Mail won't connect

[nick8ascot]

My "Mail" app intermittently fails to connect, complaining about a server error. It states:

The server error encountered was: The connection the server "-----.co.uk" on port 0 timed out.

I resolve it currently by quiting Mail, running disk utility then opening Mail again. This only has a 50% success rate however, so i restart to correct the error (which is hardly a workaround).

What can I do to get rid of this problem?

It has worked fine for 2 years, connected to Broadband ISP, but this problem occurs daily now. I can still email out, but receive email during this time.

Thanks for reading - Nick

 

[jeremy.king]

Open terminal and try to ping the mail server "-----.co.uk"

Also, you sure it says port 0? POP servers usually use port 110 and IMAP usually use 143. You sure you didn't accidently change you mail server settings?

 

[nick8ascot]

Ping it?

Thanks for the response - I've heard of 'pinging' in Terminal but never done it. How do you do this? It is definitely pop3 and it says port 0 timed out (I've kept a screen shot of the message). I've not gone into Terminal before and I don't know how to change the port.
Nick

 

[jeremy.king]

Changing the port would be in Mail.app Preferences. I do believe you goto the Accounts section, click edit for you mail account and check the port number in the Account Options tab (I haven't set an account up in a long while).

To ping a server, simply open Terminal and type

ping my.mailserver.com

where my.mailserver.com is the fully qualified domain name of your mail server. All that this will do is let you know if your machine can contact your mail server.

 

[nick8ascot]

Thanks for the tips - I'll get back to you the next time it refuses to open. typically, it's wortking OK at the mo. Putting my Mac (G5) to sleep often causes it to reoccur. Nick