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SonicVanguard · 12-27-2004, 05:17 PM

This looks to be the right place for this issue - if it's not, the mods are of course free to move it.

My neighbor is an older single lady that knows very little about computers other than how to run the various programs she needs. Up until two weeks ago, her 30ish son lived with her but he's finally moved on to a new gig in the southwest. They had a broadband connection shared through a router. When her son moved, he took the router and set up her system to connect directly to the cable modem (comcast). But now, she has no problems browsing any web page, but she cannot access her mail server by an means - her mail client (Thunderbird) cannot send/receive nor can she access Comcast's webmail. Of course Comcast blamed her using Thunderbird and they walked her through setting up OE, that didn't work either.

On the rarest of ocassions she can access her mail server - but it's very rare. To the point that she can download messages one moment, and a minute or so later, the server does not respond.

When I got home this afternoon, she asked me to come over and take a look - I'm certainly no expert, but I think I'm fairly capable at least looking the system over. I ran WINIPCFG and she had a IP address, DNS server info - everything. Next I tried to PING her mail server. No luck. I could PING any other type of server, but I could not PING any mail server (I tired our mail server at the studio, The Grand Valley State mail server, the Michigan State mail server, and the SBC mail server). From my house, (I also have Comcast) she has no troubles connecting to Comcast's webmail.

Her system specs are:
Windows 98se and it looks like she checks for updates regularly.
768Meg of RAM
Kingston 10/100 NIC
Linksys cable modem (unsure of model)
Latest version of ZoneAlarm Free

Comcast is now blaming her modem - I have my doubts on that. But what could possibly be causing this problem?

Dave.

12-27-2004, 05:17 PM	#1
SonicVanguard Audio/Video Expert Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: West Michigan Posts: 1,625	Cannot access mail server This looks to be the right place for this issue - if it's not, the mods are of course free to move it. My neighbor is an older single lady that knows very little about computers other than how to run the various programs she needs. Up until two weeks ago, her 30ish son lived with her but he's finally moved on to a new gig in the southwest. They had a broadband connection shared through a router. When her son moved, he took the router and set up her system to connect directly to the cable modem (comcast). But now, she has no problems browsing any web page, but she cannot access her mail server by an means - her mail client (Thunderbird) cannot send/receive nor can she access Comcast's webmail. Of course Comcast blamed her using Thunderbird and they walked her through setting up OE, that didn't work either. On the rarest of ocassions she can access her mail server - but it's very rare. To the point that she can download messages one moment, and a minute or so later, the server does not respond. When I got home this afternoon, she asked me to come over and take a look - I'm certainly no expert, but I think I'm fairly capable at least looking the system over. I ran WINIPCFG and she had a IP address, DNS server info - everything. Next I tried to PING her mail server. No luck. I could PING any other type of server, but I could not PING any mail server (I tired our mail server at the studio, The Grand Valley State mail server, the Michigan State mail server, and the SBC mail server). From my house, (I also have Comcast) she has no troubles connecting to Comcast's webmail. Her system specs are: Windows 98se and it looks like she checks for updates regularly. 768Meg of RAM Kingston 10/100 NIC Linksys cable modem (unsure of model) Latest version of ZoneAlarm Free Comcast is now blaming her modem - I have my doubts on that. But what could possibly be causing this problem? Dave.