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Horrible email malfunction

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Tomkitten
 
Reply Mon 14 Jul, 2003 09:49 am
I should have said "Nonfunction". This morning I logged on to MSN in the normal way, and the home page duly appeared. But when I tried to access my email I got the following message: "Windows cannot open this file. File MSN14.mailhost. Windows needs to know what program created it. Windows must go online to look it up automatically or you can manually select from a list of programs on your computer."

I made several attempts to access the email and got the same message each time with a slight change from "MSN14.mailhost" to "MSN20.., MSN1A...,MSN28...", etc.

I tried finding a suitable program on my computer, the only one being IE, and that didn't work. I tried indicating that Windows should go online as suggested, but nothing happened (I was, of course, online during all these attempts.)

I tried accessing Hotmail, in case I should be able to set up another email address, but got the same message.

I have had some problems with things like the Trash and Junk categories which do not list the number of items in them accurately, and yesterday I found that Sent Mail was being listed under Drafts. Whether this is connected I can't say, but it seems to me that my entire email program has been corrupted. I have some extremely complicated instructions from MSN about correcting the inaccurate information in Trash and Junk. I hate to think what kind of instructions I would get re this, and anyway, I can't access my email to pick up responses.

I use a HP Pavilion 9800, and Windows XP Home version.

So two questions:

I can access MSN from other computers in our computer room (not a network, just a convenience where I live). Would another computer be able to access my email?

What is going on - a virus? something I can correct?

Hep! Confused Sad Rolling Eyes
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Tomkitten
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jul, 2003 11:17 am
Horrible email malfunction
I have found the answer to the first question, and yes, I can access my email from another computer. I also find that I can access it via Outlook Express, but that's another step, and I don't like the idea that my regular email program isn't working. I shouldn't have to go round Robin Hood's barn - and anyway I don't like the layout of the OE page. (Perhaps there is a solution to this?)

I'm hoping someone can come up with a solution to the MSN/IE/Hotmail email problem...
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Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jul, 2003 11:23 am
I have no idea what's wrong with that particular email. The message you cite usually means it has a file extention that no program on your computer is associated with.

OE is not a page, but rather a program and the layout can only be changed very slightly.
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Tomkitten
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jul, 2003 04:29 pm
Horrible email malfunction
Craven - I don't quite understand. Do you mean that there is currently no connection at all between MSN email and Windows on my computer?

What do you think I should do? I shudder at the thought of reinstalling MSN.
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fishin
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jul, 2003 04:52 pm
From your description Tom I think you are going to have to reinstall MSN. You can access your e-mail account using other mail applications and other systems without any problems.

It sounds like the index files for the mail system are messed up on your system (they are stored under your user profile in the c:\documents and setting\username\application data\MSN6\User Data\{randomly generated long number}\hotmail directory). The indexes being off is why you've been seeing the wrong number of e-mails for the folders. I suppose you could try to just delete all the "*.dbx" files in that directory and see if it will rebuild the indexes itself when you connect again...

There are some other things I'd try myself but they'd be risky and I wouldn't suggest that someone not very confident in what they were doing try them.
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Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jul, 2003 05:14 pm
Tom,

I'll let fisnin' handle it from here as he has more experience with MSN than I do.
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Tomkitten
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jul, 2003 07:06 pm
horrible email
Fishin - I have found that I can access my mail via one of the Hotmail buttons on the My MSN Home page, and not the other, but that still makes me nervous, as it still means that things are not working properly.

BTW, if I reinstall MSN will I lose my Favorites and Address Book?
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fishin
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Jul, 2003 07:33 pm
Tom,

You can acess your e-mail through the "My MSN" page because it uses the brower instead of the mail tool that is built into MSN. It's MSN's mail program that is messed up on your computer.

If you reinstall MSN you will lose all of your current settings, favorites, etc.. Unfortunately there is no easy way to export the favorites file or the address book that I know of (importing is a breeze but exporting doesn't seem to exist. Sad )
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