Email Problems

[speered]

Hello all,

 

I have had a very frusturating and reoccuring problem with my email account. On just about a once a month basis I will suddenly be unable to send emails. I can still receive them just fine, only sending is a problem.

 

I get the following messages:

 

"You have received an invalid certificate. Please contact the server administrator or email correspondent and give them the following information.

 

Your certificate contains the same serial number as another certificate issued by the certificate authority. Please get a new certificate containing a unique serial number."

 

That is followed up by another error message that says my connection to the SMTP server was refused, etc, etc.

 

I have probably annoyed tech support with as many times as I have contacted them about this issue. They usually say everything is fine on their end and they can't see any problems and that the issue must be on my end. They often suggest I reset all my server settings in my mail browser. Usually after fiddling around with settings and restarting my computer, the problem will seemingly rectify itself in a day or two.

 

My question is, if this is indeed on my end, how can I stop it from happening? How can my settings work fine one day and then suddenly stop working the next? I hope someone out there has some ideas what the problem may be or how I could troubleshoot it. It is extremely annoying to lose the ability to email for days on end on such a regular basis.

 

Thanks,

Ryan

[Head Guru]

Using outlook?

[speered]

No I'm using the built in email program that comes with Netscape 7.2

 

I experience the same problem when I use Mozilla Thunderbird as well as the default Macintosh email program.

 

I also just received confirmation of at least one email that I never received. My client reforwarded it to me and I see my email correctly listed in the header.

 

This is making me very nervous as I am currently in contact with several of my freelance clients as well as being involved in conversations with potential future employers. I'm worrying about what other emails I might have missed earlier this week.

[TCH-Andy]

I've seen this happen with Thunderbird and Netscape when you are using SSL option to send email, and a certificate is updated (as it is done on an annual basis).

 

Simply delete the old copy of the certificate that Thunderbird / netscape keeps, then connect up and tell it to accept the new certificate. If you are unsure, you can always view the certificate to check it's valid). Once you've done that you should be fine for another 12 months

 

The other way would be to turn off the SSL option on sending

[speered]

I've seen this happen with Thunderbird and Netscape when you are using SSL option to send email, and a certificate is updated (as it is done on an annual basis).

 

Simply delete the old copy of the certificate that Thunderbird / netscape keeps, then connect up and tell it to accept the new certificate. If you are unsure, you can always view the certificate to check it's valid). Once you've done that you should be fine for another 12 months

 

The other way would be to turn of the SSL option on sending

 

I have tried turning SSL off and when I do this it simply fails to connect to the server. My email has only worked when SSL was on.

 

I want to try to delete the certificates but I am unsure exactly what files I am looking for. I found the folder where I believe the certificates would be located, but I don't want to delete the wrong thing. I'm on a Mac if that makes a difference in file names.

 

That makes sense but it seems to happen to me far more often than once a year... I haven't even been using TCH that long and it has already happened about 4 times.

 

I did notice an email that was forwarded to my Yahoo account (but never showed up in my primary inbox) which said there would be server maintenance on thursday... could this have also had the same effect? The timing seems to coordinate.

Edited November 19, 2006 by speered

[TCH-Bruce]

You don't delete anything from your hard drive you delete the certificate from within the Netscape mail program.

 

It should be under Security settings in your Options settings.

[speered]

You don't delete anything from your hard drive you delete the certificate from within the Netscape mail program.

 

It should be under Security settings in your Options settings.

 

aha! success! the problem was that the certificate was not stored in the built-in email program's user settings, but instead in the browser's main preferences. That's why I couldn't find it and then began thinking i needed to delete them off the hard drive. The Netscape help files do nothing to clear this up...

 

This might be helpful info for next time someone has a similar problem to mine with Netscape 7.2 or any other browser using Mozilla. Silly mistake, but I imagine one that could be easy for a newbie to make.

 

Thanks to you all for the help! I finally have the solution to a problem that has been driving me crazy for some time.