmail on my iPhone and it works great - not the same features as the web site but very handy for on the move and i don't have to change when I move ISPs. I used to have Hotmail never go back it was crap.

[Mulgabill]

Another vote for Gmail. But be aware, on occasions it "identifies" some emails as spam when they are not. So it pays to check your Gmail spam folder.

[neksmerj]

If I swap over to Gmail, I presume this means I need a new email address, is this correct?

What happens to my address book, inbox and sent items etc?

Have also been told I should swap over to Windows live, what's that about?

Thanks so far for your help.

PS, can anyone recommend a FREE Outlook Express 6 repair program. I downloaded one so called "trial version" Outlook.ErrorTeck.com. Trial version, bulldust. It scanned Outlook Express and came up with about 1500 problems. There is a "Fix Problems" button that leads straight to "Please register". Of course you have to buy a key to go any further. Sneeky pricks.

Ken

[munruben]

If I swap over to Gmail, I presume this means I need a new email address, is this correct?

What happens to my address book, inbox and sent items etc?

Have also been told I should swap over to Windows live, what's that about?

Thanks so far for your help.

PS, can anyone recommend a FREE Outlook Express 6 repair program. I downloaded one so called "trial version" Outlook.ErrorTeck.com. Trial version, bulldust. It scanned Outlook Express and came up with about 1500 problems. There is a "Fix Problems" button that leads straight to "Please register". Of course you have to buy a key to go any further. Sneeky pricks.

KenYes you need to create a new email name for a gmail account.
I am not sure there is a 3rd party repair program for Outlook Express as OE is part of the Microsoft package that comes with earlier version of windows along with Internet Explorer. Windows 7 does not come with any email software but Windows live is what is recommended I believe for a download if you are not using one of the online email services available.
Gmail is about the best of the bunch.

Be aware of these "free scans" of your computer, they will always find stacks of problems with your computer and of course to "fix" those problems you have to download a version of some useless software that you have to pay for.

[Big Shed]

Be aware of these "free scans" of your computer, they will always find stacks of problems with your computer and of course to "fix" those problems you have to download a version of some useless software that you have to pay for.

And of course you are inviting them, at the very least, to copy your contact list with all your friends' email addresses, for them to use for some nefarious purpose.

I would be very selective about allowing any program to scan my computer for "problems".

Practice safe computing.

[neksmerj]

Things are getting worse.

I have about 22 emails that I cannot download. Outlook Express 6 gets about half way across the progress bar then stops saying your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Bloody hell, I can't even get into my inbox at Bigpond, to delete them from there. I have forgotten my password.

Bigpond have on their website, a feature where they will sms me a new password to my mobile phone. I don't have a functioning mobile.

Please help.

Ken

[cultana]

Assuming you are using standard home variety of bigpond then why not use the bigpond web based email?

[neksmerj]

The story so far.

I can now access my BigPond inbox, been given a new password. At present the inbox is empty, zilch, nix, nothing, empty.

However, when I access Outlook Express 6, it starts downloading something. It keeps downloading a file sent to me a week ago, over and over and over. Deleting this XXX file does nothing, it keeps reappearing.

It's my opinion this XXX file had a virus in it. My virus detection software, Microsoft Essentials, must be useless.

The bottom line is this.

1. I can't download emails, they time out before they have downloaded.
2. I keep getting the same email, dated and time a week ago.
3. I want to continue using Outlook Express 6
4. They reckon file pop3uidl.dbx is probably corrupt and should be deleted.
5. File pop3uiddl.dbx cannot be deleted, renamed, or moved. XP will not allow it.

Where do I go from here? I would love a new computer, but don't have the dough at present.

Help!

Ken

[Groggy]

Ken,

this may help: An Outlook Express basic repair kit (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/community/columns/oerepair.mspx)

[Master Splinter]

pop3uidl.dbx might be deleteable in Safe Mode (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/boot_failsafe.mspx?mfr=true).

If not, try Unlocker (http://download.cnet.com/Unlocker/3000-2248_4-10493998.html).

Then switch to Gmail.

[Grahame Collins]

Hi Ken,

You can retain your original email address through your ISP and it routes your e mail through G-mail.
In my humble opinion the problem resides within Outlook.I have seen so much crticism of it and MS seems to keep on with it.

Even MS internet Explorer leaves you open to almost everthing thats harmful on the net.Many won't agree but,I can only go on my experiences.

