Frequently Asked Questions:
Internet Service
The CoreComm FAQ (list of Frequently Asked Questions) answers questions that are frequently asked of
CoreComm's technical support department.
Part Five: E-Mail Questions
5.01: I'm receiving a lot of junk E-Mail. When will it stop?
Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail, also known as UCE or "SPAM," is one of the biggest problems facing the net today. While CoreComm does not sell lists of its members' addresses to the spammers sending out this type of E-Mail, or anyone for that matter, there are many unscrupulous web sites that do.
It is best not to send an "unsubscribe" response to a bulk E-Mail message, since many times they send out messages without knowing if it is a working E-Mail address until you respond.
SPAM is an ongoing issue that all Internet Providers face. SPAM companies are very good at finding and exploiting an E-Mail address. Once they discover a valid E-Mail address they quickly sell them to each other.
To combat SPAM, CoreComm now offers a SpamCatcher tool which should help reduce the amount of SPAM you receive. SpamCatcher is controlled by you - you have access to the SPAM folder and have the final say on whether a message is saved or deleted. If you would like to sign up for the SpamCatcher please follow the instructions below.
NOTE: While the CoreComm SpamCatcher will help reduce the amount of SPAM mail you receive, it may not catch all the SPAM you receive. No filtering software currently used today is 100% effective.
SPAM Catcher sign up instructions
Go to the following website to get your SpamCatcher account set up.
http://coremail2.core.com/
- Once there Select the "Settings" button
- Check the box marked "Subscribed to SpamCatcher"
- Select the "Save" button
- This will sign your account up for the SpamCatcher.
To view messages filtered by the SpamCatcher go here.
CoreComm makes all efforts to protect your privacy. Check
Junkbusters.com to see how to prevent your private information from being seen by others.
5.02: I got a letter about this virus you can get by reading E-Mail!
There is no virus that an Internet user can get simply by reading a text-based message in a program such as Netscape
or Eudora. A hoax message referring to such a virus, often featuring a subject like "Good Times," "Deeyenda," "Join
the Crew," or "Pen Pal Greetings" has been circulating the net for years and is totally false.
Detailed information on this hoax, and the possibility of getting viruses from E-Mail, can be found
in the Good Time Virus Hoax FAQ.
Another good source of information on various hoaxes is the Urban Legends Reference page.
5.03: I'm getting a message indicating I have a "POP lock". How can I get rid of it?
A POP lock error message can indicate one of a few things:
- It could mean that more than one Internet connection is trying to access your mailbox at one time. To avoid
multiple Internet connections writing to the same mail file at one time (which would cause the mailbox to become
unreadable), our mail server "locks" the mail file until it is safe for another connection to access. If you
share a mailbox, this is likely what is happening.
- A POP lock error can occur when one is trying to download a very large mail file when the mail server is
unusually busy. If you know there is a lot of mail, or a large file, in your E-Mailbox, try downloading the
information early in the morning, or contact our technical support department at 1-800-715-7873
to have them remove it.
POP locks are automatically cleared by the mail server. If you think that you are getting a POP lock incorrectly,
and have been getting a POP lock for more than 3-4 hours, feel free to write the helpdesk support@core.com
or to call technical support to have the lock analyzed and/or removed.
Typically, however, a little bit of patience is all that is required. Close your mail program and wait for about
30 minutes, then try checking your mail again.
5.04: My mail program just says "Retrieving message x of y..." and sits there. What's happening?
While Netscape Navigator's mail program will display the number of messages you have left to download, it won't
display how long it will take for each message to download. If you see a message saying "Retrieving message x of
y..." for a long period of time, that indicates that you have a particularly large mail message, and it is just
taking some time for Netscape to download it. Let it sit: while most mail messages download in seconds, an
extremely large mail file might take over an hour to download!
5.05: How can I set up my mail program for multiple mailboxes?
CoreComm offers the ability to provide multiple E-Mail addresses, or otherwise called E-Mail boxes or
pop accounts under your main account. However, while this is very helpful, many times, people are often confused as
how to receive their E-Mail from these different accounts. Only recently have some E-Mail programs (such as Netscape
Communicator, Outlook Express, and Eudora Pro 4.x) begun to support multiple accounts.
We have a document that covers the steps needed to configure a number of different mail programs for use with an
extra mail account. You can obtain this document by writing E-Mail to support@core.com and requesting it or by
reading it online.
5.06: Why do I get the error "connection refused" when trying to get mail?
This error indicates that you are connecting to the wrong mail server when trying to retrieve your mail. You will
find the correct setting for your mail server address on our server
settings page.
5.07: Why do I get the error "Access Denied" or "Not a Relay" when trying to send mail?
CoreComm's outgoing mail server will only send out a message from those who are directly connected to
CoreComm through CoreComm dial-up connections or CoreComm dedicated lines.
If you need to send mail, and you are on another company's or provider's network, please check with that company or
provider to see what the correct setting for the Outgoing (SMTP) mail server should be.
(Note: you can now send and receive E-Mail from any computer connected to the Internet by using CoreCommMail. See 5.08 below for more information.)
5.08: How do I check CoreComm E-Mail from another provider?
It is now possible to send and receive E-Mail from another provider by using the CoreCommMail web-based E-Mail program. Visit CoreCommMail to check your mail using an Internet browser. Type in your e-mail address and password, and read your messages. CoreCommMail is secure, so your password or messages can not be obtained by others. Because CoreCommMail is web-based, you do not have to
configure any E-Mail software - any computer with a web browser connected to the Internet will work.
If you have any additional questions, visit the
CoreCommMail FAQ.
5.09: How long does it take for E-Mail to be delivered to another party?
While E-Mail is often instantaneous, the speed in which it can be sent to another party depends on the way mail is
delivered to that person, and whether or not that person's provider has fast mail servers. Many providers "queue"
mail, meaning that messages are not delivered to customer's mailboxes as soon as they are received due to using an
oversaturated mail server. It is quite common for America Online and Prodigy to "queue" or delay mail. Messages
sent to customers on those providers can potentially take up to several days to be delivered.
5.10: Why are the dates or times on some E-Mail messages incorrect?
The date and time stamp on an E-Mail message are not determined by the mail server that the mail is delivered from.
Instead, it comes from the time and date that is set on the computer of the person composing the mail. As such, a
person's machine may have the time or date set incorrectly, and that will be carried over into their messages. Put
simply, the time and date information in E-Mail should not be necessarily considered accurate.
Due to a bug in the Microsoft Exchange program, Exchange will display messages with incorrect times unless the
time zone setting in Windows95 is set to GMT. We do not recommend the use of the Microsoft Exchange program, and
recommend that you switch mail programs if this is happening to you.
5.11: Why does the mail server say my password is wrong. It's not!
Most commonly, users are continually prompted for their password by the mail server if they have entered their mail
login name incorrectly. If it is not in all lower case, it will prompt you for the password again because it does
not recognize the username. There may also be space before or after the login name; while you may not see it, the
computer will. You can try deleting it and re-entering the username in lower case to fix the problem.
Also, the mail program encounters a problem on the mail server (such as a POP lock or connection problem), they
might re-prompt the user to enter their password. This is not an indication that the user is entering a password
incorrectly, or that the password is incorrect on the server, but that there was a previous error. If this happens
to you, re-enter the password and check to see if there's another error message that appears that indicates that
there is a POP lock or from lines error.
5.12: A friend sent me E-Mail and I never got it!
Most commonly, this occurs when that friend addresses the E-Mail incorrectly. Typical examples of this are someone
sending the mail to the wrong domain. For example, if the correct address johndoe@domain.com, incorrect (typos)
would be:
- To: johndoe@domai.com
- To: johndoe@do.main.com (or)
- To: johndoe@dmain.com
Also very common is a situation in which a new Internet user has tried to send mail to a name, and not an E-Mail
address -- for example:
- To: John Doe
Will send mail to the E-Mail addresses John@theirprovider.com, as well as Doe@theirprovider.com and -not-
johndoe@core.com
Another common reason that E-Mail may not be delivered is that the sender might have attached a file that was very
large. Some Internet providers have limitations on the size of files that can be sent through their mail servers. Have
the sender check with the Internet provider to see if they have such a restriction.
Another reason you would not be able to receive E-Mail, is if the person sending the E-Mail does not have a
resolvable domain name in their From: field. If their E-Mail address is not set to the basic format like user@domain.com
then our mail server will reject the E-Mail. If they have their E-Mail address set up to avoid SPAM
(i.e.johndoe@nospam.com), our mail server will not accept it. Please make sure their E-Mail address is set correctly.
If none of the above were the case, ask the friend to send any error message they may have received from their ISP's
mail server to support@core.com for analysis.
5.13: How much mail can I have in my account?
All accounts have a quota of 25 megs for mail storage. If the amount of mail exceeds 25 megs for more than seven days, or if it simply exceeds the 25 meg maximum, any messages sent to that mailbox will be rejected and
the owner of that mailbox may encounter problems downloading their mail. This will happen until the messages are
removed from the mail server, or until there is less than 25 megs of mail remaining on the mail server. It is strongly
recommended that a user download all of their mail and immediately remove the messages from the server to avoid these
complications.
5.14: I got an attachment, and I don't know what to do with it!
We have a separate document that covers this topic in detail. You can obtain a copy of this it by writing our helpdesk
at support@core.com or you can find it on our web site.
5.15: I accidentally deleted an important message! Can you get it back?
Probably not. While CoreComm does regular backups of the information on our mail server and can restore
information in the event of a server problem, we can not restore individual messages that are missing because of a
problem other than a server malfunction or crash at CoreComm. We recommend that all users backup their
own hard drives so that information of this sort can be recovered in the event of a problem or accidental deletion
on their computers.
5:16: How do I use CoreCommMail?
When you first enter CoreCommMail, you will be prompted for your E-Mail Address and Password. In the "E-Mail" Address field, type your full E-Mail address (for example: "user@domain.com", not just "user"). Your password would be the same password you use with a standard E-Mail program. Also, remember to watch that Caps Lock key. When in doubt, use lowercase to log in.
CoreCommMail is available for use with accounts from many of the CoreComm companies. For a complete list of domains with which CoreCommMail can be used, please review the Available Domain List.
The first time you log in, you will be requested to set some initial preferences for CoreCommMail. You'll be able to choose your Reply-To, full name, language preference, sort order plus more.
After setting your initial preferences and on subsequent visits, you'll be shown your INBOX and any messages you have listed. You'll also be presented with buttons to perform various tasks. Below is list of this buttons and the tasks they perform.
New Message - Used to bring up the message compose area for sending new messages.
Check Mail - Refreshes the current page and folder you are viewing.
Settings - Used to change any or all of the preferences you original defined when you first logged in.
Address Book - Manage your address book contacts. You can also import addresses from popular E-Mail programs such as Microsoft's Outlook Express or Netscape's Messenger.
Folders - Create or delete folders to help you better store and organize your mail.
Empty Trash - Clean up any messages that you have placed in your TRASH folder.
Help - Displays help information.
Logout - Logs you out and protects your Inbox from people who press the "Back" button.
To read a message, simply click on the subject text of that E-Mail, and the contents will appear. Use the "Message List" button to return.
