You may have ever met difficulties when you are using your email client, such as Outlook Express or Eudora, to send or receive messages. For many people email is one of the most important communication tools because of its speed, extensive coverage and low cost. Nowadays more and more marketers utilize email to help them market their products on the internet. However, there are times when communication by email cannot be conducted by means of an email program due to certain factors. This article is about some tips that you can apply when you face such problems.

When such a vexing occasion arises you should first check your internet connection. Sometimes a PC can get disconnected from the internet unexpectedly. If necessary, open the system log and see whether your PC can contact the DNS server. If you can still use your browser to surf the net, then it is more likely that the problem is on your email client.

Next, notice carefully the information that you have inserted into your email client such as your username and password. Have you changed the password for your email account? Also check whether you have typed the information about the POP and SMTP servers correctly, including the ports used (110 for POP and 25 for SMTP).

If you are sure that everything is ok, and yet you still cannot use the email client, then try to use the webmail facility from your ISP or hosting service. A good hosting service usually provides such a feature. Some popular webmail programs are Horde, SquirrelMail and RoundCube. Just use one of them to read or to send out email messages.

In an emergency you can try to check your email messages by using Telnet client. This program can also be used for sending out messages. Sometimes you cannot receive emails because there is a large attachment included to an email message. By using Telnet you can easily remove such emails. This can also be accomplished by using Webmail.

If you use XP you can open the Telnet program by clicking Start->Run and then type telnet {your incoming mail server} 110 in the box provided. After that you have to submit your username and password. Just type user {your username} and press Enter. Next, type your password by typing pass {your password}, and again press Enter. To display email numbers, use the list command. To read a message you need to type retr {email number}. For removing a message you can use the dele {email number} command.

Note that with Telnet you might not be able to read HTML messages clearly, because the HTML tags will also be displayed. In addition to that, you might not also be able to use the backspace key to erase characters that you have just typed. Compared with modern email clients today, Telnet looks very primitive. However, sometimes this program can be very useful.

For sending an email, type telnet {your outgoing mail server} 25 in the command prompt. Then, type your email address by using mail from: {your email address} command. The address of the recipient is typed by using rcpt to: {destination address} command. Inserting the body of your message can be done by typing data on the screen. To send it out just press Enter followed by a dot and then press Enter again.

There are various factors that can affect the ability of an email program to send or receive messages. For spam protection, there are ISPs that restrict the use of their SMTP servers by not allowing users to send emails using other ISPs. There is also a possibility that you have mis-configured your personal firewall. Just check any possibilities and, if necessary, just use the webmail program provided by your hosting service/ISP or use the telnet client to receive or send out emails.