Outlook Download Problems

[AlanHo]

From time to time Outlook will not download messages from one or more of my three accounts - it eventually times out. I have tried increasing the download time to 5 minutes in case it was a delay with the ISP - but to no avail. Sending messages is no problem.

If I open the Email accounts in Outlook and use the test facility - all is reported OK

I have tried deleting and reinstalling my accounts and have talked to Telewest broadband help line who confirmed their servers were OK. Rebooting the computer does not usually help - except that Outlook may well work OK again for no explicable reason the following day.

Webmail works fine and I have tried using Outlook Express - using the same accounts - with no problems.

This morning for instance - Outlook downloaded messages from one Email account but timed out on the other two. I used webmail to detemine that there were messages on the server on all 3 accounts. I then opened Outlook Express and it downloaded messages from all 3 accounts immediately.

A couple of weeks ago I deleted and reinstalled MS Office and Outlook - initially that seemed to do the trick but only for a couple of days.

Windows XP home SP2

Offfice & Outlook 2003 fully updated.

Windows firewall & MS Defender

Telewest anti-virus and trojan package PCguard

Anyone have any ideas?

[andsome]

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling Office?

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

I see the same thing with Outlook 2000 sometimes at home. This was originally a POP3/SMTP account, later converted to IMAP. The problem occurred with both account types. Restarting Outlook solves the problem most of the time.

At the office I use Outlook 2003 with an Exchange Server account. Never get a problem here.

In my experience Outlook has some difficulties recovering from any kind of connection problems, even when they are only minor or temporary. I think this is why recycling OL usually helps.