Step 1, don’t panic! Step 2, read below and see if this helps. If not, then panic!
When problems arise with email, it will always originate from one of these three sources.
- Your ISP
- Your internal settings on Outlook (or Microsoft Exchange Server)
- A fault with your web hosting provider
If you find your email doesn’t work there’s a few simple steps you can take yourself to test if the problem is with your host, your ISP or your own setup.
How email works
1. When an email is sent to your address (you@yoursite.com.au), the email goes all around the world searching firstly for the name “yoursite.com.au”. From here two things can happen;
- Your server is not found - the email is undeliverable (this means it’s your ISP or Hosts problem)
- Your server is found - delivery of the email is attempted. We can let you know if a connection to your server is successful. If you are still having problems sending & receiving your email after we establish this, the error is either at your end (in your email program settings – Outlook etc) or with your ISP (Optus/Bigpond etc). In this scenario there is not much you can do about it, other than alert them. Once that has been established though it will be up to your IT administrator or your ISP to resolve the problem – just make sure you let them know quickly because it can take minutes or days to sort this out depending on the issue.
2. If the sent email finds your server (“yoursite.com.au”), it then asks the server if the account (“you@”) exists. Your server then replies with a yes or no. If it does exist then the mail is delivered.
If all this makes no sense whatsoever, relax, go for a walk and call someone under 30 who’ll probably fix it in a jiffy!
