When a mail server is unable to successfully send your message, we say your message "bounced." You won't get a pop-up message alerting you to this error, but you will find an "undeliverable mail" message in your In box.
Most mail errors are caused by misspelling and typing mistakes. You must spell the recipient's username and domain name correctly and you must include the @ between the username and domain. Commas and spaces are not allowed in E-mail addresses, however hyphens and underlines ( _ ) are.
|
Error
|
What It Means |
The Fix |
| Unknown User |
The E-mail server cannot find the user in its database. |
Either you misspelled part of the recipient's address or the recipient no longer gets mail at this address. To find out if the user still gets mail at that domain, send an E-mail to postmaster@domain, where domain is the domain you previously sent the user E-mail. |
Cannot Open Mail Box
or
Mail Box Full | Your mailbox contains the maximum amount of messages it can hold. | Check the Mail Server settings in the Preferences section of your browser. In Netscape Communicator, select the button labeled POP3 (messages and folders are kept locally on hard disk).
Do not leave your messages on the server.
You may have been mail-bombed.
Contact your ISP mailbox and ask him to empty your mailbox or allocate more space for your mailbox, temporarily or permanently. |
| Warning: Message Still Undeliverable After xxx Hours | Your message has been delayed. | There may have been an interruption in the connection somewhere along the route. The mail program will continue to send your message for a set period of time. |
| Mail for a mail list you subscribe to stops arriving. | | This is usually caused by a temporary problem at the host site. Or you may have been accidentally "unsubscribed" by the mail list server. |
| Mail Server busy. Please try again | The mail server is overloaded with requests at present. | Try again in a few minutes. If the problem continues, contact your ISP. It may be having mail server problems. |
