New vista laptop: ports 110 and 25 closed, no email!

[Cliff]

Hi!

I have been labouring with my parents' new laptop. It hadn't been set
up for email or internet use. I uninstalled the Norton demo it came
with (I used the Norton cleaning tool later) and installed Avast (I
have turned the mail scanning off). It connects to the internet
fine. It won't connect to the email server and I get the message:

The connection to the server has failed. Account: 'Freeserve', Server:
'pop.freeserve.co.uk', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No,
Socket Error: 10060, Error Number: 0x800CCC0E
Now, I know that the settings are right as I have typed them into my
own PC and it works fine.

Further: no ping or telnet works! I only have the windows firewall on
it (disabling it doesn't seem to help either).

I have tried allowing Microsoft Mail to get through the firewall. Have
also tried Thunderbird - no avail! I think the problem is with the
ports.

Any help appreciated (before I launch it out of the window!)

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Many servers won't respond to ping; pop.freeserve.co.uk is one
of those. Can you ping yahoo.com?
What happens when you enter
telnet pop.freeserve.co.uk 110
at a command prompt? This worked for me in that I got a
response from the server.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Cliff]

I hadn't realised that freeserve wouldn't allow a ping.

Unfortunately the ping to Yahoo failed, as did the telnet to freeserve
- it just timed out.

Interestingly, I tried dialup instead of the wireless connection and
could access the email servers fine, so it seems to be an issue only
brought on when wireless is in use. Makes it sound like there is a
problem with the wireless on the laptop to me. Is this the case, or
have I missed a security setting somewhere?

Thanks!

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

The fact that ping, telnet and mail all fail on wireless, but
everything works fine when using dial-up, tells us that the
wireless connection may be bad. What is strange, though, is
that Internet browsing works fine either way.

Your only connection choices are wireless or dial-up? Where
does the wireless signal originate from? It should come from
a router. Have you tried plugging directly into the router?
You might also try a different wireless source, such as taking the
laptop to a free Wi-Fi hotspot.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Cliff]

Yes - I think that you are right, the problem is with the wireless. I
have tried two wireless networks - both free ones at hotspots (we have
one here at work) where I can't access the router, I'm afraid. Very
odd that it sees the internet though!

I think it is going to have to go back anyway - despite being brand
new it crawls along at a painful rate (takes minutes to switch on and
off, 10-20 secs to respond to most commands). I think that there must
be a hardware fault with the laptop to go this slowly and I guess that
this might be affecting the wireless too.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Sounds like a basic hardware problem, in addition to the
wireless issue. Since it's under warranty, your best bet is to
return it.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Cliff]

Thanks for the advice - much appreciated. The laptop will be going
back since this looks like a hardware fault.

Cliff