Subject: Re: Setting it up with a different ISP

From: Patrick Forbes <patrickforbes@...>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:04:28 -0400

I DID IT!!!!!

Of the three ISP outfits that actually replied to me, only one  
finally came through. Offered a 30 day Money back guarantee, to boot!
I wiped the ROM then,
Press Power, Fn + Shift + T + Reset pin, then '3: F/A Tester' then  
'6: Flash test'. When done, press Back then Q. It then asks for Reset  
queries which you ignore as all was wiped any way. You'll then get:
"Please create a new user account." press Enter.
Then you fill in each field carefully:

User Name: Your name
Dial Up Number: supplied by the ISP dashes are for convention and are  
ignored by systems
Reply -To: skip this if you'd like
E-mail address: you@...
E-mail Password: password
POP3 Server: mail.basicisp.net
SMTP Server: mail.basicisp.net
ISP Account: you@...
ISP Password: password
Primary DNS: 65.247.64.21

The information is supplied in a really strange file that Notepad  
could open.

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick Forbes
121 Lafayette Boulevard
Whitby, Ontario
L1P 1S4
905-666-0378

On 22-Apr-08, at 07:57 , [email-masked] wrote:

There are 3 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

1a. Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
     From: wayne markis
1b. Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
     From: Patrick Forbes
1c. Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
     From: Patrick Forbes

Messages
________________________________________________________________________
1a. Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
     Posted by: "wayne markis" waynem@... iwireless2001
     Date: Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:00 am ((PDT))

The problem is that you can do that with the smaller mailstations,
but you can't do most of this with the model 350, which is the
only one that will allow you to get email graphics, and print
in color.

Although the Model 350 has more memory, it also has more
security for locking you from getting in to work on it.

It requires that it get an email from Earthlink to program itself
and move to a working account. The "special" email has
MIME control characters in it, which can not be sent over the
internet thru other ISP's since they are filtered out.

Only a direct connection to the ISP (Earthlink) will allow these
characters to be received by the machine.

The machine goes to a special account on Earthlink, which is the
serial number of the machine @earthlink . It receives the special
encoded message, and then changes to "Your" account.

You can not send a message to these "Special" accounts, Earthlink
will not pass the message.  But you CAN log into these accounts,
and see what the mailstation is getting, except for the special  
characters,
which you won't see or be able to print out.

You would think that Earthlink would be happy to add customers using  
these
mailstations, but that does not seem to be the case ???

If you think the Indian call center is bad, wait a few more years until
Earthlink
finds a cheaper place to hire labor, and then they move it from India to
there !!!

As the big shots are making their millions at the top !!!

Wayne

   -----Original Message-----
   From: [email-masked]  
[mailto:[email-masked]]On
Behalf Of Patrick Forbes
   Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 10:32 AM
   To: [email-masked]
   Cc: musicalman77@...; djgizmo1@...
   Subject: [mailstation] Re: Any Ideas about this problem?

   Don't waste any more of your time with Earthlink. Attention  
(Product Life)
spans are too short. No company wants to seriously support anything more
than five (5) years old, nowadays. We're pretty much on our own here.  
I just
learned Cidco, who made the thing, filed for bankruptcy this past  
January.
My calls and faxes to them for their engineering assistance went  
unanswered
and I expect the letter I posted to them a week ago will be coming back
soon, too.

   Regardless of your choices, chances you will lose all programmed  
data are
pretty great. Please write down ALL programming information. Start with
'Extras', 'Settings' then 'Details' and ensure you've no typos. You will
most certainly be asked to "Create New User" where you'll need to  
type it
all in just as you saw it:

   User Name:
   Dial Up Number:
   E-mail address:
   E-mail Password:
   POP3 Server:
   SMTP Server:
   ISP Account:
   ISP Password:
   Primary DNS:

   I photocopied all the screens and filed the copies for posterity. Six
years later I needed them!

   Press FN, Shift and T with one hand and stick a pin in the Reset  
hole in
the back. The Diagnostic Menu will appear.

