My Outlook program will no longer send messages. I am hoping that someone can suggest how to fix this.
I am posting here because my email problem started after opening a link in a message from my daughter, which prompted a Norton warning about a shortened web address that could lead to an unsafe website. When I tried to reply to my daughter in a message that still contained the link, I received the following error message: “Sending’ reported error (08x800CCC0F): The connection to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).’” Since then, I get the same error message for all attempts to send any message, so one possibility is that Norton modified my system to protect it against the unsafe link. There is no problem with receiving messages.
The problem does not seem to be at the internet provider (AT&T) because I can send messages using my AT&T webmail account. And I get the error message immediately after clicking send, so Outlook never gets to the point of asking for my password as it did before the problem started.
My computer is a relatively new HP PC with a VISTA 32 bit operating system. I am using Outlook 2007 as part of the MS Office program and Norton Internet Security 2011 (upgraded from 2009). I have installed all MS Windows/Office updates and Norton Live Update runs automatically at least daily to keep NIS updated.
I have checked the Outlook email account settings, and the servers (pop.att.yahoo.com and smtp.att.yahoo.com) and ports (995 incoming and 465 outgoing) have not been changed (SSL encryption is still set to on). Disabling NIS email scanning does not seem to help. I ran Norton Systemworks Windoctor to try to fix any registry errors, and I ran the Office Diagnostics tool, both with no apparent effect on the problem. Then I checked to make sure that Windows Defender is still turned off (it is). I also tried to do a system restore, but it was not successful (This has been an on-going situation, perhaps related to the Norton software?).
My guess is that my messages are being blocked as unsafe, but I can’t find where this might be happening. My email address has not been put in the Norton blocked addresses list, and I can’t find it in any other logs or lists.
Any suggestions on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. I am out of ideas.
Thank you for the timely advice. I suspect that the link in my daughter's email was some type of malware because, for brevity, I neglected to explain that it had been sent by someone else who had pirated one of her earlier email addresses. But whether it was responsible for my current Outlook problem, or just a coincidence, I can't say.
The fact that Outlook does not prompt me for my password before the error message stops the sending process leads me to think that the source of the problem occurs before the message is forwarded to my ISP, but I will try to follow up on this although AT&T does not seem to make it easy.
Also, I have seen the Microsoft daunting laundry list of solutions. Having an idea of where to start would help focus my limited abilities.
Thank you again for taking the time to consider my plight. I had suspected that there would be no simple answer.
I can send messages again. My immediate problem with sending email messages was solved by an AT&T internet representative who changed the outgoing smtp port from 465 (secure) to 25 (not secure); but the real, underlying problem was probably created (according to the very helpful ISP representative) by a recent Norton update that interferes with port 465. I was assured that Norton will still scan all messages for security - in this case so that I do not spread viruses in outgoing messages.
For those who have time or interest, getting to this point with AT&T representatives was something of an Odyssey. I first called AT&T help and was given another phone number for sbcglobal email addresses (which AT&T took over years ago). I then called the sbcglobal help line and was told by an apologetic representative that they no longer troubleshoot problems related to Outlook. So I went back and tried (again) to run the Outlook email repair tool and found that server settings taken from the AT&T network were outdated, but could not be changed from my end. So I called sbcglobal again to see if I could get this network problem fixed and was cut off twice - I am guessing because of my earlier admission of problems with Outlook. I then tried AT&T's internet "Chat" option and was assisted by a very helpful woman representative who eventually got me up and running again. So I guess the moral of this story is to find someone who knows what they are doing and are willing to help, which is not an easy task over the phone and internet.
Glad you were able to get this solved. Norton cannot scan secure ports - only Port 25 and 110 are supported. So as long as you are using those, you should have no issues. It is not uncommon for Norton to interfere with sending and receiving if scanning is enabled but ports other than 25 or 110 are being used. In that case you should disable scanning - incoming scanning is nice, but not strictly necessary from a security standpoint since Auto-Protect still blocks anything that gets opened, and outgoing scanning only benefits your antivirus-deficient recipients in the highly unlikely event that you are spewing malware despite having Norton onboard. If you do disable email scanning, Norton will start alerting you that this feature is turned off. You can stop the alerts by hovering your cursor over the words "Email Protection" on the main Norton window and selecting "Ignore" in the popup. This disengages Norton from monitoring the email scan setting. Just FYI, if you ever need to do this.
Just a quick followup FYI. I have been using port 465 with all Norton features turned on for at least a year. I do remember that Norton did not work with secure ports (for both incoming and outgoing messages) when I originally installed NIS 2009, and that this was a problem because AT&T wanted everyone to be using secure ports. At some point, I think it was introduction of NIS 2010, Norton started working with secure ports. I found this out because AT&T was threatening to shut down their non-secure servers. But either something changed recently in Norton or the link in the message from my daughter's pirated address woke something up that started blocking port 465 again. The secure port 995 is still working for incoming messages. These mysteries are too deep for me, and I am just happy to have Outlook working again.
My Outlook program will no longer send messages. I am hoping that someone can suggest how to fix this.
I am posting here because my email problem started after opening a link in a message from my daughter, which prompted a Norton warning about a shortened web address that could lead to an unsafe website. When I tried to reply to my daughter in a message that still contained the link, I received the following error message: “Sending’ reported error (08x800CCC0F): The connection to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).’” Since then, I get the same error message for all attempts to send any message, so one possibility is that Norton modified my system to protect it against the unsafe link. There is no problem with receiving messages.
The problem does not seem to be at the internet provider (AT&T) because I can send messages using my AT&T webmail account. And I get the error message immediately after clicking send, so Outlook never gets to the point of asking for my password as it did before the problem started.
My computer is a relatively new HP PC with a VISTA 32 bit operating system. I am using Outlook 2007 as part of the MS Office program and Norton Internet Security 2011 (upgraded from 2009). I have installed all MS Windows/Office updates and Norton Live Update runs automatically at least daily to keep NIS updated.
I have checked the Outlook email account settings, and the servers (pop.att.yahoo.com and smtp.att.yahoo.com) and ports (995 incoming and 465 outgoing) have not been changed (SSL encryption is still set to on). Disabling NIS email scanning does not seem to help. I ran Norton Systemworks Windoctor to try to fix any registry errors, and I ran the Office Diagnostics tool, both with no apparent effect on the problem. Then I checked to make sure that Windows Defender is still turned off (it is). I also tried to do a system restore, but it was not successful (This has been an on-going situation, perhaps related to the Norton software?).
My guess is that my messages are being blocked as unsafe, but I can’t find where this might be happening. My email address has not been put in the Norton blocked addresses list, and I can’t find it in any other logs or lists.
Any suggestions on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. I am out of ideas.