I've been trying to set up my email accounts on Windows Mail and everything works fine with receiving emails. I just can't send them though. The error message I'm getting is 'socket error 10060 and 0X800CCCOE'. I've searched various advice boards and understand that this means that there is a connection failure. Having tried some of the suggestions without success I'm hoping one of you computer literate people will be able to advise me.

Note that I'm not particularly computer literate, so please don't make it too technical!

Try sending a very short email to yourself .. make the title short (one word) and in the body put just one word. If that gets through it may not be your connection; you may need need to play around with the MTU size in your modem.

I had the same problem some years ago sending emails (receiving was aok) .. I had to reduce the MTU size from 1500 factory default to 1454 by trial and error. Do you know how to access your router's homepage?
[ btw my kids helped me as I had no idea how to find the MTU settings in the router's homepage ]

If the short email doesn't get through, you may need to ring your ISP .. is the router supported by your ISP?

Do you know if you're trying to set up POP e-mail accounts (e.g. your ISP runs a POP mail server) or is it Webmail (Yahoo, G-mail, Hotmail) ..or both?

As an aside, what AV program are you using? Sometimes e-mail scanning can cause errors and needs switching off.

TW - I'm setting up POP email accounts. I have the same problem on my laptop and new desktop computers. The laptop has Virgin Security on it and the desktop has McAfee pre-installed. My previous desktop had Outlook and email was running fine on there (with Virgin Security). Gto4 - thanks for the advice but it sounds a bit too technical for me.

gtho4 might have the answer but have a look at my settings, just in case something seems amiss with yours. These work for me:

Open up the account 'Properties' by right-clicking on the account name in the left-hand column. Choose 'Properties' from the menu. If you're creating new accounts, this information might also help with that too.

Under the 'General' tab:

In the top field (box) type a name for the e-mail account (it can be anything). Then..

* Name: type the email address before the '@' leaving out everything after.
* Organization: Leave blank.
* E-mail address: Type the full e-mail address.
* Reply address: Leave blank.
Screenshot of the above

Switch to the 'Servers' tab:

* My incoming mail server is a: 'POP3' server.
* Incoming mail (POP3): pop.yourISPname.com (or dot whatever)
* Outgoing mail (SMTP): smtp.yourISPname.com (or dot whatever)
* Email username: type the email address before the '@' leaving out everything after.
* Password: Password
Screenshot of the above

Switch to the 'Advanced' tab:

* Outgoing mail: (SMTP): 25
* Incoming mail: (POP3): 110.
Screenshot of the above

Thanks TW. I've checked all that and can't see any problems, but it still won't send. I've tried sending an email to myself but it won't go. The system doesn't seem to make a connection to send anything. It looks as if I'll have to ring Supanet for some advice but as I only use them for email they may not be too thrilled. It was working fine on my old computer with the same setup and router etc. so I'm baffled.

It may be that those port numbers are wrong - for sending/receiving mail some email providers use port 465 for outgoing and 995 for incoming. If you ring Supanet they should be able to tell you easily what ports they use but no harm in trying those numbers first.

I think I may have solved this. I've changed my outgoing settings to ntlworld.com, as Virgin Media are my ISP, and can now send emails. I've left the incoming as supanet.com as I've had the same email address for years and don't want to change it. At one time Supanet were charging me £10 a year for using it but I can't remember when I last paid them. I've sent and received emails from my daughter using those settings, so fingers crossed it remains OK. Thanks for the advice everyone - it helped clarify what I was doing.

I'm on ntlworld.com. I shouldn't have put xxxxxxxx over that part should I?