Email Connection Problems
Problem
I got this message yesterday and today whilst trying to receive messages on [email address] ''The connection to the server has failed. Account: '[account]', Server: 'mail.embossed.co.uk', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E''
What should I do?
Answer
The following steps will help us track down the source of this problem
(If you are reading this web page online, you don't need to do checks 1 or 2!!)
1. Check you can see the rest of the internet ok.
Open up a web browser and visit www.bbc.co.uk or www.google.com
If you can't see the bbc you should disconnect and reconnect and try again.
2. Check you can see other servers in our data center.
Open up a web browser and visit www.sothcott.com and then www.embossed.co.uk
If you can see the bbc and neither of these sites, you are having trouble connecting to our data center. If you can see one site and not the other, there is a problem with that particular site, please email or phone about the problem as soon as you can! If you can see both sites, proceed to the next step:
3. See if your computer knows where the mail server is.
N.B. Our mail server is mail.embossed.co.uk Click here to find out what yours is
Click "Start>Run"
Type command
Click "ok".
This will open up the dos prompt.
At the dos prompt, type: ping mail.embossed.co.uk
You should see something like:
Pinging mail.embossed.co.uk [193.117.105.51] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 193.117.105.51: bytes=32 time=124ms TTL=247
Reply from 193.117.105.51: bytes=32 time=124ms TTL=247
Reply from 193.117.105.51: bytes=32 time=124ms TTL=247
Reply from 193.117.105.51: bytes=32 time=124ms TTL=247
Ping statistics for 193.117.105.51: .... (and some other stuff)
If you see something like "cannot resolve system name", your computer does not know where to look for the mail server. Please try again in a few minutes. If the problem persists, please contact us.
If you see "Request timed out" after the first line, the computer does know where the mail server is, but cannot connect. Please make a note of the date and time and contact us as soon as you can to let us know there is a problem.
How to find out what your mail server is
From the error message
In the text above you can see the line "Server: 'mail.embossed.co.uk'," This is the mail server that you are having problems connecting to.
Typical UK POP3 servers are:
Freeserve - pop.wanadoo.co.uk,
Virgin - pop.virgin.net,
BTClick - mail.btinternet.com
Tesco - mail.tesco.net
PLEASE CHECK YOUR SIGN-UP DOCUMENTATION, to see what your servers should be.
Buzzsoft have a good list of other servers here - http://www.buzzsoft.com/engsupport/Pop%20Server.html
In Outlook Express 5.5
On the top menu, select "Tools", then "Accounts".
This will open up a small window, at the top there are tabs marked "All", "Mail", "News", "Directory Service". Select "Mail".
You will see a list of mail accounts (or maybe only one!). Single left click on the one that is giving you problems. Then select "Properties" on the right hand side.
This will open another window. At the top, select the tab labeled "Servers".
You will see boxes for "Incoming mail (POP3)" and "Outgoing mail (SMTP)" servers.
