Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Hello, first post on this nice forum :) Excuse me if I make a mistake!

First, I have 750k BB (I got my upgrade 1st August) with a Surfboard 4100 modem connected via 10/100 Nic to an AMD XP1900+ PC, 512mb RAM.

Now, I wondered if anyone could help with a problem I have? About a week ago I was able to upload file attachments to my Hotmail and Yahoo e-mails, as well as upload files to my Yahoo Briefcase. Now all of a sudden, within the last week, I cannot do this anymore? I can send e-mails, just cannot upload files to these accounts. Attachments just time out while uploading and Briefcase says files have been uploaded yet my folders are empty. Nothing has changed on my PC and I use Zone Alarm and AdSubtract for security as well as Norton Antivirus! I even re-installed WinXP Pro this morning plus all critical updates, rebooted the modem, and tried uploading to hotmail/yahoo without any firewall/ad blocker or anti virus loaded (XP firewall turned off too!), and the same problem occurs, cannot upload files to hotmail/yahoo!

If I use a friends PC, who is on BT Broadband, then I do not have a problem as I can attach files to my hotmail/yahoo e-mails and upload files to my yahoo briefcase, this is puzzling as it suggests an NTL problem?

I did contact NTL and was told yahoo/hotmail are not supported by NTL and to try my PC on my friends BT connection to see if I could upload files, I have yet to try this, but seeing as these are WEB BASED services file uploads should not be affected should they? My browser uploads requests for web pages so data is being uploaded there, so why not a file upload? It was only a 10k mouse driver I was trying to upload!

There was an outage las week in the NG16, NG17 (my area) and NG18 areas that knocked the connection off from 10pm one night to mid afternoon the next day, and maybe coincidence, after that outage my problem was discovered.

Has anyone else had problems uploading files to Yahoo or Hotmail via NTL? I'm not a novice to computers so don't be afraid of technical suggestions, I'd just like to know why this has happened! I've tried a couple of different web proxy servers (Leeds, Dublin and default of Notts) and still the same problem! I've also Rebooted the modem more times than I can remember and changed the channel ID in the modem, all with no luck!

So, suggestions please anyone?

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Send them via SMTP- add an account in Outlook Express for your Hotmail and do it that way?

BTW Welcome to the site.

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Where are the pop/smtp settings for Hotmail/Yahoo? I use POP Peeper to access my Hotmail/Yahoo accounts but have yet to find any settings to allow SMTP in Outlook 2000 for Hotmail or Yahoo!

Tell me the settings for Outlook so I can test them please!

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

In outlook express Click TOOLS, ACCOUNTS.
on the box that comes up click ADD then click MAIL and follow and coplete the wizard screens. I hope this helps

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

aparently mail.hotmail.com will work as an SMTP server for hotmail, but i haven't tried it myself.

In outlook, it doesn't have the hotmail setup wizard as OE does, but you can use the OE wizard as yorkiex said to find the hotmail incoming mail server (which is HTTP btw) and then try using mail.hotmail.com as the SMTP server

MB

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

It's the POP3/SMTP addresses I need, setting up the account is the easy part :) Looking at other forums there seems to be no SMTP settings that work for Hotmail or Yahoo without paying for a POP3 service!

mail.hotmail.com does not work, 'unable to connect to the server' error!

I just need someone with a Yahoo account to verify if they can upload files to their briefcase or attach files to e-mails when using an NTL connection!

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Set it up in Outlook Express- You can add a hotmail easily and it's the only email client hotmail support.

But you can tweak it to work in Mozilla :)

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

OK then- guide to setting up Hotmail in OE6 SP2 for dummies...

- Fire up OE
- Tools menu, Accounts.
- Add button, select Mail
- On the wizard that comes up, insert the required details in this order: Name, Email, Incoming Mail (HTTP), HTTP provider (Hotmail), Account Name, Password.
- You've now set your account up and OE should download all folders / messages from Hotmail server

How to attach to a message in OE

- Create the message, click the paperclip and browse to the file, then click OK...

If that doesn't work try the Mozilla one which works for Yahoo as well, which I'll put up in a sec...

