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You send a message, but the next time you check your mail, it comes back to you. Each email program has a different way to tell you that, but you will be able that the message never got to your intended recipient. Some programs even tell you why the message was undeliverable, but some don't.
The most common cause of undeliverable email is a problem with the recipient's email address.
The most common problems with recipient's addresses are "typos", such as:
Space where there shouldn't be one, ex: lobster@ocean. netTransposed letters, ex: losbter@ocean.net
No ".", ex: lobster@ocean net
What to do: Look for any of these problems in the address of the message that is returned. If you find one or more, you need to correct them and send the message again. If you automatically save a copy of all email you send, you can go to your "out" box, correct the errors, and send the message again without retyping it.
You send mail to a friend but the friend doesn't respond. The problem can be that the friend never got the email - but you don't get the message back as undeliverable. This can happen because the recipient's mail server is down, or because you have a problem with the recipient's name. The rest of the address is correct, so the message gets sent to the proper email server. Because there is no one on the email server with that name, no one reads it.
Common problems with the recipient's name include:
Typo in the name field, ex: lloyd@ocean.net instead of lobster@ocean.netOmitting numbers, ex: deckster@ocean.net instead of deckster17@ocean.net
What to do: Contact your friend via phone or postal mail, and confirm the address you are using. If you find it is incorrect, correct it and re-send the message. If you find you are using the correct address, the mail server may not be responding. Wait a bit, and try to send your message later today or tomorrow. Most server problems are fixed within a day of when they occur.
You open an email message from a friend and find all kinds of strange characters. This is usually caused by formatting characters in text of the message that your email program can't interpret (colors, boldfacing, italics, etc.)
What to do: Ignore them. Try to read around them. You may want to ask your friend if s/he used any special formatting, and let him/her know that your program can't interpret it.
You get a message with an icon (symbol) in it indicating the sender included an attachment. You click on it - but a dialog box appears and asks you what program you want to use to open it.
What to do: Click here to read about common problems opening attachments.
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