No. That didn't help. I didn't understand a single direction. Can
you simplify what you said to help an "idiot"? "ipconfig/all" gave me
an error message when I entered it into "start > run". Was that what
you expected me to do?
No, go to Start, run, type CMD, and press enter. THen type "ipconfig
/all", and note that there is a space before the /.
You will get an error message if you leave the space out, and if you don't
do it from the command prompt, which is also (mistakenly) referred to as a
"DOS window", the command will execute and vanish before you can read it.
The command "ipconfig /release" will reset all the IP address to 0.0.0.0 .
You then issue the command "ipconfig /renew" and this will force the network
cards to get new addresses from the router, if it can.
The SSID is the name you gave your wireless system at the time that you set
up your router. When you scan for networks with the wireless card, this is
what you see.
If you didn't do this, your router is using the default SSID and if you have
any neighbors with computers there's a good chance that they have similar
hardware and the same SSID, and Windows can easily become confused as to
which one to attach to. Check your router's documentation for changing
the SSID, change it, and be sure your system is connecting to the right
router. This is best done with a wired connection.
Now, the fact that you can receive but can't send mail often indicates that
you are connecting to the wrong network.
For example, let's say you subscribe to a DSL service and set up your mail
with the information from your provider for their POP/SMTP mail servers.
You know the information is right, and you can receive mail but not send it.
Major ISP's SMTP servers use port 25, you can't change this, and for
security reasons (spamming) ISPs do not allow access on port 25 if you are
not connected to their network. If you aren't on their network, your mail
will not send, even if all the rest of the configuration is perfect.
So if your mail does not send and you are sure the settings are correct,
this is a big clue that you're on the wrong network.
What often happens is that your PC has decided to connect to a neighbor's
wireless router - because it has the same SSID, or you incorrectly pointed
the wireless to their router - and they have, say, a cable internet
subscription, with a different ISP. You're on a different network, and
your ISP will not allow to you access their outgoing mail server from this
other, or ANY other, network.
If you travel with a laptop, you're almost certainly going to run into this
when you connect at different locations. What you have to do is find
another outgoing server that isn't your ISP's and does not use Port 25, and
set up your mail client to use that as the outgoing server. I often use
gmail for this purpose. Then, you can send and receive from pretty much
anywhere in the world there is network access.
HTH
-pk