   Press the 3 for the F/A Tester. The five grey keys aren't  
operational.
Select the test of your choice. Start with Fast Test. When it's done  
press
the Reset again to get back to the Diag.... screen. Press Q to return  
the
machine to operational status

   If anyone else has additional tricks to share along this line, please
don't be shy. I have a working machine I can experiment with at will.

   Verizon ($8.95/m), Look ($4.95/m), BasicISP and Mid-Maine have all  
said
they 'may' be able to provide service. I'm waiting for more info from  
them
to set up a trial with each on my machine.

   More later.....

   Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

   Patrick

   musicalman77" musicalman77@... musicalman77
       Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:56 pm ((PDT))

   Good luck with getting any kind of help out of Earthlink's big-wigs.
   I think they are trying hard to wash their hands of MailStation. My
   mom, also 90, had a problem with her machine.  A friend who use to
   work computer models four levels down from the (U.S.) President was
   there the other day trying to remedy the trouble.  He also spent  
about
   3 hours on the phone with..."those fools in India" (nicely put!) and
   all to no avail.  When pressed for information on repair or
   replacement, they got rude.

   So, I tried the online chat with Earthlink CS.  After confirming the
   persistent rumor that there are no NEW MailStation accounts being
   established, they just kept referring me to the 800 number (aka  
"fools
   in India") and ASSURING me these folks would help.  I kept insisting
   we'd already tried that, and the argument became circular and a
   standoff.  So, I asked, "Well, what about repair or replacement"
   (which they have done in the past) and was told, "She can buy a new
   unit on her own."  When I said that I understood that accounts were
   not being transferred to new machines, I was referred to... you
   guessed it... the fools in India.  I finally gave up and told her
   "Thanks for nothing."

   Mom's only trouble is that she can no longer send to groups, and any
   attempt to access her former groups freezes up the machine and it has
   to be reset.  We suspect a bad spot in the flash memory.  I told her
   to just live with sending individual e-mails or do her group people
   from individual e-mail (I think you can do three recipients at a  
time)
   and be glad the thing is still working at all, since she just re- 
upped
   for another year on the service.

   I guess if the thing breaks, I'll hook her up with my old WebTV unit
   (which is now MSN TV) and hope she can learn to use it.

   --- In [email-masked], "Patrick Forbes"
   <patrickforbes@...> wrote:

     An update:

     3 hours on the phone with about a dozen attempts got account turned
   back on despite
     those incompetent fools in India and MailStation resumed operation.
   That was all that was
     wrong with her original unit.

     Anyone have an actual address, telephone number and a bigwig's name
   of Earthlink's HQ
     wherever it is? I need compensation for these many months of no
   service, grief and
     frustration at the hands of those imbeciles they insist on calling
   agents.

   Messages in this topic (10)
    
________________________________________________________________________
   1b. Re: Mailstation 5 months off line
       Posted by: "Marcus Herrera" djgizmo1@... djgizmo1
       Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:26 pm ((PDT))

   Talk about dealing those people. I was doing a system board  
replacement.
   I called and was transfered to them. I was getting upset because I
   couldn't understand what they were saying. They could understand my
   name, asked me to spell it out several times. Getting it wrong. I  
ended
   hanging up on them and call back hoping on getting a different  
person.
   Man how can't you not understand the name "marcus". Off shore call
   centers sucks!!!
   gizmo on sidekick

   Messages in this topic (10)
    
________________________________________________________________________
    
________________________________________________________________________
   2. Any Ideas about this problem?
       Posted by: "musicalman77" musicalman77@... musicalman77
       Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:09 pm ((PDT))

   I posted in part about this in the reply to Patrick, but would like
   your ideas on any way to fix this problem (and like him, I'm in OK  
and
   the machine is in OH, but I may visit there mid-summer).

   When I was visiting in December, I took the machine over to a  
friend's
   house because she had an old parallel-port printer.  I wanted to  
print
   out Mom's address book for two reasons: 1) a planned e-mail
   announcement by my sister to Mom's friends for her 90th birthday card
   shower, and 2) paper backup in case her machine ever got wiped, as it
   did once before.  (You'd THINK they'd have a way to back up the
   address book to the associated EarthLink webmail account, but that'd
   be far too easy...)

