Email Frequently Asked Questions

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Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently asked questions may help you solve a problem. If not, please give us a call at support. A separate list of frequently asked questions are answered at the Spam and Virus FAQS.

Receiving Mail

What's the difference between IMAP and POP3 and which one should I use?

IMAP and POP3 are distinct kinds of Incoming mail service. POP3 is recommended for those who have one computer. IMAP is recommended those who use more than one computer and/or personal digital assistants.

POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol version 3. This is an older Email paradigm that works best for people who need to access mail from a single office computer.

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. It works best for people who need to access mail from different computers or platforms. IMAP allows different devices to be aware of which Emails have been received, read, sent, and deleted.

I'm receiving the same message(s) over and over. What should I do?

Multiple receipts normally may indicate that one message on the server is not being completely downloaded to the Email program. One way to relieve this symptom is to remove the offending message.

1. With your web browser, log in to your Web Mail account and delete the oldest message(s) from your InBox, up to and including the last message you received.
2. With your Email program, retrieve mail.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 as needed until the mail starts flowing normally.

Duplicate receipts of all messages indicates that your Email program has more than one account checking an inbox. One way to fix this is to disable Email checking from multiple accounts.

Disabling Email checking differs, depending on your Email program. Check your program help package if you don't know how to disable Email checking on an account.

My mail program started reporting that it could not connect with the email server.

I can access Web Mail, and see my messages. I've restarted my Email program and my computer, but nothing helps. What should I do?

Failure to connect messages normally means that the program has gotten confused and is actually refusing to communicate with the mail server.

1. Locate the mail account properties, for this specific account, in your Email program.
2. Record all the properties, and then remove the account.
3. Quit your Email program and re-launch it.
4. Re-install the Email account, being careful to duplicate all of the prior settings.
5. Retrieve mail. The problem should be gone.

Problems with connecting to the POP server can also be an indicator that network communication between your location and our mail server is restricted. The restriction could be anywhere in the network, from your computer to our server. If this symptom persists, give us a call and we will help you analyze where the network restriction is located.

I'm setting up a new Email account (or program) and I can't retrieve mail.

My Email program asks for the password repeatedly, but no mail is received. What should I do?

Repeated password requesting indicates that the password isn't matching the one that the mail host has for you, or that something is wrong with the account name that you are attempting to use.

1. Verify that the account name in your Email program is your entire Email address, e.g. name@yourdomain.com.
2. Verify that the shift lock key on your keyboard isn't accidentally depressed.
3. Your Email program could be confused about different passwords for sending and receiving. WebValence always uses the same password for both sending and receiving. Check the Email account properties for both send and receive to ensure that they are the same.
4. Send a message to support@webvalence.com or call 503-335-3442 and ask the support desk to reset your password.
5. When you receive a response from the support desk, retrieve mail again. This usually solves the problem. If not, let us know and we will help you resolve the problem.

Our mail server guards against abuse by ignoring communication from people who try an incorrect password several times in a row. We recommend against guessing different when you run into a password problem.

Mail addressed to a newly created Email account bounces back to the sender.

Email addressed to my newly created email account bounces back to sender. What should I do?

New email accounts currently require a manually entered spam and virus filter account. The most likely problem is that the spam and virus filter has been misconfigured.

Bouncing mail from a new account normally indicates that a spam and virus account has not yet been created, or has been created incorrectly. Contact support@webvalence.com.

I use POP3 email; people are reporting mail bounces back to them.

I've received reports that mail to me is bouncing back to the sender; what should I do?

The POP3 server never deletes messages unilaterally. Messages are deleted from the Server INBOX by Email programs or Webmail users after these messages have been retrieved or read. Bounced Email from a POP3 server most commonly occurs because an INBOX on the mail server is full. If you have plenty of room in the INBOX on the mail server, the next most common problem is that the spam and virus filtering service is not properly configured for your email address.

It's necessary to research why your Email is bouncing. Bounce messages will normally include some reason for the bounce. Ask someone is having trouble sending to you to forward a bounce message, so you can read for yourself why the mail is bouncing.

Login to webmail and choose Mail Folders to determine how much storage is available in your INBOX. For example, the image at right shows a POP account that is using 924 Megabytes out of 1 Gigabyte. This is too close to the maximum quota for reliable operation.

If you determine that your INBOX on the mail server is full or nearly full you need to take action to make room. To ensure that enough room is consistently available in your INBOX on the mail server:

1. Open your Email program. View your Email account preferences or properties, normally part of the "advanced settings" tab in your Email application.
2. Update your settings so that your Email program is set to either delete mail on receipt, or delete mail within a week or two of receipt.
3. Check for mail; this may take awhile because thousands of messages are being deleted on the server.
4. Login in to Webmail and view Mail Folders to ensure that messages have been removed from your INBOX and that plenty of space is available.
   

I use IMAP email; people are unable to send or I receive mailbox-over-quota messages.

I've not been receiving some of my mail and/or I have received messages stating that my mail box is over quota. What should I do?

The IMAP server manages space automatically, deleting old messages from the INBOX as needed to store new ones. Bounced Email from an IMAP server most commonly occurs because either because the IMAP message store is too small, or because messages are accumulating in the Sent Messages, Deleted Messages, or other non-INBOX folders. Problems with space in the IMAP message store can also occur if you are attempting to use both POP3 and IMAP on the same account.

It's necessary to find out why your Email is bouncing. Login to webmail and choose Mail Folders to determine how much storage is available in your INBOX. For illustration, the image at right shows a mail account with 10 messages in the INBOX and 19 Megabytes out of 1 Gigabyte in use. This IMAP mail store has plenty of storage with lots of room to spare.

