Outlook POP3 email: switching from Dialup to Broadband environment

[PLCdeveloper]

Win XP Pro, ver. 5.1.2600 service pack 1
Outlook 2002

For years I used to get my POP3 email by means of a dialup account (MSN.com).

Recently I installed a broadband connection from a local ISP (Wispertel.net). They are not affiliated with MSN. I set up my Outlook mail account the same way as before (using myname@msn.com, pop3 inbound, smtp outbound, etc.) and email worked fine... Then, about a month later, I began to receive alot of email errors during send/receive; there are several variations but the main theme is:

"Task 'MSN - Sending and Receiving' reported error (0x8004210B) : 'The operation timed out waiting for a response from the sending (SMTP) server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).'

My email does go through, but sometimes I have to send/receive multiple times. Sometimes I just have to log off and try again later. This has been going on for about two weeks now.

At this point, MSN (so-called) Tech Support is telling me that I can't get my MSN POP3 email by means of broadband. If I want to get my POP3 email from their servers, I have to use MSN dialup, according to them.

To me that seems dumb. As long as I specify the incoming and outgoing server names, it should not matter if I use broadband to get onto the net, n'est-ce pas? Any thoughts on this?

 

[Murugs]

When you receive email errors , are you able to login to the internet and browse. If not so the problem is your Internet Provider. Also I don't go with the MSN tech support guy's answer.

MP

 

[PLCdeveloper]

Thanks Murugs, my Internet browsing is fine, so it appears to be some other issue.

I may have solved my problem (jury is still out) by making a change to my wireless router config. Oddly enough this was identified on MSN's knowledgebase. My particular model of Linksys router is NOT on the list, I use a WRT54G, but I tried their fix anyway (altered the MTU of the router) and this seemed to solve at least one problem. I'll take a little progress any day. Here is the link:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;823663.

Now I know why network professionals charge so much for their services: they're worth it. Also, I'm better off ignoring MSN telephone tech support. I really should have known.

 

[pari22]

I agree with all of you. Don't even bother to call msn for tech support. They simply SUCK.
For your email problem... I had similar problem but it went away after I changed my smtp setting to my isp's smtp server. Works faster too!