sendig emails

[cavendish]

Please can someone tell me why i can receive emails, but I can't send them. i am using outlook express, and this has never happened before.

[ChuckFickens]

do you get an error of any sort?

[cavendish]

yes I get an error number :0x800CCCOF
which apparently means I've been disconnected, but I'm still connected to the internet,

[Buenchico]

Outlook Express has a nasty habit of 'losing' the settings it requires to connect you to the outgoing mail server. (To be be fair to Microsoft, your email scanning software has to temporarily change your server settings when it scans incoming and outgoing mail. Sometimes the two different pieces of software fail to communicate properly, leaving the settings 'screwed up').

First, make sure you know the address of your email provider's SMTP server. The information will appear somewhere on the support pages of that provider. However, if your email service is provided by a main UK ISP, it will be quicker to look here for the info:
http://www.kitz.co.uk/isp/dns.htm

Then open Outlook Express. Go to Tools > Accounts > Mail.

If you've only got one email account, it will probably already be selected. Otherwise click on the relevant account, to highlight it.

Click 'Properties' and 'Servers'.

Take a look at the information in the SMTP server setting. It will probably be incorrect. If so, enter the correct information. Click 'Apply', 'OK' and 'Close'.

Chris

[Buenchico]

PS: If that doesn't work, delete the existing account and then re-create it.

To do so, start as before but select 'Remove' rather than properties. Once you've deleted the account, click 'Add' > 'Mail' and set your account up from new, using the POP3 and SMTP information from the link I provided above.

Chris

[cavendish]

Thanks a lot. I'll try that.