This is probably not a wireless issue, but hard to tell (and I have found folks here so helpful in the past).
I have a simple wireless network at my home with two laptops connected. Laptop #1 seems to be fully functional.
Laptop #2 is handling http (web browser) stuff just fine. But it cannot connect to my outgoing mail server and I have been unable to find anything that I can 'ping' (from the command line) without a "general failure". I don't have this problem from laptop #1.
I have reset my router, disconnected and re-connected to my network, and done an 'ipconfig /renew' without success. What is really odd is that I seem to be able to send email from laptop #2, yet I cannot ping my outgoing mail server (smtp.earthlink.net) from laptop #2.
I don't have good networking skills, but this is looking like TCP/IP is broken on laptop #2.
FWIW, I changed my software firewall profile and now the ping problem is gone.
My ISP appears to be having pop3 server problems, so I don't know about that one. But at this point both laptops are behaving in similar manners, which is reassuring.
Dave Lee wrote: X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 12.0.1606
IMO ping is not the best tool to use to see a server; because many servers may be configured to not answer ICMP pings.
Since your OS is win, and excellent tool for looking at a server's port is Steve Gibson's IDServe^1. It displays the resolution of the name and the connect process.
Initiating server query ... Looking up IP address for domain: smtp.earthlink.net The IP address for the domain is: 209.86.93.204 Connecting to the server on remote port: 25 [Connected] The server greeted our connection with this message:
220-pop-sarus.atl.sa.earthlink.net ESMTP Exim 3.36 #1 Tue, 05 May 2009
17:45:55 -0400
220-NO UCE. EarthLink does not authorize the use of its computers or network
220 equipment to deliver, accept, transmit, or distribute unsolicited e-mail. Query complete.
Regarding using smtp.earthlink.net. EL recommends that you use the smtpauth.earthlink.net server. You can access it with port 25 or port 587
Initiating server query ... Looking up IP address for domain: smtpauth.earthlink.net The IP address for the domain is: 207.69.189.208 Connecting to the server on remote port: 25 [Connected] The server greeted our connection with this message:
Initiating server query ... Looking up IP address for domain: smtpauth.earthlink.net The IP address for the domain is: 207.69.189.208 Connecting to the server on remote port: 587 [Connected] The server greeted our connection with this message:
Thanks for the tip on ID Serve - looks quite handy.
I mis-typed the server name when I posted - smtpauth.earthlink.net is the one I was using. However, I was unable to ping anything (I mean anything). I couldn't even get a time-out which is the norm for destinations that don't respond to pings. I could only get 'general failure'. I could ping myself, however (ping localhost).
But the culprit seems to have been my software firewall (Trend Micro). I changed my profile from 'Office Network' to 'Home Network' and the ping issue is totally resolved. That theoretically lower level of security is fine for my home environment. Since I'm living behind a Netgear firewall you could probably make a good case for no software firewall at all.
It turns out that my pop3 server has been flakey all day and (probably) had nothing to do with anything under my control.
email is working fine now. Interestingly I could ping my pop server all day (at least from the laptop where ping worked). However my pop3 server is 'not the earthlink norm'. It is pop.ix.netcom.com. It is a very old account (pre-Mindspring even). I once had a problem with it and the customer service guy that I talked to didn't believe that it was an Earthlink server.
I don't think you are supposed to be using that popserver anymore, but I could be wrong.
The information about it is no longer in the EL kb knowledgebase which describes which popservers old domain names now belonging to EL should/ are supposed to/ use, but the mailserver data itself can only be found in the old googlecache for the kb.
kb with all the now EL old domainnames is here
formatting link
That gizmo is supposed to give you the mailservers for all the old domainnames, but the ix.netcom.com lookup function doesn't work anymore. The alphabetical listing of the result only goes to 'f' not all the rest such as ix.netcom.com.
The old information including the pop.ix.netcom.com from the googlecache can be seen here
formatting link
EL's old kb and support pages are an absolute disaster. *EL* doesn't even know what all is and is not in there.
It resolves and it belongs to EL and an EL popserver answers on port 110.
Initiating server query ... Looking up IP address for domain: pop.ix.netcom.com The IP address for the domain is: 209.86.93.119 Connecting to the server on remote port: 110 [Connected] The server greeted our connection with this message:
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