I have the best ever run of non problems using Firefox as a browser and Gmail as the email source.

Its not real hard to swap over ,costs you nix and can be switched back if you are not happy.

Grahame

[Col2310]

Ken,
I can only help you delete the file but have no idea how it affects Outlook Express.

Go to
Start
Search
For Files or Folders
All Files and Folders

In the top window type *.dbx and press enter (that is 'star dot dbx)
You should see a list of files withe the dbx extension.

Locate pop3uidl.dbx right mouse click on the file and select 'delete'

Good Luck

Col

Just tested on my box and it was deleted.

[eskimo]

back to your original thought

yes its the connection timing out
I had a lot of arguments with bigpond over this a couple of years ago...went on for months
I have 3 kids who gave the 25 gig download a hiding...went over many times and the connection was slowed.

options...
use web mail, thru Mozilla or IE
get 50 gig..nah that didnt work...they gave that a hiding too on a few occasions
get 200gig download with all mobiles and land line aus wide calls free in a bundle...& dont tell kids that they have free mobiles, and lots n lots of broadband

another one ...for those who send large files on a irregular basis and your server times try using

https://www.yousendit.com/

it allows you to send large files up to 100mb ..or get to send 2gig files for 14days or subscribe and be able to send really big files

[The Bleeder]

Things are getting worse.

I have about 22 emails that I cannot download. Outlook Express 6 gets about half way across the progress bar then stops saying your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Bloody hell, I can't even get into my inbox at Bigpond, to delete them from there. I have forgotten my password.

Bigpond have on their website, a feature where they will sms me a new password to my mobile phone. I don't have a functioning mobile.

Please help.

Ken

Ken,

You will have to go to a Telstra office to get it sorted. They won't do it over the phone.

Take your Bigpond bill and other forms of identication and state to them you don't have a functioning moible. They should be able then to give you the password and or change it. If they change it you'll have to change it in your modem as well.

[neksmerj]

Hi Gra and others.

You say I can keep my existing email address. I can't see how this is possible. When creating an account, you are asked to provide a name, for example, jsmith, and to that is added @gmail.com, so it becomes [email protected].

This is no good for me, I wish to keep my existing email address, for example, [email protected]

Have I missed something here?

Ken

[neksmerj]

Ah ha, I think my problems are behind me. At around midnight, my Bigpond account rolled over to the new month. Suddenly my computer became un-hobbled allowing me to download at the normal speed.

Along with this my email connection suddenly zoomed back into life. The repeated emails I kept getting, suddenly disappeared.

Got me buggered, but don't care, I'm back in business.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Ken

[Edster]

Ken,

I think the first thing you should do is change your Outlook Express options so that you do NOT keep messages on the mail server. This is something you always try to avoid with POP3 regardless of any advice from your ISP, because it stuffs up all the time.

POP3 is always terrible like that.

I don't use Outlook Express but have googled around and found this.
Check out these instructions to disable that "feature":
why am I receiving multiple copies of the same email every time I try to retrieve my email? | help & support | Orange UK (http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/230221)

If you ever need to delete the dbx file again:
locating a corrupt .dbx file | help & support | Orange UK (http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/personal/230099)

The crucial step is *EXITING* Outlook Express before you try to delete it. Otherwise it won't let you.

[Edster]

Gmail has a mail fetcher feature that lets it retrieve emails from your bigpond account.
You can set it up in the Gmail Settings under Accounts somewhere.

Similarly you can set up Gmail so it sends like it's from your bigpond address.



Hi Gra and others.

You say I can keep my existing email address. I can't see how this is possible. When creating an account, you are asked to provide a name, for example, jsmith, and to that is added @gmail.com, so it becomes [email protected].

This is no good for me, I wish to keep my existing email address, for example, [email protected]

Have I missed something here?

Ken

[rrobor]

To me it sounds like you used up your allowance on the internet and Bigpond slowed you up (shaped). You had a couple of Emails that could not get in on the speed you were at, so were timed out. Each time you logged on the server tried again but was timed out. So its not your computer its your internet plan.
Bigpond tends to be the most miserly. I was with them and switched to ADSL2. at the time they offered me 15 gig for $75. TPG offered me 150 gig for $50. Oh and a note beware when shopping, Many companies told me I couldnt get ADSL2, Why? because they couldnt supply it in my area, no other reason. So what you are told may not be true.

[neksmerj]

Hi rrobor.