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Guide to setting up Hotmail / Yahoo accounts in Mozilla

1. Download the MrPostman installer.
2. Run the installer. (If you can't just double-click it, you should download the JRE. If you're sure you have this installed and you still can't double-click it, you can run it manually by issuing the command c:\program files\java\j2re1.4.2_05\bin\java -jar c:\(path to desktop)\install-mrpostman-20040806.jar.) You can select all the defaults. We're going to assume you've installed this application to c:\program files\mrpostman.
3. Make sure you're logged in as an Administrator and run c:\program files\mrpostman\install-ntservice.bat.
4. The MrPostman GUI will show up. Uncheck the "show GUI on startup" option and close the window.
5. Add your account in Mozilla:
   1. From the Edit menu, choose Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings.
   2. Click Add Acount.
   3. In the Add Account wizard:
      1. Choose Email account. Click next.
      2. Enter your name and your Hotmail address (include the @hotmail.com part). Click next.
      3. Choose POP and enter localhost as the Incoming Server. Click next.
      4. Enter your complete Hotmail address as your username. Click next.
      5. Type an alias for this account. I used hotmail. Click next.
      6. Review your choices. They should look something like this screenshot of the wizard summary. Click finish.
   4. You should be back the the Mail & Newsgroups Account Settings dialog. Find your newly-created account in the left-hand pane and choose its Server Settings page. Change the port to 11110 (that's four 1's). Click OK.
6. Try it out. Choose your new account in the left-hand pane of Mozilla Mail and click Read messages in the right-hand pane.

Courtesy of http://2mod2.com/mohot

This works in Mozilla suite mail client as well as Thunderbird.

You'll need to use your ISP's SMTP details (eg for ntl smtp.ntlworld.com) and the POP3 interface is MrPostman- this merely converts the webpage interface into a POP3 server to use in all email clients.

I think it tells you all that though :)

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Well guys, none of your OE suggestions has worked :(

This is weird! I've set up OE for Hotmail then I sent 2 mails to my Yahoo account, but only an e-mail with plain text/HTML went, one with an attachment will just cause OE to sit there doing nothing and eventually throw up this error:

I've disabled Zone Alarm and Adsubtract to eliminate them and files with attachments still won't get sent?

However, when I check my Yahoo account NOTHING has been sent there? so far I have sent 6 e-mails to Yahoo and not ONE has got through!

I also get this error after sending is complete:

I can download my list of folders from the Hotmail account, just can't get a list of mail from my inbox it seems!

This is with a complete re-install of WinXP + SP1 + All critical updates!!

I am back at square one! Hopefully a friend will bring up his PC for me to try the same things on using my modem and then take my PC down to his house to try on his BT modem, that way we can eliminate my PC being the problem.

Thanks for all the tips people, but I just thought of one thing, Hotmail/Yahoo are WEB based e-mail, so why should I have to use OE anyway? That's the idea of them, so you don't need a dedicated mail client, just a web browser! If I go to an internet cafe would they mind me fiddling with their PC's and configuring OE for my accounts that should work within a web browser? :) Granted most of the time I am at home, so using OE is a valid option, but when I'm out at a friends house or using public internet services, I can't go messing with their PC's. But luckily I've found out OE doesn't work for me anyway, so I'm as bad burned as scolded really, something is broken somewhere and I'm pointing a tentative finger at NTL!

Top and bottom is I should *NOT* have to jump through god knows how many hoops just to get this working again, eg. setting up OE, downloading Mozilla, downloading extra software etc, it was fine last week using IE6, now it isn't? Please understand I am not bad mouthing ANYONE who has tried to help! I just want to use IE6 with Hotmail/Yahoo through NTL like I could last week :(

I'll wait till my friend comes up with his PC then, depending on what happens, I'll decide whether NTL need another kick up the backside! And juding by the ammount of times I keep getting 'Page cannot be found', 'Server Hangup' and 'Connection reset by peer' messages each time I try to preview this post, I guess NTL do have a few problems? Does it usually take nearly an hour to get a message posted?

