Hotmail Access Trouble
 

Hello to all! First post...stand back give the newbie a little room. No telling what might happen.....

OK here goes.... I own have a small home network and have recently developed a small problem to go with it. I cannot access my Hotmail or Yahoo email on any of my computers. I am pretty sure it has something to do with my router, which is a Netgear with a NAT firewall.

I have a DSL connection with BellSouth. I have the connection running from my Westell Wirespeed modem to my DSL router and then to my computers. I have 3 connected to directly (wired) to the router. 1 with XP and 2 with Win 98. I also have a 80.11b access point attached to it and my Laptop and a PDA connect through it.

Until Thursday everything worked perfectly. Yesterday I could not connect at all to the internet. I thought it was related to some kind of network upgrade BellSouth was doing. I called today and they of course gave me the cold shoulder over the router. They did help get everything to connect perfectly connecting directly to my modem with my computer with XP on it.

After I got off the phone I managed to get my router to work again with the modem so I can connect. Or so I thought. Now I can access the Internet but when I try to access Hotmail or yahoo e-mail it will not let me in. I can get into the Hotmail homepage but when I click on any associated link, inbox, junk or even help it just sits there with the progress bar moving and eventually it says cannot find server. My MSN messenger works fine. It will log in and tell me how many messages I have. I can click on the popup and the IE opens and shows me the message headers in my inbox but then will not link anywhere else. It just comes up with the same cannot find server error.

Every other website I go to works perfectly. I have even checked my checking balance to see if it was some kind of SSL problem, but I could check it without any trouble. I have even went as far as updating the firmware in the router AND the modem to no avail. One strange thing Yahoo said was that I have maxed out my attempts at logging in. But I have only tried that one time in the past three weeks. When I am connected directly to the modem I can access Hotmail without any trouble, Yahoo is now locked for the next 12 hours and I cannot try that account again until then. Also I have tried to access it from the other computers, they work fine as well but cannot access Yahoo and Hotmail. Oddly enough the PDA can connect to Hotmail though Hotmail Mobile Portal. I have another Yahoo account that I can get into but when you click on the Inbox it just sits there and then gives the cannot find server error again.

Please don't flame me for being so long winded but it seems that being through was the way to post. Please forgive me but I am at my wits end.

Thanks,
arklow

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

Nobody is gonna flame you here bra so relax.
First you said your ISP gave you the cold shoulder over ther router not un-common you just have to get the names of the ppl you are talking to and when you get the "cool/worthy" tech support person on the line remeber their name so you can ask for them or their exs#.

(suggestion)Maybe you have some corrupted cookies.

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

I thought about that and deleted all of my cookies and also cleared my cache just to be certain. It did not work. Strangely enough I can get into my BellSouth e-mail on the web. Go figure!

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

The fact that you can get your mail is crucial. My guess is that your problem is that one or more of your ISP's DNS servers is not being accessed properly. I'm not an expert in this area, but if DHCP is not renewing the DNS server addresses correctly, or if it is required by BellSouth and not turned on, Web access problems could ensue. They may have changed the address of the DNS server on Thursday; this is common, and one of the reasons for DHCP in the first place. POP mail is obtained directly from the server, so DNS is not an issue there.

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy this is exactly the same problem I'm having to!

I can access my hotmail account just fine. As for yahoo e-mail and games forget it. I can get the yahoo homepage no prob there and I can access yahoo messenger just fine too. Now when it comes to signing in to the yahoo e-mail I get the message "THIS PAGE CAN NOT BE DISPLAYED". Now just to confuse things even worse ... I can sometimes get into yahoo e-mail, but never into the games.

I have cleared my cache, deleted the cookies and history too. I even ran the Norton WinDoctor to clean the registry up too. I've also scanned for any virus and everything is coming up clean.

Does anyone have any suggestions or solutions?

Please help me!

Thank you,
Whynot

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

Hello,


I too, have this problem, I am unable to access Hotmail or Yahoo mail from my new Win Xp (upgraded from home to pro) system. It worked and now doesn't. I use a cable modem. I found this post and a reply that it worked on annoyances.org. I'm going to try it tonight.

Make sure your PC clock and date are right.Then try thisGo to StartRunType in: cmdThen OKAt the cmd prompt type in:regsvr32 softpub.dllClick OKJax

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

Exactly the same problem. When I plug the computer into the DSL modem instead of the router I can access my Yahoo mail. But going through the router breaks Yahoo mail.

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

Wow! I am having the same exact problem. Haven't managed to fix it yet, but I think these other responses are barking up the wrong tree. Let's flame them!

The first test you need to do is try connecting your PC directly to the DSL modem. If everything works fine from there (it did for me) you know that the problem is in the router configuration. No corrupt cookies here.

My current theory (just picked this up from some research on the web - need to test at home tomight) is that the router is using the wrong protocol to connect. The DSL uses PPPoE, but this can look like DHCP to the router since both get IP addresses automagically. Check your router settings and make sure it is using PPPoE. Then check the MTU setting. This is the maximum packet size the router can handle (at least that is what I understand it to mean, and I AM a techy). The internet should be able to handle up to 1500. If changing to PPPoE does not solve the problem right away review this setting and make sure it is set at 1500.

Good Luck!

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

My kids have yahoo.com e-mail accounts that do no open since I installed a wireless router. The D-link tech took me to the Advanced/Firewall rules page and told me that I needed to enter the yahoo.com port range. Yahoo does have a phone number (408-349-7770), but it does not ring. I had to post my question to them through the customer care blank you fill in when their generically produced answers to your questions are unsatisfactory. It will be months until I get a reply.

I did not have luck increasing the mtu to 1500. Curiously, my WAN setting uses a dynamic IP address. Although I have a DSL modem, when I choose the PPPoE option, the internet will not open at all.

Does anyone have the yahoo.com port range? Has anyone with the inaccessible hotmail/yahoo.com mail been able to resolve his problem?

Re: Hotmail Access Trouble
 

OK,
Here is the problem folks, although I have not figured out how to fix it yet. The router logs into your hotmail/account then passes it to your pc. Hotmail/Yahoo see the router as a logged in user, therefore, it wont you log in. Aol user can set up 2 usernames 1 for the router 1 for the pc, but I have not figured out e-mail accounts yet.