Yep Graham, I did that. The full train would look like this: Inbox-Outlook Express provided by Wanadoo>Tools>Accounts>Mail>Properties>Servers.. and in that window both dialog boxes are greyed out:
Incoming mail (POP3): pop.wanadoo.co.uk (grey)
Outgoing mail (SMTP): smtp.wanadoo.co.uk (also grey)
So I am unable to change them to 'Orangehome'.. grrrr
Hmmmm, lol.. not *that* keen but if nothing else works I'll have to give it a try because I really do need to get at my incoming emails (which aren't).
I did call the Orange Tech line and I think they said they were having problems with servers. But why would my Outlook Express be different from other people's, who can change their settings? Anyway, if you're kind enough and know the way to edit my Registry, then it's knowledge worth having.
- ignore the registry comments which are a red-herring with regard to your problem (ie graham is referring to how you'd have to change the 'provided by Wanadoo' heading at the top of Outlook Express, but the heading is just a label, irrelevant to your problem, and can stay as it is. ie it doesn't affect anything functionally so leave it.)
- if you want to see your emails before you fix anything you can probably access them by logging in to Orange Webmail via the link on the Orange homepage.
~~~~~~~~~~
That aside, this is probably how to fix your problem (at your own risk!) for Outlook Express with Windows XP. At least, it worked for me. It's a way of recreating your email account with the correct servers specified :
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please note that these instructions for Buzzard are just a work-around for the greyed-out boxes problem. If you don't have greyed-out boxes then I imagine the server details can be edited/changed directly without having to add another account (ie connection details) and then removing the old one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Create a new email account using
Outlook Express>Tools>Accounts>Mail>Add>Mail
which should automatically start the Internet Connection Wizard
Fill in:
Your Display Name : eg Fred Buzzard and click Next
Your E-Mail Address: eg buzzard @ buzzard.freeserve.co.uk and click Next
(although these might fill in automatically anyway)
Incoming Mail Server: pop.orangehome.co.uk
Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.orangehome.co.uk and click Next
Account Name: eg buzzard.freeserve.co.uk (ie the bit after the @ in your email address)
Your Password: ******** (probably your normal default internet password)
(it's up to you whether you tick Remember Password or not. It usually depends, from a security point of view, on whether anyone else uses your computer. ie if it's just you then you might leave it ticked)
Click Next and Finish
Now when you go back to
Outlook Express>Tools>Accounts>Mail
you should see two email accounts.
Left-click (once) on the new account that you've just set up, to highlight it in blue, and then click on Save as Default on the right. Now click on Close.
Now, if you try to access your emails in Outlook Express (eg by hitting Send-Receive) the emails ought to start coming through again.
What might also happen, however, is that you continue to get error messages relating to the old freeserve or pop.wanadoo.co.uk server not being found. Even though it's no longer set as the default it's as though the system is still checking for the server on the old email account.
If, and only if, the previous steps have successfully enabled you to retrieve your normal emails, it should be safe to remove the old account:
Go back to:
Outlook Express>Tools>Accounts>Mail
left-click (once) the old eg pop.wanadoo.co.uk account name, to highlight it in blue and then click on Remove, Yes (to confirm) and Close.
Now when you go back to Outlook Express to pick up your emails everything should be back to normal. ie you should get the emails again, as usual, without any error messages.
Hope that helps.
C
PS: don't delete the old account until you're sure the emails are coming through OK on the one you've just set up.
Last edited by cobblers on Sat Sep 12, 2009 8:04 pm; edited 1 time in total
Thanks very much Cobblers for all your kind work. I shall give it a try.. but I think I'll leave it until tomorrow in case it is a server problem and rights itself.
One question I can't seem to determine in my ailing mind: I know that being a PC-based email program, I won't lose any past emails because they're not held on a server anywhere.. BUT, will all my old emails from Wanadoo/Freeserve still appear on the newly set-up email account with Orangehome when I open Outlook Express?
Yes, your stored emails on your own PC (ie within Outlook Express) would remain unaffected. You're not deleting Outlook Express so you wouldn't lose anything.
Just to clarify, you're not really setting up a new email account. It was just that you said that you were unable to edit your account details because of the greyed-out boxes. As were mine - probably a by-product of the method Orange used to automatically set them up in the first place.
All that I was doing by creating an apparently 'new' account, was enabling you to recreate the old account but without the greyed-out boxes. This in turn enabled you to edit-in the new orangehome server details. The name 'account' is a bit of a misnomer here because all you're doing is defining the connection between the email system on your PC (Outlook Express) and the places (servers) where the incoming and outgoing messages are stored at Orange's end.
Your main email account actually remained just as it was, with the same email address and everything, but Outlook Express now pointed to the correct email servers so it knew where to send emails to and read them from.
~~~
Yes, I noticed that outgoing emails still worked (suggesting that Orange's server for your outgoing mail, smtp.wanadoo.co.uk, is still working OK , but while we're changing the incoming one to pop.orangehome.co.uk it seemed to make sense to change that one to smtp.orangehome.co.uk as well (saving another possible change later)
Either that or wait to see if they bring the old server back on line again, in which case it might clear itself without you having to do anything, but don't hold your breath. This has been going on for over a day now so you might as well change your account to point to servers that actually work.
Last edited by cobblers on Sat Sep 12, 2009 7:29 pm; edited 1 time in total
Thank you for this last post Cobblers. It has helped me a lot to understand how web-based email services and those based on one's pc differ.
Am I correct in assuming that if Orange get the old servers up and running again we will have to change our POP and SMTP directions back to what they were ?
Scooby - I don't know if Orange have a problem with the old servers, in which case they might get them running again, or whether they're in the middle of reorganising them and dropping the old ones, in which case they probably won't.
Either way, if you've changed to the orangehome ones and they're working you might as well leave them like that. I doubt very much if you'd need to change back again but, if so, it's just a case of changing the settings again.
Thanks for all your hard typing Cobblers (I'm guessing you're a touch-typist, or else very conscientious). Most helpful and as full an answer as one is likely to get nearly anywhere. I shall sleep on it tonight and see what tomorrow brings. I have this quite unfounded notion that even the most cynical ISP wouldn't just leave thousands of their customers dangling.... would they???
Thanks again. I shall report back one way or the other as I imagine our posts help anonymous, silent, readers, as I very often am myself.
I've been having the same problem as everyone else too and am thankful for finding the solution on here BUT I can't change my POP3 server name , or SMTP either.. both boxes are greyed out (with pop.wanadoo.co.uk entered).
Has anyone got any ideas please?
HI
when you got to accounts from the tool bar in outlook express choose add another account with the server pop.orangehome.co.uk and smtp.orangehome.co.uk along with your user name and password for your account, set it as the default account then close, if it successfully sends and receives then go back to accounts and delete the old one that you cannot change from wanadoo to orangehome.
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