   Mom's only trouble is that she can no longer send to groups, and any
   attempt to access her former groups freezes up the machine and it has
   to be reset. We suspect a bad spot in the flash memory. I told her
   to just live with sending individual e-mails or do her group people
   from individual e-mail (I think you can do three recipients at a  
time)
   and be glad the thing is still working at all, since she just re- 
upped
   for another year on the service.

   Well, in the course of printing out the address book, this idiot
   friend ignored my advice and tried to stuff more paper in the printer
   during the print job, jamming it.  I got it restarted, but this may
   have glitched something in the MailStation, because once I got it  
back
   to Mom's, one of her groups stopped working and would freeze the
   machine.  We suspect a problem in the flash memory, like when you  
pull
   your jump drive out of the USB port as it's being accessed.  I was
   leaving that day and didn't have time to mess with it.  So, so she  
has
   had two people look at it since - a young computer geek and an
   old-time computer guru, and trying to fix it for her.  The young guy
   had limited time but agreed with the "flash memory" diagnosis.  The
   old guy spent hours, alone, and on the phone with India, trying to  
fix
   the problem.  Now, apparently NONE of the groups are working at all
   and they cannot set up any new mail groups.

   Anybody have any ideas what's wrong or how to fix it without the
   Indians being involved?

   Thanks.

Messages in this topic (5)
________________________________________________________________________
1b. Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
     Posted by: "Patrick Forbes" patrickforbes@... forbesp
     Date: Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:15 pm ((PDT))

When I boot my MailStation and select 'Address Book' and press 'New,'
a choice of Individual or Groups appears. Select 'Groups' and name
it. It will then show the whole 'Groups' list to pick and choose
from. Press 'Add' and the Address Book list will appear from which
you may pick the Groups 'Members' you wish to add to that group.
Take a look.

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

On 21-Apr-08, at 20:43 , Jon James wrote:

They've tried resetting EVERYTHING (both remotely by the Indians and
locally including the "pinhole" reset) and the groups still refuse to
function, which is what leads us to believe in the "bad flash memory
sector" theory.  Maybe the whole memory needs to be reformatted, and
that's probably something only the Indians can do (if they even can).
--- On Mon, 4/21/08, Patrick
Subject: Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
To: musicalman77@...
Date: Monday, April 21, 2008, 7:21 PM

Her 'Groups' will most certainly need to be re-programmed, I'm sorry
to say. Please remember the KISS Principle. I'm pretty sure she'll
enjoy a fully functional MailStation a bit more than the Web on TV.
Might be too many buttons to remember to push in the right order.

Yup. Mom is back on line. Just a stupid typo. Dumb indians!

So far, BasicISP is working with me to test their servers.......

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

On 21-Apr-08, at 19:51 , Jon James wrote:

Wow, Patrick.  Thanks for the tech info.  As it stands right now, the
machine and service are WORKING for individual e-mails, just not
groups, so she's content for now.  If I visit Ohio this summer, I may
try this stuff.  I have an old WebTV box and may take that with me
and set her up with that.  She would have e-mail AND full web access
for the same annual service fee as the Earthlink e-mail thing.  Hope
you got your mom all fixed up too.

Don't worry - I won't publish this anywhere, just print it out for my
own use.

Jon

--- On Sun, 4/20/08, Patrick wrote:
From: Patrick
Subject: Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
To: [email-masked]
Cc: musicalman77@..., djgizmo1@...
Date: Sunday, April 20, 2008, 12:31 PM

Don't waste any more of your time with Earthlink. Attention (Product
Life) spans are too short. No company wants to seriously support
anything more than five (5) years old, nowadays. We're pretty much on
our own here. I just learned Cidco, who made the thing, filed for
bankruptcy this past January. My calls and faxes to them for their
engineering assistance went unanswered and I expect the letter I
posted to them a week ago will be coming back soon, too.

Regardless of your choices, chances you will lose all programmed data
are pretty great. Please write down ALL programming information.
Start with 'Extras', 'Settings' then 'Details' and ensure you've no
typos. You will most certainly be asked to "Create New User" where
you'll need to type it all in just as you saw it:

User Name:
Dial Up Number:
E-mail address:
E-mail Password:
POP3 Server:
SMTP Server:
ISP Account:
ISP Password:
Primary DNS:

I photocopied all the screens and filed the copies for posterity. Six
years later I needed them!

