Mysterious Mail Server problems!

[Nick]

We have a small network of 6 client pc's connected to a new 2003 SBE server.
Today, for some unkown reason, we could not retreive any emails from two
particular mail servers residing at our ISP. Other mail accounts we have
could be retreived. We could all send emails though through SMTP on all
accounts .
Previously, we have had no problems, and the ISP has assured us there are no
problems their end.
We do not use MS Exchange (It's not installed), so we are using Outlook
Express for all mail accounts on regular pop3 ISP servers.

The strange thing is that the mail can be retreived from the same accounts
outside the office (ie home etc), but not from our network in the office.

I can 'Telnet' the mail servers (port 110)from outside the office (home),
but not from most of the 6 PC's we have. Those PC's that can telnet the mail
servers from our office network, still can't receive any emails though.
I have tried disabling any firewalls etc, but still no joy in receiving email.
The error message states "Cannot connect to mail server!No, Server Error
0x800CCC90, Error Number: 0x800CCC90"
On another PC, the error msg is "No, Socket Error 10061, Error Number:
0x800CC0E"

As mentioned, my personal email accounts are reachable, even when logged in
to our office network.

Any guidance\help would be much appreciated.

Nick

[Pegasus (MVP)]

"Nick" <Ni...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8AB82F82-1785-4A82...@microsoft.com...

As a starting point I would reboot and perhaps replace the
router you use to connect to your ISP.

Apart from your current problem: I wonder how you back up
your client PC EMail, if at all.

[Nick]

Hi

I have tried rebooting the router, but not replaced it yet. It's strange
though that access to the Internet and all other pop3 mail account retreival
is working fine within our network on all PC's, apart from access to the 2
particular pop3 accounts in question. And yet outside our network, those 2
accounts are working fine.

There are no clues within the Event Viewer either. It shows Event ID 8003
(MrxSmb) as an error, but that's all.

Our client PC Email is backed independently on each machine, as there are
only 6 machines in question.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Frankster]

You didn't go into detail about your pop cleints in or out of the office,
but...

You may have a corrupted messge in the account. Some clients handle these
badly.

You might want to try connecting via the web using http://www.web2mail.com,
delete any spam/suspect messages, and try again from the office.

-Frank

"Nick" <Ni...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:C48DB65B-154F-4D22...@microsoft.com...

[Nick]

Hello Frank

Thanks for your reply

We are indeed having to use mail2web to access the mail server, and I have
cleared out any spam msgs etc.
Also of note, is that our company websites (on the Internet) are unreachable
from within our Network also. Again, outside the office Network we can access
these websites.
It appears to be a Domain Issue, and we have been told that it might be the
server which is hosting our mail and websites, is blocking our IP Address for
some reason.
This would make perfect sense, as access outside of our Domain is possible.
So we are in the process of again contacting the host company, to check this
out.
I am able to change our IP address through our ISP, which would resolve this
if this is indeed the case. So that's another option.

It can only be, surely a "Blocking" issue.

I'll be back.......

Thanks

[Nick]

Just to finish this topic.

The problem was a blocked IP address at the mail & web hosting end, and now
all is well again.
Thanks for the help, and hope this is of use to anyone with similar problems.

Cheers