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

In which case the best option is to contact MSN / Hotmail's web support armed with your "evidence", the address is http://msntech.webhelp.com/msntech/ and talk to a MSN engineer, it's like a chatroom.

As for the webmail thing, yes I agree with you :(

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Well, I just used my old Freeserve dialup account with a USR 56k modem on this very same PC and everything works! I can upload to my Yahoo briefcase, I even sent an 33kb attachment from my Hotmail account to my Yahoo account using the dialup and it was sent correctly!

I am now waiting on the phone to see what NTL have to say!

Again, please accept my thanks for your help, even though it wasn't able to solve the problem. I'll post NTL's response when I get off the phone to them.

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Right, just got off the phone with NTL and the guy on the other end acknowledged a problem! So far so good! He gave me an IP of a Cardiff proxy to try in IE6, which let me upload to my Yahoo briefcase, albeit extremely slowly!

He said he'd make a report and get their techies to look at it and would e-mail me a progress report. He also suggested turning the modem off overnight to pick up a new IP address and see if that cures the problem.

When I'd put the phone down I deleted the file from my briefcase and tried uploading it again, it didn't work! And has not worked since. So are they port blocking? Guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow and see if the IP changes now!

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

They wouldn't block anything on port 80, which http uploads on.

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Maybe blocking certain HTTP requests?

I've just tried uploading a 33kb file to the Newsgroups too, a.b.test.yenc and can't upload to those either. Used Newsbin and my Astraweb account and get a posting error after about a couple of minutes! Then used Agent using news.cable.ntlworld.com and news.ntli.net and keep getting 'Operation timed out' or 'Connection reset (Error 10054)'! If I remove the attachment the message gets posted!

Yup, NTL have definitely got a problem with my connection as far as I'm concerned!

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

It does sound like a proxy server problem - the HTTP action to upload a file is somehow being corrupted. There have always been problems with Yahoo and NTL proxies - usually it's login and profile problems. Maybe the situation has worsened :disturbd:

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Right, turned my cable modem back on this afternoon, it was turned off from 23:56 last night to 12:37 today (for all you mathematicians out there that's roughly 12.5 hours :) ) but I still have the SAME IP ADDRESS!! So that's knackered me for starters! The lease expired at 12:34pm today and I acquired a new lease at 12:37pm, but the IP never changed.

It's in NTL's hands now! So I wouldn't bet on it getting fixed anytime soon :/

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

I think I've found something that may be the cause! Reading Robin Walkers page about Channel ID's and Upstream signal levels, I checked the settings on my Surfboard 4100.

Channel ID was set at 4
Power level was +58 dBmV

So I changed the channel ID to 1 as his page suggested certain channels could be overloaded. I saved the changes in the modem and rebooted it. Disabled Zone Alarm and Adsubtract for testing, and was able to upload a 1 meg file to my Briefcase! However, I can't do it again now? So I tried a smaller file, 433kb, that uploaded OK. Tried it a second time and it wouldn't work, a third time no go but the fourth time it worked, so it's still hit and miss! I enabled Zone Alarm and tried the 2 files again and found it was still hit and miss, sometimes the file uploaded, but more often it didn't.

Further reading on Robin Walkers page found this interesting quote:



Note the bit i've highlighted in RED and the 'other problem symptoms', like can't upload files for instance? It maybe coincidence that changing the Channel ID worked as it may be a fluctuating upstream power level that's the problem, letting me upload successfully one time and failing the next time! So that could be the problem, the upstream power level is too high?

So I rung NTL. Basically they did some tests, no problem as far as they were concerned, changing channel ID wouldn't make a difference and power levels were OK, so goodbye! Was advised to drag me PC to a friends house who has NTL Broadband use his cable modem on my PC to see if the problem is still there, then try my cable modem in place of his and see what that does! This would also prove my Ethernet cable as I'll be using a different one at the friends house, as suggested by the NTL guy.

I feel like joining a circus with how many friggin hoops I've had to jump through to tell them there's a problem!

We'll see what this next step achieves!!