Press FN, Shift and T with one hand and stick a pin in the Reset hole
in the back. The Diagnostic Menu will appear.

Press the 3 for the F/A Tester. The five grey keys aren't
operational. Select the test of your choice. Start with Fast Test.
When it's done press the Reset again to get back to the Diag....
screen. Press Q to return the machine to operational status

If anyone else has additional tricks to share along this line, please
don't be shy. I have a working machine I can experiment with at will.

Verizon ($8.95/m), Look ($4.95/m), BasicISP and Mid-Maine have all
said they 'may' be able to provide service. I'm waiting for more info
from them to set up a trial with each on my machine.

More later.....

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

musicalman77" musicalman77@... musicalman77
      Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:56 pm ((PDT))

Good luck with getting any kind of help out of Earthlink's big-wigs.
I think they are trying hard to wash their hands of MailStation. My
mom, also 90, had a problem with her machine.  A friend who use to
work computer models four levels down from the (U.S.) President was
there the other day trying to remedy the trouble.  He also spent about
3 hours on the phone with..."those fools in India" (nicely put!) and
all to no avail.  When pressed for information on repair or
replacement, they got rude.

So, I tried the online chat with Earthlink CS.  After confirming the
persistent rumor that there are no NEW MailStation accounts being
established, they just kept referring me to the 800 number (aka "fools
in India") and ASSURING me these folks would help.  I kept insisting
we'd already tried that, and the argument became circular and a
standoff.  So, I asked, "Well, what about repair or replacement"
(which they have done in the past) and was told, "She can buy a new
unit on her own."  When I said that I understood that accounts were
not being transferred to new machines, I was referred to... you
guessed it... the fools in India.  I finally gave up and told her
"Thanks for nothing."

Mom's only trouble is that she can no longer send to groups, and any
attempt to access her former groups freezes up the machine and it has
to be reset.  We suspect a bad spot in the flash memory.  I told her
to just live with sending individual e-mails or do her group people
from individual e-mail (I think you can do three recipients at a time)
and be glad the thing is still working at all, since she just re-upped
for another year on the service.

I guess if the thing breaks, I'll hook her up with my old WebTV unit
(which is now MSN TV) and hope she can learn to use it.

--- In [email-masked], "Patrick wrote:
>
> An update:
>
> 3 hours on the phone with about a dozen attempts got account turned
back on despite
> those incompetent fools in India and MailStation resumed operation.
That was all that was
> wrong with her original unit.
>
> Anyone have an actual address, telephone number and a bigwig's name
of Earthlink's HQ
> wherever it is? I need compensation for these many months of no
service, grief and
> frustration at the hands of those imbeciles they insist on calling
agents.

Messages in this topic (10)
________________________________________________________________________
1b. Re: Mailstation 5 months off line
      Posted by: "Marcus Herrera" djgizmo1@... djgizmo1
      Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:26 pm ((PDT))

Talk about dealing those people. I was doing a system board replacement.
I called and was transfered to them. I was getting upset because I
couldn't understand what they were saying. They could understand my
name, asked me to spell it out several times. Getting it wrong. I ended
hanging up on them and call back hoping on getting a different person.
Man how can't you not understand the name "marcus". Off shore call
centers sucks!!!
gizmo on sidekick

Messages in this topic (10)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. Any Ideas about this problem?
      Posted by: "musicalman77" musicalman77@... musicalman77
      Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:09 pm ((PDT))

I posted in part about this in the reply to Patrick, but would like
your ideas on any way to fix this problem (and like him, I'm in OK and
the machine is in OH, but I may visit there mid-summer).

When I was visiting in December, I took the machine over to a friend's
house because she had an old parallel-port printer.  I wanted to print
out Mom's address book for two reasons: 1) a planned e-mail
announcement by my sister to Mom's friends for her 90th birthday card
shower, and 2) paper backup in case her machine ever got wiped, as it
did once before.  (You'd THINK they'd have a way to back up the
address book to the associated EarthLink webmail account, but that'd
be far too easy...)

