Email Troubleshooting and Resources - A Non-Programmer's Guide to Web Crossing

This section covers some of the problems you may run into while using Web Crossing's email features.

The logEmail file indicates that all the recipients cannot be found and no mail is going out. Why would this be?

It sounds like the DNS server you set in the Email Services control panel is not properly functioning. Check both the IP address you set for the DNS server and also the DNS server itself to make sure it is serving correctly.

I am using Web Crossing's built-in email list folder, but messages that go out have strange reply-to addresses with numbers instead of the name of the folder as a return address.

If you do not set a newsgroup/email name for a folder, then the default name is the unique ID number for the folder. Edit the folder and set a newsgroup/email name and outgoing mail will use that name instead of the number.

You must enable Email Services in the Control Panel and also set the IP address of your network's DNS server. If you don't do this, the options for Mail Mirroring will not appear when you Edit Folder. See the section on Setting Up Web Crossing for Email Services for more details.

I know there is mail waiting in the POP3 mailbox that Web Crossing is using for receiving messages for a folder. But Web Crossing does not seem to be checking the mail.

Check the name of the POP3 mail account in Edit Folder > Mailing list mirroring. Remember, the account name should be fully qualified, including the name of the POP3 server machine. For example, instead of myforum@webxharbor.com you would set something like myforum@mail.webxharbor.com. (This is "Eudora" style, rather than "Outlook" style).

My Japanese email is not working correctly. Characters are getting "corrupted" in the transfer.

There are two things you should check:
1. In Control Panel > General Settings make sure you have set the site character set to ISO-2022-JP.
2. In Control Panel > Email Settings make sure to uncheck 8-bit encoding. Japanese Internet email is encoded in 7-bits.

My folder is set to sent outgoing mail, but it doesn't seem to be arriving at my mailing list server.

I did what you suggested, but my mailing list server still does not seem to be receiving any messages from Web Crossing.

When I post a message to a discussion, it gets sent out to the mailing list server OK. But then the mailing sends the message back again to Web Crossing and it ends up appearing twice! What can I do?

You have set up a message loop. This is an easy mistake to make. See the section on Two-Way Mailing List Mirroring/Archiving for a technique to avoid this problem.

E-mail Services

Sysop Docs:

DNS and BIND, by Paul Albitz & Cricket Liu, O'Reilly & Associates, 1992
An excellent guide to setting up and running your own DNS server. Even if you just read the first four chapters you will get the basic information you need.

LetterRip Pro web site (for Mac OS)
ListSTAR web site (for Mac OS)
majordomo web site (for all systems)
onelist.com (a free mailing list server site)
listbot.com (another free mailing list server site)

EMail - Troubleshooting & Resources