Re: POP server not downloading email -- MIDRANGE-L

I think the first thing to try is using a different client.

You can use telnet to find out if the server is "hiding" some messages,and you will be sure if the problem lies in the server or the client.You may have a virus that escaped detection and is in most PCs.


______________________________________________________________________________________________
Lou Schmaus wrote:

All,

We're having a very strange problem with the POP server on our 170, running
V5R1.

All users use Outlook Express, with the option checked to leave a copy of
every message on the server( we have another PC in the MIS office that
downloads a copy of every email once a week so we can make sure everyone is
behaving). Outlook Express automatically downloads any new mail every 5
minutes. This has worked for at least 3-4 years, with no problems(that we
know about). Like most companies, we rely heavily on email, and it's not
unusual for some of our Cust. Svc. reps to get 100-150 emails a day. We
usually keep 3-4 months work of email on the /400, then manually delete
older messages in OpsNav.

In the past two weeks, several users started complaining that customers were
calling and referencing emails they never received. Checked the user's PC'
and the emails weren't there. Checked the PC in MIS, and they weren't there
either. Checked with our ISP(all inbound email goes through their
anti-spam/virus server), and they showed the emails in question being sent
to our SMTP server with no problems.

Using OpsNav and WRKLNK, we were able to browse the email in the user's
email directory, and the missing messages ARE THERE. There seems to be no
rhyme or reason why the POP clients aren't retrieving it. Some messages have
attachments, some not. Some are HTML messages, and some are plain text.
Sometimes people are the 'TO:' address, some are the 'CC:' address. Some
messages were sent to multiple people in our company, and one person got it,
and one didn't. It looks like we are only missing a handful of emails out of
thousands in the past two weeks, but it only takes one lost email with a
customer order attached to create a huge problem for us.

We've stopped and started the POP and SMTP servers and MSF, IPL'ed the
machine, checked the server properties, made sure there were no changes on
the firewall recently, everything we could think of. I'm pretty sure the
problem lies in the POP server somehow, since more than 1 PC won't or can't
download the same message. But I am at a complete loss as to what could be
causing this, or how to fix it.

Has anyone seen or heard of this before? Any suggestion or links to manuals
would be appreciated.

Thanks,

-------------------------------------
Lou Schmaus
Director - MIS
Apparel Distribution, Inc.
lou@xxxxxxxxxxxx