Mom's only trouble is that she can no longer send to groups, and any
attempt to access her former groups freezes up the machine and it has
to be reset. We suspect a bad spot in the flash memory. I told her
to just live with sending individual e-mails or do her group people
from individual e-mail (I think you can do three recipients at a time)
and be glad the thing is still working at all, since she just re-upped
for another year on the service.

Well, in the course of printing out the address book, this idiot
friend ignored my advice and tried to stuff more paper in the printer
during the print job, jamming it.  I got it restarted, but this may
have glitched something in the MailStation, because once I got it back
to Mom's, one of her groups stopped working and would freeze the
machine.  We suspect a problem in the flash memory, like when you pull
your jump drive out of the USB port as it's being accessed.  I was
leaving that day and didn't have time to mess with it.  So, so she has
had two people look at it since - a young computer geek and an
old-time computer guru, and trying to fix it for her.  The young guy
had limited time but agreed with the "flash memory" diagnosis.  The
old guy spent hours, alone, and on the phone with India, trying to fix
the problem.  Now, apparently NONE of the groups are working at all
and they cannot set up any new mail groups.

Anybody have any ideas what's wrong or how to fix it without the
Indians being involved?

Thanks.
Messages in this topic (5)
________________________________________________________________________
1c. Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
     Posted by: "Patrick Forbes" patrickforbes@... forbesp
     Date: Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:19 pm ((PDT))

Whoa! That sounds a wee bit fishy, if you don't mind the Canadian
vernacular. If a 'Group' worked, the others should if the others
still have 'valid' addresses with no defects (typos) in them.
Possible? Remember, it's only a computer. It's not that smart, eh.

Yeah, I understand. My Mom is back in Florida (but now on-line) and
I'm in Toronto. But I have amy own MailStation to play with, now. And
I am.......
Hey, I'm our organization's Guru and this is testing ME. And I beat
you with a 2,182 km separation. Ha!

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick Forbes
121 Lafayette Boulevard
Whitby, Ontario
L1P 1S4
905-666-0378

On 21-Apr-08, at 21:34 , Jon James wrote:

I'm 900 miles from the machine.  However, I recall she had three
groups set up.  Two of them still worked, but any attempt to access
the third locked up the machine, requiring the "pinhole" reset.  I
suggested she just abandon the "bad" group, rename it something
similar, and start the bad group over.  Apparently, it wouldn't let
them set up any new groups, and after the tech friend and the Indians
finished messing with it, NONE of the groups would work anymore and
it won't let them set up new groups, only individuals (which had to
all be re-input manually - apparenlty the Indians wiped everything).
As far as what they are telling me, groups just "don't work"
anymore.  It's hard for me, from here and dealing with a 90-year-old
non-geek, to tell exactly what's going on.

"Who am I that You are mindful of me?"
    (Based on Psalms 8:4)

--- On Mon, 4/21/08, Patrick Forbes <patrickforbes@...> wrote:
From: Patrick Forbes <patrickforbes@...>
Subject: Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
To: musicalman77@...
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Monday, April 21, 2008, 8:14 PM

When I boot my MailStation and select 'Address Book' and press 'New,'
a choice of Individual or Groups appears. Select 'Groups' and name
it. It will then show the whole 'Groups' list to pick and choose
from. Press 'Add' and the Address Book list will appear from which
you may pick the Groups 'Members' you wish to add to that group.
Take a look.

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

On 21-Apr-08, at 20:43 , Jon James wrote:

They've tried resetting EVERYTHING (both remotely by the Indians and
locally including the "pinhole" reset) and the groups still refuse to
function, which is what leads us to believe in the "bad flash memory
sector" theory.  Maybe the whole memory needs to be reformatted, and
that's probably something only the Indians can do (if they even can).
--- On Mon, 4/21/08, Patrick
Subject: Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
To: musicalman77@...
Date: Monday, April 21, 2008, 7:21 PM

Her 'Groups' will most certainly need to be re-programmed, I'm sorry
to say. Please remember the KISS Principle. I'm pretty sure she'll
enjoy a fully functional MailStation a bit more than the Web on TV.
Might be too many buttons to remember to push in the right order.

