This page contains answers to common questions posed by customers. Keep
checking back, as new items will be added as time allows.
- Before You Call
- Outlook Express: Dial-Up connection disconnects after sending or receiving
- Outlook Express: Cannot open email attachments
- Outlook or Outlook Express: Timeouts when sending or receiving email
- Outlook Express Timeout with Error Number 0x800CCC19
- Windows XP: Dial-up networking errors 629, 640, 691 or 734
- Internet Explorer: Home Page keeps resetting or other abnormal behaviors
Additional Helps
- Dialer and Email Configuration Information
- Modem Disconnection Troubleshooting Information
- DSL Setup Instructions
- Cannot access the Internet due to a rule of function within Norton Internet Security or Norton Personal Firewall --- From Symantec's website
- How to display email headers in Outlook Express
If you are experiencing any problems, or your system just doesn't seem to be its normal self, the first thing that you should do is a SHUT-DOWN so that the computer is powered completely off. This will reset all hardware and software components of the system, something that a simple restart will not accomplish.
If the modem or network card, or some other component, has gotten into an error condition, the shut-down will hopefully reset everything to its default state and may end up correcting whatever system problem you are experiencing.
Dial-Up Connection Disconnects after Sending or Receiving Email
In the Outlook Express top-line menu, select TOOLS, then OPTIONS. In the Options window, select the Connection tab and uncheck the check box labeled "Hang up after sending and receiving." Click OK to save the changes.
This problem is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 329570.
Newer versions of Outlook Express contain a "security feature" that prevents certain email attachments from being opened or viewed, including Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc. Having this option enabled provides only minimal protection against viruses, and in no way diminishes the need for having an up-to-date anti-virus program on your computer.
To disable this option, thereby allowing access to the affected email attachments, select TOOLS, then OPTIONS from the Outlook Express top-line menu. On the Options page, select the SECURITY tab and uncheck the check box labeled "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus." Once you have unchecked that box, click OK to save the change. Any previously unavailable attachments in emails that you have will now be available.
Timeouts when Sending or Receiving Email
Timeouts in Outlook and Outlook Express seem to be widespread, based upon the number of newsgroup posts relating to these problems on the Internet, but no specific cause is given, nor is there a specific fix mentioned.
If you are normally able to send and receive email, you can try the following as some first steps:
- Perform a shut down on your computer so that it is powered off. Wait 30 seconds or so, then power it back on and try again. Sometimes a modem will get into an error condition which can only be reset by powering off the computer.
- Go into your email account's Properties (in Outlook Express, select TOOLS, then ACCOUNTS, from the top-line menu, then select the Mail tab, highlight your email account and click the Properties button). In the account Properties window, select the Advanced tab and slide the Server Timeouts tab all the way to the right (Long) setting. Click OK to close the Properties window, then click Close to close the Accounts window.
- If the above steps don't help, you can try going into your mailbox on the server via the Montana.Net home page (click on the "Montana.Net Email" link at left). Log in using your account name (DO NOT include "@montana.net"). On the page where the contents of your account's server in box are displayed, the first email to be received by your email program would be listed on the bottom, and emails would be received working up from there, so if your timeout is happening on the third email, count up three from the bottom. You may want to delete that email, especially if it is very large in size, in order to receive the rest.
Some other information regarding timeouts can be found in the following documents from Microsoft's Tech Support Knowledge Base:
- Error 0x800ccc0d or 0x800ccc0f When Receiving and Sending E-Mail - Refers to verifying email server settings, checking configuration of firewall software and possible issue with Norton Anti-Virus software configuration.
- You Cannot Send a Message with Graphic Attachments - Refers to problems associated with U.S. Robotics WinModems.
- Cannot Send Outgoing Mail - Relates to problems associated with Linksys routers.
Outlook Express Timeout with Error Number 0x800CCC19
There is a problem in Outlook Express 6 with certain file attachments (or technically called MIME types) when they appear in your POP3 mailbox. Your connection to the mailserver will then time out. The solution is to download the Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 from Microsoft which should fix the problem. Please see this link to Microsoft OE6/SP1.
Using OE6 with Norton Antivirus or McAfee products
If you have already installed the SP1 for OE6, this problem may still occur when the following conditions are met. First, you have Norton Antivirus 2003 or 2002 installed. Second, you have "Scan incoming Email" and "Scan outgoing Email" turned on. Note that this may also be true when you use McAfee software products. To prevent this problem when you use NAV and Outlook or Outlook Express, follow the steps below to turn off e-mail scanning.
- Quit Outlook or Outlook Express.
- Start Norton AntiVirus
- Click Options. If a menu appears when you click Options, click Norton AntiVirus. The Norton AntiVirus Options dialog box appears.
- In the Internet section, click Email.
- Click to clear the "Scan incoming Email"
and "Scan outgoing Email" check box.
Click OK and close NAV.
For additional information, you can also visit
this link to the Symantec
Web site.
Dial-Up Networking Errors 629, 640, 691 OR 734
These errors are discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles 310431 and 314455. These documents list several items that you can check out:
- Verify your user name and password
- Verify the phone number that your system is dialing
- Make sure that your dial-up is set to Allow Unsecured Password
- Clear the Include Window Logon Domain checkbox
- Lower the connection speed
- Disable Hardware Flow Control
- Disable Modem Error Control
- Disable Modem Compression
- Disable Software Compression
- Disable LCP Extensions
- Disable IP Header Compression
Any of the above items can be possible causes or contributing factors. You may want to try making single changes between connection attempts to avoid changing more than you need to.
Home Page Continually Keeps Resetting or Other Abnormal Behaviors
This problem is characteristic of what is called a Browser Hijacking program. CoolWebSearch is a name given to a wide range of different browser hijackers that runs a Java applet. It distributes itself by exploiting security holes in older or unpatched versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Some variants (eg., CWS.Vrape) will redirect to adult sites or invoke dialers. There are many varients on the Internet.
The most common symptoms you see are:
- HomePage hijacks [to CoolWebSearch sites or it's affiliates]
- Internet Explorer Search engine hijacks
- Unwanted menu-extensions and favorites added
- Missing Tabs in Internet Explorer Options
- Redirection to adult sites
- System dials to connect using other dialers
There is a program available for free called CWShredder which will detect and remove all known varients of the CoolWebSearch hijacker program.
After downloading and installing CWShredder, run the program and first click the "Check for Update" button to make sure that you have the latest version, as new variants of the CoolWebSearch hijacker program are released frequently. (Note that the CWShredder home site seems to get hit by denial of service attacks, which cause the Check for Updates function to hang. If this occurs, X out of the program and re-run it with the version that you have, skipping the Check for Updates function.)
It is also important to note that this problem occurs due to a vulnerability in Windows which is described in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #816093 and Microsoft Security Bulletin #MS03-011, and is corrected by a patch available via Microsoft Windows Update.