| [Email/WebMail] Email problems in Watertown, WI I'm hoping that one of the WI area techs see this message and can offer some assistance.
Both my parents and sister have been having problems sending email since Friday. They are able to receive messages, but when trying to send emails they get an error telling them the connection is refused - sorry I don't have the exact error message. They have tried to contact Charter regarding this issue, but all attempts have resulted in Charter telling them they don't support 3rd party email applications, and that they should contact Microsoft or the manufacture of the email application. 
They have asked a few other people in the neighborhood to see if they are having any issues and found out that they are as well. Seems to be an issue in the Watertown area (or part of it) since they called me to see if it was working here in Madison - no problems on my end.
I have gone through to make sure there wasn't any issues with firewalls, anti-virus, etc preventing proper operation. Also verified that the email server information in the email application is correct. Since at least 5 other people are having the same problem I rather doubted it being a configuration problem on their end. My parents neighbor, who also has the same issue, tried calling Charter support only to be told the same story - don't support email applications and to contact Microsoft.
A few years ago I recall having a similar problem and it turned out that a new block of IP addresses was phased in, but there was an issue when the list was not updated saying these were Charter IPs. Resulted in the connections being refused since it looked like you were outside of Charter's network.
Can someone from the WI area please check into this issue? Calls to Charter support have been less than helpful. I can provide information for my parents account if need be to look into server logs or other information.
Thanks in advance for any help! |
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| You'll need to post the IP address of your parents.
Just put in the form 24.196.30.XX for example (leave the last part of their IP address in XX form). |
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| IP address at my parents is 97.87.55.xxx. |
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budone
join:2002-09-07
Coopersville, MI | Sometimes it is as easy as rebooting your system for email to work again. |
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| reply to paulnrld
Are they able to check the email though the charter home page?
»charter.net/index.php? |
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| Webmail interface does work for sending and checking email. Still no luck using email clients. Just got word that another individual they checked with in Watertown is not able to send email with their Charter connection. They too were told to contact Microsoft since Charter does not support using email clients. |
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| May be Tuesday some people that have more of a clue might pick up on this thread and have more helpful info. |
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| reply to paulnrld
I called Charter and asked to speak to a supervisor who didn't have anything intelligent to say and referred me to a security number. They are sending it on, I'm waiting for a response. I've since had contact with a few others here in Wtn. and they are also having the same problem, but charter is unaware of any kind of problem in the area...very interesting...will keep trying! |
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 Mega DETHIt's All About The Ping
join:2003-08-20
Watertown, WI | Friend of mine in Watertown is having the same problem.....
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"Action does not equal Achievement" |
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| reply to paulnrld
Still no change yet. I've also tried to call myself about the issue, but since I live in Madison and am not affected by the issue myself there isn't much they will say. I tried to explain that I was calling on behalf of my parents and others in the neighborhood that were experiencing this issue, but since I am not the name on the account having said issue they can not talk to me.
It's nice to know that my family and a few others in the immediate area are not the only ones seeing this problem. Too bad nobody at Charter is aware of the issue - hopefully this gets resolved soon. Not sure where else to go from here.  |
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Mega DETHIt's All About The Ping
join:2003-08-20
Watertown, WI | reply to paulnrld
Still no change in Watertown as of 6am this morning.
Three more people called me last night complaining about the email problem, I said why call me? Call Charter....
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"Action does not equal Achievement" |
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| reply to paulnrld
How about now? |
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| reply to paulnrld
email troubleshooting 101
Some problems I've seen happen:
1) POP3 server name has changed, or server is down
2) SMTP server name has changed, or server is down
3) Authentication settings in the SMTP server do not match the client authentication settings
4) DNS issues causing problems
Sorry if this is too techie, but here goes:
For email you have an inbound (pop) and outbound (smtp) mail server. The first step is to go to a command prompt and see if you can ping both servers. (so typically you would type "ping pop.charter.net" and "ping smtp.charter.net" )
If you can't ping both of them, that's the ISPs problem,not yours. Make sure you have the correct server names in the correct places in your email client program.
DNS workaround Tip: Write down the IP address of each server from the ping you did above. If there is a temporary DNS problem at the ISP, then the server names will not work, but the IP addresses always will. Thus you would need to enter the IP addresses of the Pop3 and smtp server in your email client configuration instead of the names. (Note that using the IP address is only for troubleshooting, as the ISP may change the address of a server, then you're hosed).
Authentication settings: These can be a real pain. To prevent spam, some ISPs enable authentication on the SMTP server, and some don't. If they changed it on the server, and did not tell anybody, then you can't send any mail. Similarly, if your email client is configured to use SMTP authentication, and the SMTP server does not need it, you can't send any mail. Therefore, the authentication settings must match, period.
Using Telnet to see what's working: I won't give the whole procedure here, but you can use telnet from the command prompt to test if either server is working as an inbound or outbound email server. Do a google search "telnet smtp server" and "telnet pop server". |
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Mega DETHIt's All About The Ping
join:2003-08-20
Watertown, WI | reply to paulnrld
According to one person the email is again working as of this morning, around 8am he tried and it was fine.
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"Action does not equal Achievement" |
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| reply to noctech
Checked my parents and sisters mail connection today and all seems to be well now. They didn't change anything in their setup - it just started working again.
Any idea what the cause was? Anything to do with the IP address? |
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