[Ham-Mac] Help....Netscape problem

[John E Bastin, K8AJS]

At 6:42 PM +0000 10/24/02, Cleeve wrote:
>Gentlemen ( and ladies ?)
>	Having used Netscape Communicator for some years, I now have an
>overnight problem, which prevents me sending e-mails. When I try to send
>the e-mail, the modem accesses the ISP, and I then get a request for my
>name and password, having given them, the request reappears ad
>infinitum.When I "cancel" the name/password request, I then get an error
>message, which reports a problem with accessing the password. The
>incoming e-mail, which has the same password, is working ok. I have run
>both Norton Utilities Disc Doctor and Tech Pro 3, through the system and
>both report "no problems".
>
>	I would be very grateful for any advice and assistance which may be
>forthcoming....sincerely, John Cleeve. G3JVC.

It sounds like your ISP may have, without telling you, changed its 
mail authentication procedure to require you to receive your mail 
before sending it (sometimes called "pop before drop" 
authentication). The mail server gets your password when you collect 
your mail and then for a short period of time will allow mail from 
your IP address to be sent without further ado.

If you try to send mail without receiving it first, the server 
prompts you for a password, but Netscape may be not handling the 
protocol properly since it's used to offering a password to receive 
mail, not to send it.

Trying doing a check for received mail and then immediately sending 
your outgoing mail and see if that solves the problem.

If that doesn't help, you may have to call your ISP to find out what 
you need to do to send mail.

Hope this helps.

73,
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