Regular E-Mail Setup Help
  • E-Mail Setup Instructions for Netscape, click here.

  • E-Mail Setup Instructions for Microsoft Outlook Express

    Launch (click on) Microsoft Outlook Express. The first time that you run the program, it will automatically start the wizard that asks you for the information to set up the account.

    If it does not start the new accounts setup wizard, click on "Tools" then "Accounts" then on the "Mail" tab and "Add" then "Mail". This will start the Internet Connection Wizard.

    Click on "I already have an email address that I'd like to use".

    Enter your email address in the box "Email Address". It should be your login name, then @elkgrove.net. For example: donbrown@elkgrove.net

    Then Click on "Next". Make sure that "My incoming mail server is" is set to "POP3".

    Under "Incoming Mail (POP3, IMAP or HTTP) Server", enter mail.elkgrove.net .

    Under "Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server", enter smtp.elkgrove.net .

    Click on "Next".

    Under "Account Name", enter you login name in all lowercase letters. (Do not add @elkgrove.net !)

    Under "Password", enter your password, also in all lowercase letters.

    Click on "Next".

    Click on "Finish".

    If you have additional mailboxes to set up, start the wizard again.

    Note: You can send yourself a test message. Just send it, wait a minute, then check for new mail. After this, "Reply" to it and send it. Then check for new mail again to see if you return address is set up correctly. Read the help files to learn how to get the most out of your e-mail program.



E-Mail Setup Instructions For Netscape

Launch (click on) Netscape Mail. Then click on "Edit", "Preferences", and then double click on "Mail & News Groups". Click on "Identity".

Under "Your Name", enter the name you would like the recipient of your e-mail to see.

Under "Email Address", enter your loginname@elkgrove.net   For example: donnabrown@elkgrove.net

Then click on "Mail Servers". If there are old servers listed under "Incoming Mail Servers", delete them.

Then click on "Add". For "Server Name", enter mail.elkgrove.net .

For "Server Type", select "POP3 Server".

For "User Name", enter you login name in all lowercase letters. (Do not add @elkgrove.net !)

For ease, add a checkmark for "Remember Password".

Then click on the "POP" tab and make sure there is NOT a checkmark in front of "Leave messages on server". Then click on "OK".

For "Outgoing Mail Server", enter smtp.elkgrove.net . (Do not enter an "Outgoing Mail Server User Name" !)

Click on "OK" and you're done.

Note 1: When Netscape asks for your password, make sure that you enter it in all lowercase digits.

Note 2: You can send yourself a test message. Just send it, wait a minute, then check for new mail. After that, "Reply" to it and send it. Then check for new mail again to see if you return address is set up correctly. Read the help files to learn how to get the most out of your e-mail program.



 Add Additional Mailbox Users

There are several ways of adding additional mail boxes, depending on what you want to do with the additional e-mail accounts.

If you would like for the mail from both email addresses to arrive in the same inbox, follow these instructions.

If you don't want the emails from both accounts to arrive in the same inbox, you can follow the instructions for Switching Identities in Outlook Express or the instructions for Eudora Light.




"How can I check my e-mail while on vacation?"

There are two ways of doing this:

The first is to set up web-based e-mail. To access that service, click here.

 The second is to make a long distance call and log onto our service that way.




"Server time-out" or "Server not found" Messages

A common cause for this message is that your dial-up connection was disconnected. Please check to see that you are online. If you are online, you might want to reboot your computer and try it again. If it still does not work, give us a call at (916) 685-3200, during store business hours.




 "Relaying not allowed" Message

This is a common problem when you are using an internet service provider other than ours. You must be online using our internet access service, in order to send e-mail through our SMTP server. You cannot send e-mails, using our SMTP server, while online with another internet service provider.

To send e-mail, you must set up your SMTP server as the one from the provider, or dial in to our service.




 "I received a message that my mail box is full."

What this means is that your mailbox on our server is exceeding the allotted amount of storage. We give every user 20 Mb. of storage space for their e-mail. This is storage for your e-mail while waiting to be downloaded to your computer. After you have received your messages, your e-mail program should delete the messages from our server. Some e-mail programs are setup to leave the mail on our server. This will lead to slower e-mail download and a barrage of e-mails, if you were to reload your Windows or your e-mail program.

Please empty out your old messages from our server. To do this follow the instructions below.

If are using Microsoft's Outlook Express, click on "Tools" "Accounts", and highlight the mailbox account. Then click on "Properties", "Advanced". At this point, we recommend that you put a check mark on "Leave copy of message on server", and put a check mark on "Remove from server after" and make it 5 days. Then click on "Apply".

Then check your mail again and your old messages will be removed from our server. This does not affect the e-mail on your computer.

