Humour Our Power User Vanishing E-Mail

Vanishing Email

Late one Sunday night a user was sat in front of their PC, connected to the Internet and browsing, publishing and generally making a presence on the world wide web. This was a power user, someone who others ask for advice, a mountain of information, a good engineer with eighteen years experience in the field.

Having absolutely no faith in the operating system or Internet software, the user was quick to blame both when their email arrived in the Inbox only to disappear.

That is exactly what happened, while the power user sat in front of the computer watching the email client connect to the server and download eight messages, then one by one they disappeared. Worried by this point, the power user freaked, because the email was really important and contained personal and sensitive details such as a credit card number and address. Hoping that none of the mail that vanished was from the bank the power user continued publishing, browsing and periodically connecting to their email server. Again, the client connected to the server and downloaded four mail messages. When our power user opened the Inbox there were no new mail. To coincide, the email client did not show that there was any new unread mail. Our user, the power user quickly drafted an email to them self from another computer and account, then waited, no longer publishing or browsing. The mail arrived along with bewildered expressions, from our puzzled power user and the email client proudly displayed one unread message. A change of tactics was needed. A mail was sent from a web account. Hotmail to be exact and the same thing happened. The client connected to the server and downloaded two messages and they both vanished. No new mail was in the Inbox

Now our power user considered two obvious possibilities both sending shivers at the thought. A possible virus attack or worse, the mail was being intercepted in some way. The computer had not behaved abnormally before now and had been up and running for several months so a virus could be slim. Still our power user scanned all the files on the computer, but no virus was found. The backups for the last week were also scanned just in case it was a really smart virus the power user thought, but still clean. Meanwhile the email client had connected to the server and downloaded several messages, putting David Copperfield in the shadow as every email disappeared one by one. Thinking quickly, our power user changed the client to off-line, but not before the client had connected to the server one more time. Enough being enough the Internet connection was dropped and the operating system shutdown finally the power user switched off their machine.

When they came back from the pub the power user rebooted the computer, reconnected to the Internet and opened the email client. Surprise, the last downloaded email was in the Inbox and the client said one unopened message. It was the message that the power user had sent from the Hotmail account. Wondering why it had not been deleted, the power user boldly allowed the client to connect to the server. What an expression of disbelieve as eighteen e-mails were downloaded and disappeared one by one as our power user watched on.

Unfortunately for our power user the server had not been configured to retain emails sent to their account, so that was the next thing they changed. Fortunately, though a quick email to the server's host would soon have the emails resent. Our power user mentioned the incident in the email to their host and also explained the sensitivity of the emails such as bank details and contact info. Finally mentioning their concern that somehow the messages might have been intercepted whilst online, that security may have been compromised and our power user was strongly requested a secure connection having heard so much about just this kind of thing in the media. While concluding their email our power user happened to notice that three thousand three hundred and thirty three emails were in their Inbox and made a mental note to do some housekeeping. Sending the email, our power user resumed publishing, browsing and generally getting noticed on the web. This time, when the client connected to the server and downloaded three messages then cool as you like made them disappear, our power user noted that now there was three thousand three hundred and thirty six emails in their Inbox, but still the client said no unread mail. Now our power user had something to get their teeth in to. Why are they disappearing from the in box and where are they going when our power user knows that they are still in the client, somewhere.

Our power user opened the folder view of the email client and looked in each trays folder. Not expecting folders in any trays, our power user was completely surprised to find several in the deleted tray. All the deleted folders were from old rules that organised each incoming email into separate groups. Organize wizards looked at each header then moved the incoming message to the appropriate folder, within the Inbox. Investigating this further and opening up the rules window presented all the old rules, still intact and still moving the email to the correct folder even though it was in the deleted tray and for some unknown reason the email client did not inform our power user that they had unread mail in a folder in the deleted mail tray (strange that).

Useful Conversions

Software Versions