Outlook Express 6.x Windows Troubleshooting

Windows Mail/Outlook Express (WM/OE) offers the option of creating and using multiple email accounts with different domains for one user. This self-help article will focus on some features that WM/OE provides and specific settings for Charter.net email accounts.

Please select a topic below for more information

Email Accounts

WM/OE houses all email accounts under one area. Most errors around sending and receiving email are caused by incorrect settings which can be accessed and corrected under this area.

Accessing Email Accounts

1. Click Tools, then Accounts.
2. Select an email account, then click Properties.

General Tab

• Mail Account Field – This field is used to identify an individual email account. It is also referred to as the "friendly name" field. The description entered here will appear on the email Accounts screen. If you are using WM/OE to access multiple email accounts, you may want to change the description of each account for easier identification on the email Accounts screen.
• Name Field – This information within this field will be displayed to the recipient of your email. For example, customer has been typed into this field. The emails you send to friends will see customer within the From field. This field can be changed to any name you wish.
• email address Field – This field displays your email address and MUST MATCH YOUR email ADDRESS EXACTLY. Check to make sure you have entered the correct spelling and characters. Common mistakes are typing "chater" instead of "charter", using unnecessary spaces, commas instead of periods, and using ".com" when the email domain is ".net".
• Reply address Field – When using this option, responses to emails you send will be sent to a different email address.

Servers Tab

Use these settings to configure your Email address. If you are setting up Outlook Express on a laptop computer use these settings.

Server Type: IMAP
Incoming Mail server: IMAP.charter.net
Port: 143
Outgoing Mail Server: SMTP.charter.net
Port: 25

• Password – The password for an email account is case sensitive and MUST MATCH EXACTLY.
• Remember password – It is recommended that you place a check in this box so that WM/OE automatically remembers your password. If you decide not to use this feature, then you will be prompted to enter your password every time you use WM/OE.
• Log on using Secure Password Authentication – Charter email servers do not use SPA. Do not place a check within that box or an error will occur.
• My server requires authentication – Charter residential email servers do not require this authentication setting to be used. Do not place a check within that box or an error will occur.

Connection Tab

It is recommended that Always connect to this account using is checked and Local Area Network has been selected from the Drop Down menu.

Former Dial-up Users: If you have switched to Charter Internet from a dial-up ISP and were using WM/OE for your email client, your former ISP may have set WM/OE to connect using your telephone modem. If you are prompted to select a connection when launching WM/OE, simply select Local Area Network from the Drop Down menu and click OK to save your settings to correct this issue.

Advanced Tab

• Outgoing mail (SMTP) – 25 is the port that Charter.net email accounts use to send email. You may receive an error sending email if the port number has been changed from 25.
• Incoming mail (IMAP)
  • 143 is the port that Charter.net email uses for IMAP accounts to receive email.
• Leave a copy of messages on server – Checking this box will leave a copy of an email on the email server. If used, you can adjust the number of days for the email to remain on the server until deleted and/or remove the email copies from the server when you delete the email from WM/OE.

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Email Options

WM/OE offers multiple features to enhance your email experience.

Accessing Email Options

1. Click Tools, then Options.

General Tab

Play sound when new messages arrive – This box is checked by default. Unchecking the box will disable playing a sound when new messages arrive.

Send and receive messages at startup – This box is checked by default. When WM/OE is launched queued email within the Outbox will be sent automatically and new email will start to be received. Unchecking the box will disable this feature and will require you to manually send and receive email.

Check for new messages every – This box is check by default. If you do not close down WM/OE, it will check for new email based on the amount of time specified. Unchecking the box will disable this feature and will require you to manually check for new email.

Read Tab

Mark message read after displaying – This box is checked by default. If you use the Preview Pane option, WM/OE will display the email message without the need for you to completely open the email message. Reading an email with this option enabled will mark the email as read based on the selected time setting.

Automatically download message when viewing in the Preview Pane – This box is checked by default. If you use the Preview Pane option, WM/OE will automatically download new messages.

Show ToolTips in the message list for clipped items – This box is check by default. WM/OE will display ToolTips options for any attachments included in an email.

Receipts Tab

Request a read receipt for all sent messages – Enabling this option will prompt a recipient of your email to send a read receipt email to you verifying that they have read the email.

Returning Read Receipts – You may be prompted from someone sending you an email to send them a read receipt email, verifying that you have read their email. By default, Notify me for each read receipt request has been selected. You can change this to never send or always send a receipt.

Send Tab

Save copy of sent messages in the ‘Sent Items’ folder – This box is checked by default. This feature saves all sent email to the Sent Items folder and is useful to quickly forward an email to another party.

