Mac Forum / Applications / Outlook Express / May 2006

Hi Jane,

I can see from the source of your message that you're using Outlook Express
4.5.

Firstly, are you sure that you have deleted all mail accounts from the
Outlook Express Preferences panel?  To do this, go to Edit > Preferences and
then look at the E-mail section underneath Accounts.  At the top of the
screen, there will be a Mail Accounts drop-down menu which will show you all
of the currently configured accounts within Outlook Express.  You can remove
accounts via the Remove Account button in the bottom-right of the screen.
When you're left with only one account, you'll find that it isn't possible
to remove the final account.  Instead, you should then use the New
Account... button to create a new account configuration.  You can use any
name details you wish, and remember to set the outgoing and incoming mail
servers both to mail.virgin.net.  Once you've created that new account, you
can select the final old account and remove that one too.  Finally, click OK
to return to the main Outlook Express screen, and then attempt to send &
receive again to see what happens.

If that should fail, then I'd guess at one of two issues...

1) One of the messages that Outlook Express is trying to download from the
server is corrupt, and needs to be removed from the server before normal
downloads can be resumed.  You could check for any "strange" messages by
logging into your mail account via Web mail, which is available at
http://webmail.virgin.net - remove anything that seems suspicious at the top
of the list and try again.

or

2) A preference file that controls Outlook Express is corrupt and needs to
be deleted.

If we go with the latter possibility, then it would be best to delete the
following file while Outlook Express is not open...

Mac HD:Applications:Outlook Express 4.5 Folder:OE User(s):[your
username]:Outlook Express Prefs

Launch Outlook Express again and you'll probably be prompted to re-enter all
of your account details again - this is a pain, but you'll have to follow
the process documented above to do that.

Should the deletion/reconfiguration process not work, the easiest solution
would be to switch over to Outlook Express 5.0x, which should certainly be
pre-installed on OS 9.2.x machines.  This is rather different to Outlook
Express 4.5, and so if you decide to do that, post back here for further
advice, or mail me back directly and I can help you out.

HTH,

Ricky