Yup. Mom is back on line. Just a stupid typo. Dumb indians!

So far, BasicISP is working with me to test their servers.......

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

On 21-Apr-08, at 19:51 , Jon James wrote:

Wow, Patrick.  Thanks for the tech info.  As it stands right now, the
machine and service are WORKING for individual e-mails, just not
groups, so she's content for now.  If I visit Ohio this summer, I may
try this stuff.  I have an old WebTV box and may take that with me
and set her up with that.  She would have e-mail AND full web access
for the same annual service fee as the Earthlink e-mail thing.  Hope
you got your mom all fixed up too.

Don't worry - I won't publish this anywhere, just print it out for my
own use.

Jon

--- On Sun, 4/20/08, Patrick wrote:
From: Patrick
Subject: Re: Any Ideas about this problem?
To: [email-masked]
Cc: musicalman77@..., djgizmo1@...
Date: Sunday, April 20, 2008, 12:31 PM

Don't waste any more of your time with Earthlink. Attention (Product
Life) spans are too short. No company wants to seriously support
anything more than five (5) years old, nowadays. We're pretty much on
our own here. I just learned Cidco, who made the thing, filed for
bankruptcy this past January. My calls and faxes to them for their
engineering assistance went unanswered and I expect the letter I
posted to them a week ago will be coming back soon, too.

Regardless of your choices, chances you will lose all programmed data
are pretty great. Please write down ALL programming information.
Start with 'Extras', 'Settings' then 'Details' and ensure you've no
typos. You will most certainly be asked to "Create New User" where
you'll need to type it all in just as you saw it:

User Name:
Dial Up Number:
E-mail address:
E-mail Password:
POP3 Server:
SMTP Server:
ISP Account:
ISP Password:
Primary DNS:

I photocopied all the screens and filed the copies for posterity. Six
years later I needed them!

Press FN, Shift and T with one hand and stick a pin in the Reset hole
in the back. The Diagnostic Menu will appear.

Press the 3 for the F/A Tester. The five grey keys aren't
operational. Select the test of your choice. Start with Fast Test.
When it's done press the Reset again to get back to the Diag....
screen. Press Q to return the machine to operational status

If anyone else has additional tricks to share along this line, please
don't be shy. I have a working machine I can experiment with at will.

Verizon ($8.95/m), Look ($4.95/m), BasicISP and Mid-Maine have all
said they 'may' be able to provide service. I'm waiting for more info
from them to set up a trial with each on my machine.

More later.....

Please consider the environment before printing this email note.

Patrick

musicalman77" musicalman77@... musicalman77
      Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 2:56 pm ((PDT))

Good luck with getting any kind of help out of Earthlink's big-wigs.
I think they are trying hard to wash their hands of MailStation. My
mom, also 90, had a problem with her machine.  A friend who use to
work computer models four levels down from the (U.S.) President was
there the other day trying to remedy the trouble.  He also spent about
3 hours on the phone with..."those fools in India" (nicely put!) and
all to no avail.  When pressed for information on repair or
replacement, they got rude.

So, I tried the online chat with Earthlink CS.  After confirming the
persistent rumor that there are no NEW MailStation accounts being
established, they just kept referring me to the 800 number (aka "fools
in India") and ASSURING me these folks would help.  I kept insisting
we'd already tried that, and the argument became circular and a
standoff.  So, I asked, "Well, what about repair or replacement"
(which they have done in the past) and was told, "She can buy a new
unit on her own."  When I said that I understood that accounts were
not being transferred to new machines, I was referred to... you
guessed it... the fools in India.  I finally gave up and told her
"Thanks for nothing."

Mom's only trouble is that she can no longer send to groups, and any
attempt to access her former groups freezes up the machine and it has
to be reset.  We suspect a bad spot in the flash memory.  I told her
to just live with sending individual e-mails or do her group people
from individual e-mail (I think you can do three recipients at a time)
and be glad the thing is still working at all, since she just re-upped
for another year on the service.

I guess if the thing breaks, I'll hook her up with my old WebTV unit
(which is now MSN TV) and hope she can learn to use it.

