Went to a client’s house the other day. He had been without email on his desktop computer at home for 2 weeks. He could check his email on his iPad and iPhone – but his PC just kept giving ‘timeout’ errors. After a lot of time spent messing around with Outlook settings, system and Outlook updates, and even creating a new Outlook “profile” I stumbled across a website that suggested disabling your anti-virus program.
Now, he’s had the same program on his PC for years (it came bundled with PC-Cillan), and hasn’t changed any of his settings. But, sure enough, when I disabled it Outlook started working. So, there must have been an update to the software that decided that to make his PC safer, it would block email. NICE!
This is why I recommend a plain-jane antivirus program called AVG. It’s free and it just checks for viruses. The big boys have gotten into blocking everything in a desperate attempt to make the PC more secure – but they end up making the PC useless. Techy users can certainly handle these apps, but your average user just ends up with a brick on their desk.
So, if your PC’s email suddenly stops working, check the settings with what your provider recommends and then try turning off your Anti-Virus software. It might save you days of frustration.
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