E-mail FAQ

What is e-mail?

What are Planet Online's e-mail settings?

What e-mail applications can I use with Planet Online?

Does Planet Online provide me with an e-mail application?

How do I set up my e-mail application?

How do I check for e-mail sent to me?

How do I send e-mails I have made?

How do I send an attachment with an e-mail message?

How do I create an address book with my e-mail application?

Where can I find more information about my e-mail application?

When I open my e-mail program, I get an error stating that my password is incorrect. What causes this error?

I get the message, "Unable to contact host mail.internetive.net (or mail.yourdomainname.com)" What causes this?

I send out e-mail and people get them, but when they attempt to reply to me, I never get the e-mail from them. Why does this happen?

When I open my e-mail application, I can see the headings for new messages, but when I click on them, I do not see the messages. Where did the messages go?

I attempted to send an e-mail to someone I have had a correspondence with before and now when I send an e-mail to that person, it is returned to me by the Mailer Daemon. What is the Mailer Daemon and why is it returning my e-mail?




What is e-mail?     top
Electronic mail (e-mail) is the sending and receiving of stored messages through telecommunications. These messages can be sent over the Internet, internal network, or directly from one computer to another through a direct cable connection. No matter how the message is sent, most e-mail systems are the same-transmitting text-based, or HTML-based messages from one computer to another.



What are Planet Online's e-mail settings?     top

Incoming mail server or POP3 server	mail.planetonline.com
POP port number	110
Outgoing mail server or SMTP server	smtp.planetonline.com
SMTP port number	25
POP username	<your e-mail name>
POP password	<your password>
Important Note: When using our mail server as your outgoing SMTP server you must make sure you have enabled "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication" in your email client software.

What e-mail applications can I use with Planet Online?     top
Generally, any e-mail application should be able to send and receive mail with Planet Online. Simply use our general mail settings. One thing to keep in mind is that Planet Online offers basic product support only for applications that we are currently supplying or have recently supplied to our users. With respect to e-mail applications, those applications include:

• Netscape Mail 2.x or 3.x
• Eudora Light 1.5.4
• Microsoft Internet Mail for Windows or Macintosh
• Microsoft Outlook Express
• Netscape Communicator 4.x Messenger

How do I set up my e-mail application?     top
If you have one of the following e-mail applications, click here for instructions on setup:

• Netscape Communicator 4.04 Messenger
• Microsoft Internet Mail for Windows or Macintosh
• Microsoft Outlook Express

If you have another e-mail application, our general mail settings should help. For product support or troubleshooting help for any other e-mail applications, contact the program vendor.



How do I check for e-mail sent to me?     top
When you open most e-mail applications, they will automatically either check for new messages or will prompt you for your password to check for new messages. If your specific e-mail application does not perform this function, you will have to look for a button that will normally be labeled Check Mail, Get Mail, Send and Receive, or something similar.



How do I send e-mails I have made?     top
All e-mail applications will have slight differences in their appearance, but most e-mail applications will contain a Send button or something similar. Click on this button to send out e-mails that you have created.



How do I send an attachment with an e-mail message?     top
Due to the many different e-mail applications and the fact that they all differ in the way they are configured, we recommend that you either check the Help section of the e-mail application or consult the software vendor for help with this specific issue.



How do I create an address book with my e-mail application?     top
Due to the many different e-mail applications and the fact that they all differ in the way they are configured, we recommend that you either check the Help section of the e-mail application or consult the software vendor for help with this specific issue.



Where can I find more information about my e-mail application?     top
The best source of reference for any e-mail application is either the Help section of the application or the Web site of the software vendor.


When I open my e-mail program, I get an error stating that my password is incorrect. What causes this error?    top
Most e-mail applications will automatically check for e-mail the moment they are opened. The first thing that you should check when you see an error such as this, is to make sure that you are connected to the Internet. Although, you may be dialed into Planet Online, it is possible that your connection to the Internet may not be working. To check this, open the Web browser on your machine. If you are able to go to different Web sites without any errors, you are connected to the Internet.