--- In [email-masked], "Patrick wrote:
>
> An update:
>
> 3 hours on the phone with about a dozen attempts got account turned
back on despite
> those incompetent fools in India and MailStation resumed operation.
That was all that was
> wrong with her original unit.
>
> Anyone have an actual address, telephone number and a bigwig's name
of Earthlink's HQ
> wherever it is? I need compensation for these many months of no
service, grief and
> frustration at the hands of those imbeciles they insist on calling
agents.

Messages in this topic (10)
________________________________________________________________________
1b. Re: Mailstation 5 months off line
      Posted by: "Marcus Herrera" djgizmo1@... djgizmo1
      Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:26 pm ((PDT))

Talk about dealing those people. I was doing a system board replacement.
I called and was transfered to them. I was getting upset because I
couldn't understand what they were saying. They could understand my
name, asked me to spell it out several times. Getting it wrong. I ended
hanging up on them and call back hoping on getting a different person.
Man how can't you not understand the name "marcus". Off shore call
centers sucks!!!
gizmo on sidekick

Messages in this topic (10)
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
2. Any Ideas about this problem?
      Posted by: "musicalman77" musicalman77@... musicalman77
      Date: Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:09 pm ((PDT))

I posted in part about this in the reply to Patrick, but would like
your ideas on any way to fix this problem (and like him, I'm in OK and
the machine is in OH, but I may visit there mid-summer).

When I was visiting in December, I took the machine over to a friend's
house because she had an old parallel-port printer.  I wanted to print
out Mom's address book for two reasons: 1) a planned e-mail
announcement by my sister to Mom's friends for her 90th birthday card
shower, and 2) paper backup in case her machine ever got wiped, as it
did once before.  (You'd THINK they'd have a way to back up the
address book to the associated EarthLink webmail account, but that'd
be far too easy...)

Mom's only trouble is that she can no longer send to groups, and any
attempt to access her former groups freezes up the machine and it has
to be reset. We suspect a bad spot in the flash memory. I told her
to just live with sending individual e-mails or do her group people
from individual e-mail (I think you can do three recipients at a time)
and be glad the thing is still working at all, since she just re-upped
for another year on the service.

Well, in the course of printing out the address book, this idiot
friend ignored my advice and tried to stuff more paper in the printer
during the print job, jamming it.  I got it restarted, but this may
have glitched something in the MailStation, because once I got it back
to Mom's, one of her groups stopped working and would freeze the
machine.  We suspect a problem in the flash memory, like when you pull
your jump drive out of the USB port as it's being accessed.  I was
leaving that day and didn't have time to mess with it.  So, so she has
had two people look at it since - a young computer geek and an
old-time computer guru, and trying to fix it for her.  The young guy
had limited time but agreed with the "flash memory" diagnosis.  The
old guy spent hours, alone, and on the phone with India, trying to fix
the problem.  Now, apparently NONE of the groups are working at all
and they cannot set up any new mail groups.

Anybody have any ideas what's wrong or how to fix it without the
Indians being involved?

Thanks.

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.
Try it now.

Messages in this topic (5)

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Yahoo! Groups Links

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---

From: Patrick Forbes <patrickforbes@...>
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:34:59 -0400

My most sincere apologies. I forgot to trim my previous note and add:
This applies to the Mivo 100 flavour of the Cidco DETI MailStation,  
but I'm sure there is a wiping trick of some sort somewhere for the  
350 that may accomplish the same thing. Maybe a variation on mine?
If you can get to the Diag screen and do a flash test, that should  
get your Advanced settings open for input. To save yourself the time  
I took, remember to write down the sequences that didn't work!

Attention Gurus out there.

Is there a 'Settings, Advanced' page you can get to on the 350? Does  
it resemble what's below?

I DID IT!!!!! E-mails From, To and Replies back and forth to my Mac  
and my Cell were ALL quite successful.

I now feel confident enough to move my mother from Earthlink to  
BasicISP as Mid Maine is State wide only and Verizon seems to have  
their call centre in India, too which explains their lack of  
cooperation with my little request.

