Entourage 2004 -- how does it notify the user if the mail serveris unreachable?

[Will Mulloy]

Hi,

Here's an odd question for ya, but I'm hoping you have an answer. It may
not sound Entourage-related at first, but please trust me, it is.

I'm having a problem with my cable connection, and I'm wondering if
Entourage can indirectly help me. If so, I'm willing to switch mail
programs in a heartbeat.

Here's the story.

I have cable connecting which also uses Airport. I have no idea whether
Airport is a factor in this or not.

Lately, from time to time...seems maybe a few times a week, I will lose
all net connectivity. I used to think it was Airport. So I'd reset my
base station, and cable modem, and my Mac as well. Usually this would
restore cable connectivity. However, when it happened sometime last
week, I was just about to go through that process again, when I noticed
that connectivity was back -- without my having done anything. Sometimes
it seems to last 15-30 minutes. I'm relatively new to cable. I wonder:
Is this the "latency" that I hear some grumble about? Connectivity
vanishing, then reappearing just as suddently, for periods this long?

Naturally, I want to call my cable co's tech support, but I have this
nagging feeling they're going to blame it on my Airport. The layout of
my apartment (specifically the location of the lone cable jack) does not
permit me to use the connection sans Airport. It seems to me that
Airport would not be the cause, seeing as connectivity comes back
without me doing anything to Airport.

ANYWAY... I don't expect help with that here -- this isn't the forum for
that -- but the long and short of this (and my reason for posting here)
is...this is most annoying because I check my email frequently via
automatic schedule...being disabled and in a wheelchair, it's one of my
primary sources of socialization -- a necessity for me. I currently use
Apple Mail under Panther.

When my connectivity vanishes as described above, Apple Mail does not
make a sound or do anything to catch my eye...it just takes the account
"offline" and displays a triangle with an exclamation mark inside it.
This is primarily a problem when I happen to be occupied doing something
that does not involve the net, and my screen is occupied with other
programs, while mail is being checked in the background. I happened to
think "Gee, I'm expecting an email...wonder why it hasn't gotten here?"
I look up and see that all of my email accounts are sitting in offline
mode...the program made no attempt to notify me that it could not reach
the mail server. I just happen to notice, thank goodness.

Now, Apple Mail *will* notify me (by bouncing the dock icon, and, I
believe, beeping) if the mail server rejects the saved password for some
reason, but not if it is entirely unable to reach the mail server!

My Entourage question for you:

How does Entourage 2004 notify the user in the event of not being able
to contact the mail server? Will it make a sound? Display a dialog?
Bounce its dock icon?

ANYTHING will be better than Apple Mail's leaving me to discover by
chance that it put my accounts into "offline mode" and otherwise did
nothing to notify me further. Nada! Zip! Zero! Zilch!

I am hoping Entourage, set to check mail on a schedule, can alert me if
my network connectivity should vanish when it tries to check mail.

Thank you for listening to my roundabout question.

-Will Mulloy

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

My Entourage question for you:

How does Entourage 2004 notify the user in the event of not being able
to contact the mail server? Will it make a sound? Display a dialog?
Bounce its dock icon?

YES to the latter! Entourage is religious about bouncing when there's any
sort of connection error. This seems to drive a lot of people nuts - because
there is an option to turn off bouncing for new messages but you can't turn
it off for errors - but this feature was in fact designed for situations
like yours. At last there's someone who'll appreciate it! (People with
problematic accounts that always have minor glitches don't always want to
know about them.)

There's also a "Mail error" sound you should get, once. You could turn the
sound up for your machine.

ANYTHING will be better than Apple Mail's leaving me to discover by
chance that it put my accounts into "offline mode" and otherwise did
nothing to notify me further. Nada! Zip! Zero! Zilch!

I am hoping Entourage, set to check mail on a schedule, can alert me if
my network connectivity should vanish when it tries to check mail.

It will

Thank you for listening to my roundabout question.

Actually it was very well put together and interesting to read.

Why don't you download the Office 2004 Test Drive from MacTopia
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/> and check it out?

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Mickey Stevens]

The Dock icon will bounce if there is an error. If the error sound option
is checked in Preferences, there will be a sound too. A dialog with the
error text shows up. It is also accessible from the Error Log (Window >
Error Log).

 

[Will Mulloy]

YES to the latter! Entourage is religious about bouncing when there's any
sort of connection error. This seems to drive a lot of people nuts - because
there is an option to turn off bouncing for new messages but you can't turn
it off for errors - but this feature was in fact designed for situations
like yours. At last there's someone who'll appreciate it! (People with
problematic accounts that always have minor glitches don't always want to
know about them.)

There's also a "Mail error" sound you should get, once. You could turn the
sound up for your machine.

Excellent!

It will
=

Actually it was very well put together and interesting to read.

Why don't you download the Office 2004 Test Drive from MacTopia
<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/> and check it out?

Thanks! I will. Is it fully functional, 30-day time limit aside? Will it
let me import my humongous collection of Apple Mail mbox's? I would like
to see how well it can handle my many thousands of messages.

It's better than v.X in this regard, I've read, correct? If so, would
you call it dramaticallyz better? I've read that there is now a million
object (rather than 4 GB) limit. But I would hope that it can handle a
large number of messages even if one is nowhere close to the older
version's limit.

Apple Mail, for its part, likes to quit when dealing with a folder
containing 2000 messages, or sometimes slightly less, requiring those
messages to be "re-indexed" upon relaunch. Ugh....

I am happy to read of the new Database utility, though I would hope I
won't have to be paranoid of potential database corruption. Is it more
stable than v.X, or is it wise to verify the integrity monthly, say? I
have read a few hair-raising database stories with previous versions.

Thanks again,
-Will

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

Thanks! I will. Is it fully functional, 30-day time limit aside? Will it
let me import my humongous collection of Apple Mail mbox's? I would like
to see how well it can handle my many thousands of messages.

Yes and yes. It even has scripting this time (unlike the Test Drive for
Office v. X).

It's better than v.X in this regard, I've read, correct? If so, would
you call it dramaticallyz better? I've read that there is now a million
object (rather than 4 GB) limit. But I would hope that it can handle a
large number of messages even if one is nowhere close to the older
version's limit.

It's dramatically better, yes. In Entourage X, I'd have to start pruning
mail folders when they got to about 1500 messages to avoid slow-down. That
meant doing a massive delete of my folder that handles mailing list messages
every week. Now I can let it go for weeks - up to 10,000 messages or so and
I don't notice any slowdown at all. And searching - including message body
searching - is about 100 times faster - no joking. It's certainly not
"Spotlight" (Tiger demo at WWDC) instantaneous, but it's now very
comfortable.

Apple Mail, for its part, likes to quit when dealing with a folder
containing 2000 messages, or sometimes slightly less, requiring those
messages to be "re-indexed" upon relaunch. Ugh....

I am happy to read of the new Database utility, though I would hope I
won't have to be paranoid of potential database corruption. Is it more
stable than v.X, or is it wise to verify the integrity monthly, say? I
have read a few hair-raising database stories with previous versions.

It's much. much more robust than X. That is, both the database itself and
the rebuilder. You can have Verification running automatically in the
background to let you know when the first signs of minimal corruption
appear. Mine has not notified me in months now. You won't have time to test
this in the 30-day Test Drive but you could Verify manually and also try a
rebuild even if you don't need one, if it makes you feel better. (I wouldn't
do this very often, though. This is just for you to test once.)


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.