outlook's outlook is looking dire
i work at an ISP tech support, and can tell you the woes of my day are outlook express problems.
Not really problems that i experience myself. I use outlook set up for imap to only get headers, so no sploits like auto executing attachments get me if more surface. My customers though, have a difficult time with things that are not even thier fault;
1. Servers get changed from smtp.isp.net and pop.isp.net to mail.isp.net which will not work. This is usually caused by an install of norton AV. I dont know whether to blame outlook or norton for this one, but i know for a fact that these settings do not need fucked with.
2. Sometimes outlook will NOT get mail no matter what you do, unless you restart the computer. Ive seen this on several versions of windows.
3. Outlook by default is set up with some really stupid defaults, ie. auto previewing messages, and blocking what it thinks are bad attachments, which often ends up being a .doc or .xls that you really need. Leave that to the AV scanner.
4. Outlook often has a problem on dialup with disconnecting you from the internet, because it thinks you are on a different connection, and then dials up again on the same damn one. There is also 3 diffrent places in the options to select which conection you want which all can have a different choice.
5. Outlook often times out when getting large attachments, even if you set the slider to 5 minutes.
like I said, I can use it fine, but computer dumb people can't and thats what it was supposedly designed for. We really dont get many calls for problems here, as the service runs smoothly, but when they do call in its someone about to cancel thier service because they cant get thier email again. Outlook fucked up and they dont understand that outlook is not our email system, just a client for getting mail. OH well, its the first program that was plopped in front of them, so thats all they know how to do.
p.s. i realize service pack 2 attempts to set better email settings, but not everyone has XP or wants sp2
please be nice when you retaliate, I am neither microsoft or linux, just a user