I agree with you, it's what I have been advocating above. Now that the hobble has been lifted, (into a new billing period) I have no more problems, no more duplicated emails, thank goodness.

My plan is BigPond Elite Liberty 25GB at $59.95 a month, ADSL2+. What's got me stumped is that my plan is not listed on their site, ie, I can't find their plan with 25GB allowance.

Ken

[rrobor]

That, for me is a bit steep, I pay $50 a month for 70GB peak and 80GB off peak And no links to pnone account etc.
Now my tips are buy your own modem. Bigpond probably gave you one but you pay heaps for it and when the contracts over its probably a dedicated modem and if you change companies that thing is useless.
I bought one with a wirless router Dynalink for $95 and most wanted $150 odds for it and some were dedicated. But word of warning, Bigpond dont like loosing customers. I was down 3 weeks because Bigpond wouldnt flick a switch. That was before they were fined so that may be better now.
Bigpond also have a funny way of charging, you pay half in advance and half in arrears. So if you do change look out for the half month bill if you run till the end of the month.

[Big Shed]

And Bigpond counts both downloads and uploads as part of that 25Gb, so if you or someone else on your line uses torrent downloads then that 25 Gb will go very quickly.

Most ISPs, even the big bad Telstra I imagine, have an on-line usage meter that displays your usage so far for the month in your tool/status bar.

[neksmerj]

Yeh, that's correct. My son seems to have been the culprit.

He's been downloading movies, and keeping quiet about it. "No more movies", I've put my foot down.

Now that I can get into my BigPond account, I can and will check the daily downloads.

My monthly allowance is 25GB. With an average of 28 days in a month, that equates to 0.83GB, or 830MB.

Struth I'm already over that, and I'm buggered if I know where all the data went. Have visited the forum a few times, and sent an Autocad drawing to a mate. How can I check how much data is used up say visiting a couple of forums?

Ken

[Master Splinter]

There's a bigpong usage meter here:
http://www.bigpond.com/internet/help/manage-your-usage/

There are also installable on your PC meters, such as this one:
http://usageagent.sourceforge.net/

And 830 meg a day is a good movie worth (700meg is typical for a movie). Check that you don't have a torrent client active if bigpong counts your uploads as well as downloads, as seeding will chew through your allowance like crazy!

[neksmerj]

MS,

Forgive my ignorance, what is a Torrent Client? Sounds like a customer coming in out of the rain.

Ken

[Master Splinter]

A torrent client is the software used to download torrent files - files being shared using the bittorrent peer-to-peer protocol. Basically, it's Napster 2.0+, with more content and no centralised server.

You install a torrent client (such as microtorrent (http://www.utorrent.com/)), pop along to a specialised torrent search site such as Isohunt or eztv, find a file (such as a movie or TV show) and click to load the torrent identifier.

Your computer then becomes part of the 'swarm' for that file, and it starts downloading the file from other computers that have it. As soon as you have downloaded a chunk of the file, that chunk is immediately shared (uploaded to) anyone else who wants that file, thus helping share the file as widely and as quickly as possible.

The screencap below is an example of the microtorrent client in action.

First column is the name of the torrent, often suffixed with the name of the release group (ie Jaybob or VTV), source (such as HDTV or DVDRIP), compression codec (ie Xvid) and season/episode numbers for TV programs (S03E016).

Next is the size of the file and the download progress bar, which should be self explanatory.

In Status, Seeding means you are uploading (or are ready to upload some or all of a file) while Queued Seed means there are lots of other, faster seeders than you for this file so you are on the reserve bench for the moment.

Seeds - the number in brackets is the number of people in the swarm for the file who have the complete file, while Peers is the number of people who are still downloading but don't have the complete file yet. The number before the bracket is how many are currently connected to your computer. For last (American) night's episode of V, there were 10,229 people in the swarm with the complete file and 7,258 in the process of downloading it.

Download and upload speeds are...download and upload speeds. ETA is ETA, and Uploaded is how much data your torrent client has uploaded to date for that particular file - which in this example ranges from 19 meg to 1.68 gig.

You can control the upload by specifying maximum speeds or changing the sharing quota, but the less you share, the more the torrent client penalises you - if you've got a tiny upload quota, then you get a lower priority for your downloads (you'll get connected to other people who also have a tiny upload quota, so your downloads will take ages).

[neksmerj]

Thanks MS,

You have put a lot of effort into explaining what a Torrent Client is.