The next step is to verify that both your e-mail login name (username or User ID) and password are listed correctly in the settings. Your password will be shown with asterisks so erase the current password and retype in the correct password. Remember, passwords are case-sensitive. If you still get the same error, you can contact Technical Support at 818.592.2999 to verify that both your account and mail servers are functioning properly.



I get the message, "Unable to contact host mail.internetive.net (or mail.yourdomainname.com)" What causes this?     top
The first thing that you should check when you see an error such as this, is to make sure that you are connected to the Internet. Although, you may be dialed into Planet Online, it is possible that your connection to the Internet may not be working. To check this, open the Web browser on your machine. If you are able to go to different Web sites without any errors, you are connected to the Internet.

If you are unable to get Web sites, try disconnecting and reconnecting to Planet Online again. If the problem continues, you may want to check the dialer settings of your connection to Planet Online If you do not have the DNS numbers specified in your dialer, you may not be able to contact the mail servers. Also if you are on a LAN at work, it is possible that you may have to go through a firewall, which is a way for the business to protect information that is coming into the LAN. If you find that you are on a LAN, you may want to contact the LAN administrator to help configure your e-mail application. You may also contact Technical Support at 818.592.2999 with any questions related to your account, the condition of the mail servers, or the POP site.



I send out e-mail and people get them, but when they attempt to reply to me, I never get the e-mail from them. Why does this happen?      top
There are many reasons this could happen, but two of the most common reasons are either you have an incorrect e-mail address listed for the reply-to address or you have the reply-to address spelled incorrectly. If you find that your reply-to address is listed correctly, try to send a test message to yourself and see if you can reply to it. If you can, then rule out any problems with your settings or account. Sometimes there can be communication problems between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) due to things such as busy servers or other technical problems. Try sending another e-mail to your recipient, have them create a new message and type in your e-mail address as the recipient. If you continue to have this problem, have your recipient contact their ISP to ensure that there is no problem with sending e-mail to Planet Online Network. As always, you can contact Technical Support at 818.592.2999 for any questions related to your e-mail account.



When I open my e-mail application, I can see the headings for new messages, but when I click on them, I do not see the messages. Where did the messages go?      top
Most e-mail applications when opened will not appear fully maximized. This will not allow you to see the entire window; hence, you may not be able to see the actual messages. If you maximize the e-mail window, normally you will see a three frame structure. The upper left-hand frame will contain the various folders in your e-mail application such as the inbox, outbox, and trash. The upper right-hand frame will display the headers for the messages currently downloaded to your system. If you click on a header, you should see the message appear in the third frame, which normally takes up half of the whole window. If you find even after maximizing the window that you have only two frames, place your cursor on the bottom line of the window. It should then change to an up/down arrow symbol. While holding your mouse button down, push up with the mouse and the third frame should appear and display the message of the header you have highlighted.



I attempted to send an e-mail to someone I have had a correspondence with before and now when I send an e-mail to that person, it is returned to me by the Mailer Daemon. What is the Mailer Daemon and why is it returning my e-mail?      top
Some of the most common reasons for an e-mail to be returned are the e-mail address has been typed incorrectly, the e-mail address is no longer a valid address with the ISP the address is through, the ISP was having problems with the mail servers at the time the e-mail was sent, or the other ISP has blocked Planet Online users from e-mailing anyone on their service. The last item could be caused by someone spamming or sending threatening e-mail to someone on the other ISP.

The Mailer Daemon is an e-mail address verifier. When you send an e-mail message to our outgoing or SMTP server, the Mailer Daemon looks up the address to make sure that it is a valid address. If it is not, it is returned with a user unknown status. If the Mailer Daemon does validate the address but is unable to contact the ISP that you are trying to send the e-mail through, you may get a message stating that the destination host was unreachable. If you have tried numerous times to send the same e-mail and have gotten the same results each time, contact the person by other means to validate the e-mail address and to have them check with their ISP to determine if anything on their end would cause the e-mail not to go through. As always, you can contact Technical Support at 818.592.2999 with any questions about your settings or account.

Note: Most new versions of e-mail applications will contain a link to the vendor's Web page within the Help section of the e-mail application.