Q:
Every time I try to download my e-mail, it just stops and hangs there. What could be causing that to happen and how can I fix it? Please help!

A:
I've been getting this question a lot lately, so there must be something going around in regards to e-mail hang ups! Before we get started, I just want to make sure I have the situation straight. Basically, every time you download your e-mail, it goes along fine for awhile and then just stops all of the sudden. After that, it just sort of hangs there in suspension and you really have no other choice but to stop the download completely. Do I have it about right?

Well, that type of thing can happen at any point in the download process. Let's say you have 40 e-mail messages to bring in. It goes along fine, but stops at number 34. What happened? Let's take a look!

The main cause is that one of the messages is just too big for your e-mail program to handle. Those generally include e-mails that have large pictures or videos attached to them. They sometimes take longer to download, but other times, they don't come through at all. If that's the case, the only thing you can really do is stop the download and cancel that particular e-mail.

One other big cause could be that your ISP is blocking the messages from coming in. Maybe they see it as a piece of spam and they won't allow it to come through. You could also have connection problems with your account server, which will confuse your e-mail program and prevent the messages from downloading properly. You can always contact your ISP for help with those issues. They should be able to get you back up and running.

I know there are probably a few other reasons why your e-mail decides to "hang," but those are the major ones, so check on them first. Once you figure out what's wrong, you'll be back in e-mail heaven with no problems at all!

~ Erin