AboutTim Fenner Expertise Currently, my focus has been on the management of a Microsoft Windows, Exchange and Office deployment (with the majority of all servers running within an ESX Infrastructure 3 virtual environment). Along with supporting the previously listed solutions/products, I also have administration experience with an array of other technologies, such as backup solutions, SANs, anti-virus products, wired and wireless networking, mobile devices, VPNs, IPS, printing and much, much more...
Expert: Tim Fenner Date: 6/23/2008 Subject: pop3 Email
Question hi my pop3 email stop working all of a sudden i can vpn in and get the email but the pop3 stop working so did the webmail. i am hosting my own exchange server at work i need to get this running asap please let me know where can i start troubleshooting. thanks
chan
Answer Hi Chan,
Please note that I will not be able to offer any assistance for the rest of the night. But I can continue helping you out on Monday.
That said, the questions that need to be answered are:
1. What changed? Typically issues with email are caused by some sort of change, either to the email server, the email client or something in between. Check the following:
- Did your AV software package recently update itself? A simple antivirus update can cause issues, so don't discount auto updated programs either.
- Did you recently update your firewall, either for your organization or on the local client PC. If so, you may have inadvertently severed pop3 communications.
- Did you update the email server or the email client? If so, those changes could have caused the issue.
2. Is the issue localized to one client or all clients? If just one client, then the issue is most likely due to some issue on the local PC. If all clients, then it is most likely the server. If the server, did you make sure that the POP3 service/virtual server is running?
3. Most importantly, are you getting any specific errors? POP3 has hundreds of errors, each leading to different root causes (And subsequent resolutions). First, check the client and get the error message (and any advanced details). second, get on the server and check out its logs. If the issue is happening for all clients, then you may have to turn on advanced logging in Exchange, in order to truly trap the issue.
The answer to all of these questions will hopefully start to narrow down the cause of your issue. If you can provide more information, such as:
1. email client version
2. exchange version and SP level
3. security software
4. ALL ERROR messages
