Fixing Email Problems

Introduction

This tutorial is provided as a courtesy to our hosting customers, to help diagnose and fix email problems on Bower Web Solutions’ web hosting service.

While we try our best to assist our customers, assistance with third-party software cannot be supported completely by Bower Web Solutions.

Requirements

Before you start, be sure you have these pieces of information available:

• Your email password

Here are some simple steps you can take to try to find the cause of the issue.

1. Can you log in to webmail?
   Logging into webmail shows you that your email is working properly on the server, and allows you to send and receive emails until you resolve your client email issues. See our tutorial on using webmail.
2. If you are unable to login to webmail.
   Do you have Internet access? It seems obvious, but it’s often the problem. Since browsers cache web pages, the best way to check is to go to a site that is constantly refreshed, such as  nytimes.com or cnn.com and check for the current date and time. If above sites don’t load or you don’t see the current date and time, then you don’t have internet access and you need to contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or system administrator.
   If you have internet access but cannot login to webmail, contact your system administrator.
3. Restart Your E-Mail Client Software and then your Computer.
   Rebooting usually can reset a computer’s necessary functions if they are not working properly.
4. If your problem is just sending e-mail, often your ISP (Internet Service Provider) has blocked outgoing mail. Bower Web Solutions recommends that you send email out using port 587 as the outgoing mail server port, and using our server, server3.bowerwebsolutions.com as the outgoing mail server.
   Instructions for configuring your email client on the most common mail clients are on the main support page of Bower Web Solutions.com.
5. Review Your E-mail Settings
   Review the e-mail settings for your account. Bower Web has set up tutorials for most common e-mail software packages. Instructions for configuring your email client on the most common mail clients are on the main support page of Bower Web Solutions.com.