Outlook error receiving pop3 messages

[dangermouse1977]

I have a situation whereby a user cannot download mail from his pop3 mailbox into outlook.

I have tested this with both Outlook 2003 and 2007 and there's no difference.

Send and receive connects to the pop3 server, downloads 47.7kb of e-mail and then stops. (If the first email in the queue is less than this size then it downloads fine)

User is running Vista and no other person in the office has this issue.
The wierdest part is that in his hotel the download works with no problems.

Any suggestions as to what causes this?

 

[goombawaho]

Focus on the PC that the user is using and the network connectivity on it. You've already said the office as a whole doesn't have a problem so it's not the corporate ISP connection. Further proof of the blame is that the laptop works out of the office.

Could it be a duplex/speed mismatch on the network card or the port that the user is connecting to in the office??? Or a bad network cable. Can you switch the person to a different cubicle to test the connection from there?

If moving to a different port doesn't show improvement - how is connecting to any servers in the office for that user??

 

[dangermouse1977]

Your thinking mirrors mine.

I've replaced the network cable with a known good, brand new cable.
I've plugged that cable directly into the Internet Router.

The user has 2 different laptops (both Vista, one office 2003 and one office 2007) the problem is the same on both.

Server connections are fine, as are ping times and Internet connectivity etc.

Vista appears to be the only constant.

 

[58sniper]

If you use the web client to look at the mailbox, is there a message out there with no sender, or no sent timestamp? That can certainly cause these problems in Outlook.

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP

 

[dangermouse1977]

no such luck unfortunately.

He's using webmail at the moment, emptying the mailbox each day, yet each time someone sends him a mail the same thing happens.

He also has 2 pop mail accounts on each machine, it doesn't matter which one mails are sent to, the same thing happens!

 

[goombawaho]

No other Vista machines have this problem?? Do you have other Vista machines that you can compare?

 

[dangermouse1977]

I finally hae another user with Vista - same problem.

No issues with either of them downloading mail at their hotels or when they are at home - just when are sat in the office.

It's driving me mad!!

 

[dangermouse1977]

Any further suggestions on this problem - I'm rapidly running out of ideas

 

[smah]

What other add-on tools are loaded on the problem machines? Antivirus, antispam, etc that might be interacting with the mail functions.

 

[dangermouse1977]

one has only symantec AV loaded, the other has god knows what ("he knows about computers")

However as the download works fine at their hotels and homes etc, I don't think it's that.

I've disabled the AV just to check with no difference.

 

[dangermouse1977]

In case anyone else has the same problem.

The issue is caused by TCP Windows scaling in Vista, the solution is to disable this feature by:

Click Start button, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.
Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled