FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  396 (06/01/04)

Q

My wife’s computer uses Freeserve and I have just upgraded mine and switched to BT Internet.  I can send her an email but when she tries to send me one it comes back ‘Not sent’ with the warning ‘Mail rejected: administrative prohibition (host is blacklisted).’  I can’t believe that Freeserve and Bt Internet have a dispute. I have removed the Spam filter on the BT Internet setup in case my computer was treating her message as Spam. Can you help? 

Tom Curry, via email

A

Internet Service Providers (ISPs), like some husbands and wives – apparently… – sometimes have problems communicating with one another, and occasionally this results in a quarrel. Both BT and Freeserve, and many other ISPs, often arbitrarily block emails from ISPs they consider to have security problems or are a source of large volumes of Spam email. The blocks are often imposed in response to complaints from subscribers. Normally disputes are quickly resolved, as I believe the Freeserve to BT squabble has been, usually after even more complaints from frustrated email users.

Clearly there’s a need to bring some order to this daft situation but so far ISPs seem to think it’s okay to cut users off without warning. If you find your mail is being blocked fire off a complaint to the Support departments of both your ISP and the one doing the blocking and if you are a network user, it’s worth paying a visit to the Distributed Server Boycott List at: http://dsbl.org/main

Q

When downloading my emails in Outlook Express. I always get the wrong number of mails received. Taking today as typical example: Click on Send Receive and the response is: "Receiving messages 1 of 5 / 1-2-3-4-5, however there happen to be only three. Several colleagues have the same problem of numbers it claims to have to have received not matching the numbers of messages downloaded. There is always the worry that messages have been lost. Any ideas why OE can't count?

Charles Lagus, via email

A 

I suspect that the phantom emails do exist but they are being automatically blocked or deleted. Blocking can happen by accident, when you are viewing your Inbox or reading an email. It’s easily done the Block Sender command is on the Message drop-down menu (right next to Flag Message) and with a careless mouse click it will be applied to any highlighted or open message. To check, and unblock any erroneous entries go to Tools > Message Rules > Blocked Senders List. Automatic deletions are normally due to a ‘Rule’ reacting to a banned email address or keyword, so check your Rules by going to Tools > Message Rules  > Mail

Q

Autorun on my Windows XP computer no longer runs. I have to use the drive letter to load a CD, everything appears to be hunky dory and I can find nothing on the discs or in Windows to help can you?

Dai Griffiths, via email

A

That’s odd, has someone been having a fiddle? XP is normally configured by default to automatically most types of discs and unlike earlier versions of Windows the controls are reasonably accessible and simple to use. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer, right-click on the CD-ROM drive icon, select Properties then the AutoPlay tab. You can now select the required action for each type of CD from the drop-down menu. There’s an even simpler set of controls in Tweak UI for XP (AutoPlay on the My Computer branch), which you can download for free from: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/

pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Q

I collect wristwatches and there is a web site (www.thepurists.com), which I simply cannot access. It seems to be something to do with security - I've tried changing the Windows 98 security level up and down but it makes no difference. I tried getting rid of all cookies - that didn't help either. Any ideas?

Kevin Evans, Knowle, Solihull

A

There doesn't seem to be anything unusual about the site so I suspect that it is being blocked by something else on your PC. Try switching off any firewall, anti-virus, popup stopper etc. programs. These are normally represented by icons in the System Tray (next to the clock on the toolbar), right click on the icons and select Exit (not disable or standby as this means the programs will probably still be running in the background). Check also the Close Program list by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete (just once) and End Task any web monitoring programs that are still running.