Send messages immediately – This box is checked by default. This feature sends all composed emails immediately. Unchecking this feature requires you to manually send email by clicking Send email.

Automatically put people I reply to in my Contacts list – This box is checked by default. This feature saves all new email addresses in your Contact list for future reference. This helps save time by not having to manually enter email addresses.

Automatically complete email addresses when composing – This box is checked by default. This feature auto-completes email addresses when typing in the To field. This helps save time and helps prevent mistakes when typing email addresses.

Include message in reply – This box is checked by default. This feature includes the last message sent in the email. This allows a reader to view the whole email conversation from beginning to end.

Reply to messages using the format in which they were sent – This box is checked by default. This feature provides consistent format throughout the email, such as same font sizes and colors.

Compose Tab

Compose Font – You can change the font, font style, size, effects and color settings of your composed email.

Stationary – You can import a background image to use as a stationary for enhanced visual effects for your composed email.

NOTE: Not all recipients will be able to see stationary backgrounds, as it depends upon their email provider allowing the feature to be used.

Signatures Tab

Signature settings – After creating a Signature, you can choose to add your signature to all new outgoing messages, Replies and Forwards.

Signature – You can create a signature to be automatically displayed within all outgoing email. Signatures can include anything, from simply displaying your name to job titles and educational degrees/certifications.

Spelling Tab

Spell-check Settings – By default, this is not checked. Using this feature will check your message for misspellings after you click Send but before the email is actually sent from WM/OE. Any misspellings will be displayed and will prompt you to select the correct spelling.

Security Tab

Virus Protection - Attachments – By default, Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus is checked. WM/OE will disable the ability to save or open any uninfected attachments that have .zip and .exe extensions or any attachments that are infected. If you want to disable this security feature, uncheck the box and click OK.

Downloaded Images – HTML emails – By default, Block images and other external content in HTML email is checked. WM/OE will prompt you at the top of the email to download blocked images. If you want to disable this security feature, uncheck the box and click OK.

Connection Tab

Internet Connection Settings – Former Dial-up Users: If you have switched to Charter Internet from a dial-up ISP and were using WM/OE for your email client, your former ISP may have set WM/OE to connect using your telephone modem.

When launched, if WM/OE attempts to dial your telephone modem to connect to the Internet, cancel the connection attempt, access this screen, and click Change.

Place a bullet next to Never dial a connection and click OK.

Advanced Tab

Insert signature at the bottom of a reply – Selecting this feature will insert your signature at the bottom of a reply email. Maintenance – Empty ‘Deleted Items’ on exit – Clicking the Maintenance button allows you to select the option to empty email from the ‘Deleted Items’ folder when you close the WM/OE program.

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General Information

Troubleshooting Email Errors

Some common email error messages can be resolve with a simple correction of settings. The error messages below will explain why the error occurred and where to reference within this document for a resolution.

• 421 Connection Refused – You have exceeded the maximum number of messages allowed to be sent per hour. Charter institutes this security measure to prevent spamming.
  • Resolution: Wait for an hour before trying to send more email or use Charter’s web mail interface at www.charter.net.
• 421 Service Not Available – The IP address assigned to your computer has been suspended, therefore not allowing email to be sent or received.
  • Resolution: Please call 1-888-GET CHARTER and select Internet Help to report the issue.
• 421 Charter.net Lost – The connection to the Internet has been severed, therefore not allowing email to be sent or received.
  • Resolution: Trying launching an Internet browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Netscape, etc.) to see if your Internet connectivity is active. Once launched, try surfing to two or more websites. If you can surf, try launching WF/OE again to see if you can send and receive email again.
  • If you cannot send or receive email, temporarily disable any firewall or anti-virus software you have active and retry sending/receiving. If the email is successfully sent/received, then there is an issue with your firewall or anti-virus software blocking email. Charter recommends that you call your firewall or anti-virus provider for further help.
  • If you are still having issues, please call 1-888-GET CHARTER and select Internet Help to report this issue.
• 450 Unable to find: Domain not found – The email domain of an email address you are trying to send email to is incorrect.
  • Resolution: Look in the Outbox folder and verify that the email domain you typed is correct. The email domain is the last part of the email address (ie @charter.net). If it is incorrect, open the message, correct the address, and click Send again to retry.
• 452 Too many recipients – You have exceeded the maximum number of email recipients allowed to be included in one email. Charter institutes this security measure to prevent unnecessary spamming.
  • Resolution: Split the total amount of recipients between two or more emails.
• 550 Message identified as SPAM – The email you sent has been flagged as Spam by Charter’s Anti-Spam Detection System.
  • Resolution: If you believe the message was mistakenly flagged as Spam, please visit http://www.charter.com/postmaster, find the 550 Message identified as SPAM error message, and click the provided link to submit a request to not flag your email as Spam.
• 550 Relaying mail to – The IP address assigned to your computer has not been identified as a Charter owned IP address.
  • Resolution: If you are traveling and have access to an Internet connection, use Charter’s web mail interface at www.charter.net. If you are using the Internet connection from home and are still having an issue, please call 1-888-GET CHARTER and select Internet Help to verify that you are using a Charter owned IP address.
• 552 Message size exceeds allowed maximum message size – The total size of your email (includes body message and attachments) you are attempting to send is too large.
  • Resolution: The maximum message size allowed is 10 megabytes. For sending, you will need to reduce the size of the email message and/or split the attachments to be sent within multiple emails. For receiving, you will need to contact the sender and ask that the total size of the email be reduced to 10 megabytes.
• 554 Blocked email Alert – The IP address assigned to your computer has been suspended, therefore not allowing email to be sent or received.
  • Resolution: Please call 1-888-GET CHARTER and select Internet Help to report the issue.

