Email Non Delivery

[Howard Warehand]

For a number of years in the UK I have use Outlook Express for sending or receiving emails without a single problem. During the last few months a good friend, who now emails me quite a lot, has regularly had his emails returned but they get through OK next day. He uses AOL to send his emails to me. I have noticed that when they are non delivered I have a stack of unread messages ( 200 or 300)in my inbox. Is there a limit to the number of messages which my system will store, is this a clue??. 90% of these messages are spam because I don't have a filter so on average I receive 70 to 100 per day. I am running MS XP on a P4. Your suggestions would be most welcome. Howard.

[Bent Romnes]

Howard, I can only suggest what I do and has worked for me.
Before I download my email to the email program on my computer, I go to my internet provider's web site and look at my mail there. I think all providers have that service now, where you can receive mail, write new emails and respond to mails sent to you. They also store your emails on their server. They usually have a spam filter, where the spam goes in the junk box. Some escape and gets put in your inbox. You can direct your web mail to put those in the junk. You can also direct mail that the server considers junk, to go in your inbox.
Then, when the mails have been sorted the way you want them, you open your Email program and download the good mail.

My email program of choice is Eudora,a free download, Here
I have found Outlook cumbersome and unreliable.

So to make a long story even longer, here is the sequence:
-I go to my Internet provider's web site and look at my mail
-I empty the spam folder
-I mark junk mail as Junk and it goes in the spam folder also
- I then open Eudora and download the good mail.

Might be a bit more cumbersome for some people but doing it this way I think I have eliminated a lot of garbage and even virus before it hits my computer.

[Wiz Feinberg]

Is there a limit to the number of messages which my system will store?

Possibly, yes. You should contact your ISP and ask them if there is either a number of messages limit, or a file size limit, for your incoming email inbox, on their mail server. Also ask them if they offer epam filtering services of any kind and how they work.

[Howard Warehand]

Many thanks to you both for your suggestions and for taking the trouble to help. I guess that I need to find out a bit more about an upgrade my system to filter out the garbage emails as this is now becoming really annoying. Thanks again, Regards Howard.