If you determine that the IMAP message store is full or nearly full, and most of the messages are in folders other than the INBOX, then you need to take steps to reduce the storage on the server. Delete messages (perhaps saving them off-line) in order to free-up storage. Follow these steps to save a message off line and delete them from the server:

1. In your Email program, create a new mail folder on your computer hard disk. Call the folder something like "Sent Mail Archive".
2. Open the IMAP folder to be cleared so that you can select messages. Select some or all of the messages and move them from the IMAP folder to the new mail folder on your computer storage. This may take a few minutes if you have a lot of messages.
3. Login to Webmail and view Mail Folders to ensure that moving your messages has reduced the size of the IMAP folder to be cleared.

Sending Mail

My mail program reports that it cannot connect to the outgoing SMTP mail server.

Outgoing Email isn't sent.

Failure to connect to the outgoing SMTP mail server is frequently caused when ISP's begin blocking outgoing mail that is not sent through their own Email servers. We normally are able to work around this block by sending Outgoing mail traffic on port 587 rather than port 25.

1. Open your Email account properties. Recheck the outgoing SMTP server settings.
2. Outgoing SMTP server: mail.yourdomain.com
3. Outgoing SMTP server port: change from 25 to 587
4. Outgoing SMTP server requires authentication
5. Authentication uses same password as Incoming server
6. Outgoing SMTP server does NOT use SSL

Failure to connect to the outgoing SMTP mail server may also be caused by improper port assignments. Assign ports this way:

• Outgoing mail on a standard channel = port 587
• Outgoing mail on a secure (SSL) channel = port 465.

Outgoing mail remains in the out box, despite repeated attempts to send it.

Failure to connect to an outgoing SMTP mail server can also be caused by an attempt to send a very long message that takes so long that communication times out. Are you trying to send an archive of images from your digital camera? In general you should not attempt to send files longer than 100 Megabytes through Email.

1. Open your Out Box and remove the very long message.
2. Upload the large file to your web site and send the URL to the file.

Mail sent to other people at my domain bounces back.

The bounce message contains the diagnostic that: "Relaying is not allowed: You should authenticate first".

The WebValence mail server bounces mail that is allegedly from your address, unless that mail has been received directly from you, together with an appropriate user name and password.

Two ways to eliminate this problem.

1. Use the WebValence mail server for your Outgoing SMTP server. This is normally the best all-around solution.
2. Convert your mail account from a mail box to a forwarding address. Forwarding addresses don't provide the same level of protection, because they have no password. This may be the solution for people whose Email programs cannot work directly with our WebValence Email server.

Web Mail

I've logged into Web Mail, but I can't see any messages in my Inbox?

I'm leaving on a trip and I want to make sure that I can access my mail through web mail.

When you use web mail, the messages you are viewing will stay on the WebValence server until they are removed when you check your messages through the email program on your computer.

When preparing to be gone on a trip with plans to use web mail, follow these steps.

1. Be sure you know how to log in to your web mail.
2. Quit your mail program on your home computer so you can retrieve your mail at web mail.
   (or shutdown your home computer and energy!)

Your home computer mail program has a setting that effects what happens to the email on the server when you check your email. You may decide whether you want a messages to be deleted immediately from the server or some number of days after you downloaded the message. If your mail program is set to delete your email from the server immediately, you will not find any email in your in box at web mail when you have just checked your email on your desktop mail program. This is why you would want to shutdown your home computer before leaving on a trip.

How do I see Messages that I sent in Web Mail?

Web Mail can save a copy of outgoing messages sent via Web Mail, but cannot view messages sent from an Email program on your PC.

To save a copy of messages sent from Web Mail, follow these steps.

1. Add a new "Sent" box via the "Add" link at top right
2. Choose the Options icon from the tool bar to reveal the General Settings window
3. Under Default Mail Boxes, reset the Save Sent Messages drop down menu to select the "Sent" mail box you just created in step 1
4. Click the Small Save icon at the top left corner of the General Settings window to save the change you made
5. In the future, when you want to review your Sent messages, choose Sent from your list of mail boxes at top left.

Sent messages do use storage from your mail box. You can't save hundreds of sent messages without requesting a mail storage upgrade.

 

Password Issues

My mail program reports that it cannot connect with either the outgoing and incoming mail servers.

I'm using a Mac and I have recently updated my password and/or changed my Email account configuration.

The Macintosh sometimes gets confused about contradictory passwords stored both in the Mail program and on the Keychain. This symptom has been observed with the Mail application and it might also be seen with any application that stores keys on the Keychain.

1. Quit your Email program.
2. Launch the Keychain Access utility and remove old keys pertaining to Email. You may see more than one key for Email and you may discover old contradictory passwords.
3. Relaunch the Mail application and reenter the password that is known to be correct.
4. Your Mail application should now connect with the server.

Hand Held Devices

How do I get mail in my Smart Phone or Hand-held device?

Most hand-devices are capable of retrieving and sending mail from your WebValence-hosted Email box, using either the IMAP or POP3 protocol.

Provisioning your Hand-held device to interact directly with the Mail Server, using the IMAP protocol, is the best way to integrate this device into your daily work flow. Doing it this way will help keep all your mail devices synchronized and avoid additional work of deleting duplicate messages.

Consult the instructions for setting Email on your device. Use the same settings that you would use in a Email program familiar to you on your Mac or PC. Find guidance on these settings at email support.

As a low-tech alternative, you or your Email administrator could update settings in the WebValence webmail interface to mirror incoming messages to any arbitrary Email address. We don't recommend this because it generates additional copies of all your incoming messages, and this wastes time. If you want help with this, Send a message to support@webvalence.com requesting that we mirror a copy of all your messages to another address.

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