Judging from the questions I receive, sending and receiving e-mail can cause a lot of frustration for our readers. I feel your pain. I recently found myself accusing Outlook 2013 of being out to get me. Then I took a deep breath and realized five cups of coffee in a day are never a good idea, especially when installing new software.
So, trust me when I say we really do want to answer your questions. One thing that stands in the way of answering questions is not having quite enough information to figure out what’s wrong. When asking a question about your e-mail, here are some things that can help us help you:
- What e-mail service do you use? Is it a web-based service like Gmail, Outlook.com etc… or do you have an e-mail client such as Outlook or Thunderbird? What version are you using? For example: Outlook 2007 or 2013?
- What operating system are you using? Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Chrome, Mountain Lion etc…
- If you’re getting an error, try to tell us exactly what that error says. “Gmail Temporary Error (502) tells us more about your problem than just saying “I get an error.”
- Be specific about when the problem occurs. When you send? When you forward? When you try to open messages from a particular sender?
Details like these can help up help you. Thanks for your questions, we enjoy answering them.
~ Cynthia
Excellent tech tip. Tech support needs details, as many details as can be provided by the user. The tech support are not mind readers. They cannot just guess. And they do not need to be subjected to temper tantrums.
Thanks for your excellent services.
Appreciated, indeed.
You always have good and useful tips and offer a lot of goodies.
There is something I have wanted since way back in the DOS computing days.
There should be a program that operates from a short hand call. This program would make a file of any message on the system and if you are not frozen, store the parameters in use at the time.
This could be called up after a restart and be forwarded to whomever you need to contact about it.
I sure enjoy your e-mails and tech tips.
Frank
I am thinking about switching my ISP. I am thinking about all the places where my current email address is and am wondering if there is an easy way to do the switch. Is there an easy way to direct email to a new provider address?