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

I had all this when my modem was up and down - everytime I rang NTL it would take 15 minutes or so to speak to someone, by which time the modem would have come back up and everything looked fine :mad: The only reason they sent an engineer out was because I dropped lucky and the modem was down when I phoned. The phone monkeys need better diagnostics.

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

You're not joking!

The guy did admit the diagnostics stuff they have was not very good! There's only so much you can diagnose using PING, that being the most technical diagnostic tool they have I'd guess!!

Although there seems to be a fault his 'level 2's' were overiding him and so he couldn't really do much else! Must have interrupted their tea break or something?

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Where did this information come from ? I am in NG16 and I did not suffer any outages last week.

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

It was Tuesday/Wednesday last week I think when we had a thunderstorm late at night!

When my connection was still off the next day I rang the service status line early in the morning, no information about this outage was given so I rang the Cable Modem Helpline, it was on there that there was a message referring to an outage in the NG16, NG17 and NG18 areas.

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Phoned NTL again today, 4th time, and FINALLY someone managed to convince the techies there is a problem! Although they did try to say it was my PC config that's the problem again!! But after lugging my PC, modem and cables to a mates house a few streets away, we hit the same problems on his PC without me even connecting any of my stuff! He has a Teryon modem and that wouldn't upload a 1mb file 100% of the time to Yahoo Briefcase. So I connected my modem to his PC and couldn't upload a damn thing until I changed the channel ID in the modem to 2, then I got the same problems, 50/50 if a file would upload? So changing the channel ID doesn't make a difference does it NTL? I have a witness now!! Same with my PC connected and using his modem! I also couldn't upload a 1mb attachment to his hotmail account using his modem and PC!

Not to mention the fact a dialup has no problem on my PC, using another friends PC and BT DSL can upload to my Yahoo briefcase and a complete re-install of Windows XP on my PC hasn't helped, how much more evidence of a problem do they need?

This convinced the guy on the phone it sounded like an NTL problem but obviously not their techies! Jeez, are these guys for real? If one of their UBR locations burned down I think even the Fire Chief would have a damned hard job convincing them of the fact!!!

Also, the teryon modem of my mate does not have any accessible diagnostics like my Surfboard does, so when I connected my modem I checked the Signal level, the Power Level of his upstream channel was +39 dBmV, all other values were roughly the same as my home connection except the Signal level which was +58 dBmV.

So, after 4 phone calls (equating to roughly 1.5 to 2 hours of oh so happy banter), many hours of file upload testing, back bending to accommodate their (words fail me) techies and playing hoppy the happy hoop jumper, an Engineer is booked and I wait for a phone call now to arrange a visit!

To be continued.........

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Continued.....

Well, a regular case of 'Didn't Phoneitus' struck! Had to call them back today to kick them. Managed to get an Engineer booked for Tuesday 2nd September, except they got the date wrong and meant Thursday 2nd September :disturbd:

So will have to wait ANOTHER WEEK before we find out what's wrong!

I hope NTL don't have anything to do with homeland security :Yikes: !!!

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

Hurrah!

Engineer turned up today at 12:30pm, told him the problem and he knew all about it. I was the 5th person on his list he had to see with the same problem. So now it's left with him and NTL to sort it out!

Seems a problem with part of the UBR that feeds my area, so that's why some people are OK and some have problems. Not sure what is going to happen as he didn't give me anything specific other than 'Leave it with me'?

I feel like I'm in an Adventure game staring at the "What now? >"
prompt :/

Re: Hotmail/Yahoo file upload problem!
 

First time on this forum from a very inexperienced website builder.
I used yahoo sitebuilder and was very pleased with my site. I kept receiving notices from yahoo to upgrade sitebuilder which I attempted to do. Yahoo said I wouldn't loose any information which was completely untrue. Maybe they downloaded a nice virus or something with it because it has rendered sitebuilder useless and therefor my site unusable. I cannot reinstall neither can I uninstall the remainder of the sitebuilder program. I even tried putting my computer back to an earlier time, but this didn't bring the old version of sitebuilder back.
I have tried all ways of contacting yahoo about the problem, but their system is so automated I cannot speak with a live person, neither can they provide me with any solution to the problem. Has anyone got any ideas? Many thanks Liz