Creating A New Message Rule

WM/OE offers the ability to create message rules to automate pre-determined commands when a new email is received. Accessing Message Rules

1. Click Tools, then Message Rules, then Mail.

You can create a single or multiple Message Rules to be applied to all email received by WM/OE. There are multiple options to apply to an email when received, too many to display here.

The following example explains how to create a rule to move a newly receive email to a specific folder; however, you can use this as a guide when creating other rules.

1. Place a check next to Where the From line contains people.
2. Place a check next to Move it to the specified folder.
3. Click contains people.
4. Type the email address that you know you will be receiving email from, click Add, then click OK. For this example, friend@charter.net has been used.
5. Click specified.
6. Highlight the folder you want the email to be automatically moved to after it has been received and click OK. For this example, a folder named Test has been used. If you need to create a folder, click here for instructions.
7. Verify that the information is correct in box 3. In box 4, type the name of the rule and click OK.
8. The new Mail Rule will be displayed. Click Apply Now to run the rule for any existing email in the Inbox. Unchecking the box next to the rule name will disable the rule from being applied. Click OK to exit the screen.

Preview Pane

Placing a check next to Show preview pane will display the contents of an email without the necessity of opening the email to be read. The Preview Pane can be adjusted to show below or beside the email.

Basic Layout

WM/OE offers the ability to display Layout Toolbar buttons and the Preview Pane option for viewing email. Accessing the Layout Option

1. Click View, then Layout.

Placing checks next to the Toolbar options will display quicklink buttons on the WM/OE toolbar. Clicking Customize Toolbar allows you to add more quicklink options to the toolbar.

Creating A New Folder

WM/OE offers the ability to create a new folder to help better organize email.

Accessing the New Folder Creation Wizard

1. Click File, then New, then Folder.
2. Type the name of the new folder. For this example, a new folder named Test will be created.
3. Select where you want the new folder to be placed. For this example, the Test folder we be placed under the Inbox folder.
4. Click OK

IMAP Settings

Server Type: IMAP
Incoming Mail server: IMAP.charter.net
Port: 143
Outgoing Mail Server: SMTP.charter.net
Port: 25

Switching from POP to IMAP

To prevent losing your Email or Email folders when switching from POP settings to IMAP settings follow the instructions below.

Had "Leave messages on server" enabled since initial Charter.net Email setup, follow these steps:

1. Create an imap enabled account for the Email address you want to switch to within same Email client. (Most modern Email clients can have both a POP enabled and IMAP enabled mailbox/account that share the same account credentials)
2. Delete your pop mailbox account from the Email client

Did NOT have "Leave messages on server" enabled since initial Charter.net Email setup or unsure, follow these steps:

1. Ensure that you have the option "Leave messages on server" checked in your account settings on your Email client.  This setting should be available under "advanced settings" or something similar, depending on the client.
2. If you have the option to disable Send/Receive in your Email client, disable it to ensure no new messages are delivered to the POP enabled mailbox/account.
3. Create an imap enabled account for the Email address you want to switch to within same Email client.  (Most modern Email clients can have both a POP enabled and IMAP enabled mailbox/account that share the same account credentials)
4. Move messages and/or folders by creating a storage or data folder (Outlook calls these PST), then drag and drop the messages/folders you wish to keep into the new folder.
5. When you have moved over all of your Emails/Folders you can delete your pop mailbox.

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