I'm afraid it's all double Dutch to me, just as well I don't have a need for it.

Ken

[eskimo]

Ken...as I said above, I experienced this over many months with telstra
it only occurs when you get shaped
I had many arguments with telstra that my contract does not mention anything about about not being able to download emails when they have shaped my connection...they usually allowed another gig or so till the end of the roll over

one option if telstra wont give you some exrtra download is to login to your account via IE or mozilla or whatver you use for browser and get your emails that way..."Web Mail"

what I ended up doing is getting a contract (bundle) which allows 200gig including all calls to local, interstate and mobiles....as I run a business from home (lots of phone calls) its now saving me lots of $$$'s per annum...the 3 ankle biters not only gave the net a hiding but also the phone calls Especially mobile calls to their mates
if your landline and call costs are low this may not be a feasible option

[Stustoys]

Good to hear you are up and running again Ken

Not exactly 830mB a "telstra" kB is 1000bytes. So its 830 - 2.4%=810 "real" mB
If your son has be downloading movies ask him about the torrent client.
Do you know if your up load is capped?

Gmail has some useful features(now that you can turn conversations off). Not having to worry about back up, access from any pc on the net, imap to outlook express if you like. They wont help this your data limit though.

Stuart

[Chris Parks]

I was a Telstra knocker for many years but recently they have had the hobbles removed so they can compete on the retail market with all the other ISP's. In a small town you don't have a lot of choice and to get ADSL2 I had to go to Telstra. My phone and internet bill have been reduced and I went from 40 gig to 100 gig allowance on the net. I was with AAPT and I went to them from IINET because I was getting huge bills but recently IINET took over AAPT and that triggered my decision. The best part is my international phone calls have been priced at 2c a minute to fixed or mobile phones and I as I make a heap of international calls I reckon I have a bargain to the point I would not bother using Skype.

[pellcorp]

I was a Telstra knocker for many years but recently they have had the hobbles removed so they can compete on the retail market with all the other ISP's. In a small town you don't have a lot of choice and to get ADSL2 I had to go to Telstra. My phone and internet bill have been reduced and I went from 40 gig to 100 gig allowance on the net. I was with AAPT and I went to them from IINET because I was getting huge bills but recently IINET took over AAPT and that triggered my decision. The best part is my international phone calls have been priced at 2c a minute to fixed or mobile phones and I as I make a heap of international calls I reckon I have a bargain to the point I would not bother using Skype.

With pennytel voip I have 8c un-timed international calls anytime of the day. Worth considering if you make long international calls.

However I think it's only fixed line - 2c per minute international mobile is pretty good.

I must admit I am thinking of going back to telstra for my mobile 3 sucks for coverage even in the Melbourne CBD ! :-(

[Chris Parks]

For 2c a minute I can't be bothered even using Skype. I was absolutely stunned when they told me the cost was the same mobiles or fixed line and it shows how much we have been getting ripped off and conned over the years. I wanted to buy something in the UK yesterday so I picked up the phone with no hesitation, it avoids multiple emails and gets things done.

[Mike Busby]

I am a computer Tech and have been for the passed 11 years.

For those who are stuck with a similar email problem you can use a public computer (i.e. Local Library, Internet Cafe etc) to download emails with this website: Email Services | mail2web.com (http://mail2web.com/login/) I have been using it for years to assist some of my clients with similiar problems and it is also handy for those who don't have an email account that they can access from anywhere but home. You do need to have the following information though: Email address, password

Makes it very easy for clients who have a dead computer to access say their Bigpond Emails from another computer.

Not all free porgrams are money making scams and I use one on a daily basis to help keep clients computers running in a stable and as new condition as possible. I have installed it on probably 1000 PC's since 2002 and have never had a client screw it up yet. It is called Ccleaner. (Crap Cleaner) Available from CCleaner - Download (http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download) This program checks and deletes such things as browser histories, temp files, empties your recycle bin, removes items from your Recent listing etc. It also has a Registry Cleaner which will find broken links with your Registery and either repoair or delete them as required.

Piriform has several free programs which do exactly as they advertise. Including a defrag (Defraggler) and file recovery programs (Recurva), again all of which are free.

To back up emails (Inbox, Sent emails etc), email accounts and address books all Outlook and outlook express programs have an Export function which will save these to a file. Do a Google search for your version of Outlook and print out the instructions.