[PLUG] Email question

Bill Barry barryb at proaxis.com
Thu Jul 9 06:59:42 UTC 2009


If you get this job, I get %5 of the first year salary as commission.
On the other hand, I am not responsible if you don't get the job.

In my experience the usual and overwhelming majority of people who call me
saying "I am having trouble sending email."  do not have internet access. In
this case you have to trace the whole chain from them to the SMTP server
till you find the problem.

Then comes the related problem that the SMTP server is not serving for some
reason.

The next most common problem is that they took their laptop which worked at
home and tried to use it in some random other place and now can't access the
SMTP server.  Many ISP's require you to be on their network before you can
access their SMTP server.

Another less common problem is that the ISP has converted to some kind of
secure/auth SMTP server and the user has not changed their settings.

You can pick out which question to ask to diagnose which problem they have?

Bill

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 11:24 PM, linux-yug <linux-yug at xprt.net> wrote:

> All
>
>
> I am applying for a tech support job and have to answer this question..
>
> Problem
> If an end user were to call you saying they cannot send email through
> their local hosted POP3/SMTP server, how would you go about
> troubleshooting the issue
>
>
> Reponse:
>
> 1.. Ask if the mail has ever worked..
>
> 2.. If mail has worked ask when was the last time it worked correctly
>
> 3.  Ask if any hardware/software has been installed since the mail last
> worked.
>
> 4.  When was the last time the computer was booted.
>
> 5.  Have customer boot computer again and check email
>
> 6.  Have customer check  POP3 and SMTP settings.
>
> 7.  Have customer reenter POP3 and SMTP settings.
>
> 8  Reboot computer and try email again.
>
> 9. If email is still not working ...Have customer open terminal window
> and ping both POP and SMTP servers..
>
> 10.  I email is still not working..Have customer call local ISP and see
> if there are problems there...
>
>
> #########################
>
> Is there a better/quicker way/method ?????
>
> Have I missed some obvious step??
>
>
>
> TIA
>
> Linux-yug
>
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>



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