Strange e-mail problem

[Odos]

Hi All, as the title says I have a strange e-mail problem. I have in total three IDnet email accounts in use, all have worked fine for years. One .com and two pop3. The .com and one of the pop3's work fine, the other pop3 is where the problem lies, it does one of two things.

Sometimes it will download the messages (14 at last count ) till it gets to the last message at which point it locks up. The only thing I can do is to shut down my mail client and net connection. If I then restart and try again, it follows the same procedure and never deletes the downloaded messages from the server.

Other times like the attempt I've just tried I get this error message:

Unable to send or receive messages for the ***** Idnet account. Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of inactivity.

Server: 'pop3.idnet.net'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC0F
Protocol: POP3
Port: 110
Secure(SSL): No

I've tried this in XP 64 and 32 bit using OE and Opera's mail client, Vista 32bit using winmail and Opera and Win 7 using live mail and Opera. I get the same problem no matter what OS or mail client. Does anyone have any ideas 

[Rik]

Not with you, Tony. IDNet.com addresses can be POP3 or IMAP, so I'm not sure what you're referring to when you talk about POP3 accounts.

[Odos]

Sorry for the confusion Rik  I use one .com and two .idnetfreemail.co.uk

It's one of the .idnetfreemail.co.uk accounts thats acting strange.

[Rik]

Have you tried going into the webmail interface, Tony, and checking the mail there. My hunch would be an oversized attachment is blocking things.

[Odos]

Nope not thought of that  will do so shortly 

[Rik]

Let me know if it works, will you?

[Odos]

Will do Rik. It'll have to be later I'm afraid. I just tried to login to the .co.uk webmail interface and was told it doesn't support Opera. I don't have another browser installed on this win 7 partition and can't switch at the moment because I'm busy online. I'll try again later and report back

Thanks

[Rik]

Thanks, Tony. It will be useful to know.

[Odos]

You were correct Rik  When I checked using the web interface, there was a mail with a 12.4meg attachment. Deleted that and now everything works again. 

BTW do you know why it did that ? Is there an attachment size limit ?

Thanks again

[Rik]

There is, Tony, it's 10MB. And I found out the hard way.