If you are using Netscape, click on "Edit", "Preferences", double click on "Mail & Newsgroups", click on "Mail Servers", "Edit" & "POP". Then remove the check mark before "Leave messages on server". Then click on "OK"

Then check your mail again and your old messages will be removed from our server. This does not affect the e-mail on your computer.

If you do not remove your old messages, we will have to delete your entire mailbox. See our E-Mail Policies.





 "It says, 'Downloading 5 messages' but I only get 4."

This commonly occurs if you exit the mail program before all the messages have been fully downloaded. This may happen because of an especially large attachment that causes your mail to take longer than ususal to download. If you exit the mail program before all the messages have been completely downloaded, the mail que is not cleared. When this happens, the mail server will not acknowledge the messages you have downloaded, and start downloading again, beginning with the first message.




"My mail program locks on a certain message."

We have noticed that this seems to happen if people receive a "forward of a forward of a forward" from AOL while using a Microsoft Mail program. One solution is to download Eudora Light from our site and follow the installation instructions .




 "Is the US Postal Service going to charge e-mails?"

No. This is a just a rumor that has been going around for a long time.




 "I get disconnected after checking my mail."

If you are using Microsoft Outlook Express, check that your e-mail program is not set to disconnect after checking e-mail. Click on "Tools", "Options", "Connections", then remove the check mark before the "Hang up after Sending and Receiving".




"How do I copy my mail from one computer to another?"

First, find your inbox. Go into Windows Explorer, then click on "Tools", "Find", "Files of Folders". Type the word, Inbox, in the "Named" window. Select your C drive in the "Look in" box, and click on "Find Now".

Once windows finds the inbox, look at the "In Folder" information to find where, on your hard drive, your mailboxes are located. If there is more than one directory, look at the "Modified" column, to see which one has the most recent date. That is the one you want.

Copy the files onto a floppy disk, zip disk or CD-ROM. On the new computer, you follow the same (above) instructions to find out where you mailboxes are located. Then you copy your mail information from the floppy, zip or CD-ROM, into that directory.




"How does email work?"

Normally, it only takes a matter of seconds for an e-mail message to move from the sender to the receiver.

The way that e-mail communication works is, first, when someone sends a message, it is time-stamped and goes into the sender's outbox. It stays in the outbox until the sender clicks on "Send and Receive". (Or, mail can be setup to immediately send once written.)

Then the message goes to the mail-server on the sender's end, which puts it in the queue, and then sends it to the mail-server on the receiver's end. The recipient's mail-server receives it, puts a timestamp on it, and puts it into the receiver's mailbox, located on the receiver's mail-server.

Then, when the recipient goes online and clicks on his/her mail program's "Send and Receive", the message is then downloaded to the receiver's computer.

If you "right" click on the message, then go to "Properties", and "Detail", the time that the server received the message will be displayed. (Clocks on the different servers can be a few minutes off.)




How can I switch Identities in Outlook Express?

First, to add an Identity in Outlook Express, click on "File", "Identities", "Add New Identity". If you do not have the "Identities" option, go to the Microsoft Website to download the latest version of Outlook Express.

Then, enter your name, and select whether you would like to have your mail box password protected.

Then, switch to your new identity, and click on "Create A New Internet Mail Account" and click "Next".

Enter the name you would like to see displayed, and click "Next".

Enter your e-mail address (example: johndoe@elkgrove.net).

Click on "Next". Then enter as Incoming Mail Server: mail.elkgrove.net ; and enter as Outgoing Mail Server: SMTP.elkgrove.net .

Then click on "Next", enter your password, and follow instructions to finish.

To switch back and forth between you identities, click on "File", "Switch Identities", then select the Identity that you want.




E-Mail Policies

As part of your standard e-mail account, each account gets 20 Mb of space. If mailboxes exceed 20 Mb, Internet Adventure reserves the right to delete the entire mailbox. In addition, we reserve the right to remove, without notification, any and all mail older than 60 days; or to remove accounts inactive for more than 60 days.

For anti-spam purposes, we restrict access to our mailserver from certain foreign countries, restrict access from direct connection by DSL & Cable users, and restrict access from known spam sites. DSL & Cable users should use the mailservers of their providers.

For anti-virus protection, we also restrict executable attachments.




"I receive attachments, but cannot open them."

In Outlook Express, click on "Tools", "Options", "Security", then remove the checkmark before "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened ...".




"People tell me they can't send me attachments."

Our policy is to reject any attachments that are executable, since the bulk of viruses operate from this platform. There are several ways to bypass that block. One is to zip the files. The second way is to rename the file so that the extension is not executable, such as .bat .exe .com .hta, etc.