Of the three ISP outfits that actually replied to me, only one  
finally came through. Offered a 30 day Money back guarantee, to boot!
I wiped the ROM by:
Press Power, Fn + Shift + T + Reset pin, then '3: F/A Tester' then  
'6: Flash test'. When done, press Back then Q. It then asks for Reset  
queries which you ignore as all was wiped anyway. You'll then get:
"Please create a new user account." press Enter.
Then you fill in each field VERY carefully as a single typo will mean  
you start over. The password won't be displayed:

User Name: Your name
Dial Up Number: supplied by the ISP. Dashes are only for convention  
and are ignored by the modem.
Reply -To: skip this if you'd like
E-mail address: you@...
E-mail Password: your password shown as **********
POP3 Server: mail.basicisp.net
SMTP Server: mail.basicisp.net
ISP Account: you@...
ISP Password: your password shown as **********
Primary DNS: 65.247.64.21 From them. You gotta ask for this. It's not  
in that file they send.

The information is supplied by BasicISP in a really strange file that  
only Notepad could open. You glean your required info from it.

Patrick

---

From: "wayne markis" <waynem@...>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:59:50 -0700

What model Mailstation are you using for this ??
Wayne

  -----Original Message-----
  From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]]On
Behalf Of Patrick Forbes
  Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 8:04 PM
  To: [email-masked]
  Subject: [mailstation] Re: Setting it up with a different ISP

  I DID IT!!!!!

  Of the three ISP outfits that actually replied to me, only one finally
came through. Offered a 30 day Money back guarantee, to boot!
  I wiped the ROM then,
  Press Power, Fn + Shift + T + Reset pin, then '3: F/A Tester' then '6:
Flash test'. When done, press Back then Q. It then asks for Reset queries
which you ignore as all was wiped any way. You'll then get:
  "Please create a new user account." press Enter.
  Then you fill in each field carefully:

  User Name: Your name

  The information is supplied in a really strange file that Notepad could
open.

  Patrick Forbes
  121 Lafayette Boulevard
  Whitby, Ontario
  L1P 1S4
  905-666-0378

  Topics in this digest:

  Messages

  You would think that Earthlink would be happy to add customers using these
  mailstations, but that does not seem to be the case ???

  Wayne

    -----Original Message-----
    From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]]On
  Behalf Of Patrick Forbes
    Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 10:32 AM
    To: [email-masked]
    Cc: musicalman77@...; djgizmo1@...
    Subject: [mailstation] Re: Any Ideas about this problem?

    Don't waste any more of your time with Earthlink. Attention (Product
Life)
  spans are too short. No company wants to seriously support anything more
  than five (5) years old, nowadays. We're pretty much on our own here. I
just
  learned Cidco, who made the thing, filed for bankruptcy this past January.
  My calls and faxes to them for their engineering assistance went
unanswered
  and I expect the letter I posted to them a week ago will be coming back
  soon, too.

are
  most certainly be asked to "Create New User" where you'll need to type it

    User Name:
    Dial Up Number:
    E-mail address:
    E-mail Password:
    POP3 Server:
    SMTP Server:
    ISP Account:
    ISP Password:
    Primary DNS:

    Press FN, Shift and T with one hand and stick a pin in the Reset hole in
  the back. The Diagnostic Menu will appear.

    Press the 3 for the F/A Tester. The five grey keys aren't operational.
  Select the test of your choice. Start with Fast Test. When it's done press
  the Reset again to get back to the Diag.... screen. Press Q to return the
  machine to operational status

    Verizon ($8.95/m), Look ($4.95/m), BasicISP and Mid-Maine have all said
  they 'may' be able to provide service. I'm waiting for more info from them
  to set up a trial with each on my machine.

    More later.....

    Patrick

      An update:

    Thanks.

  Patrick

  Patrick

  Jon

  User Name:
  Dial Up Number:
  E-mail address:
  E-mail Password:
  POP3 Server:
  SMTP Server:
  ISP Account:
  ISP Password:
  Primary DNS:

  More later.....

  Patrick

    An update:

  Thanks.

  Patrick Forbes
  121 Lafayette Boulevard
  Whitby, Ontario
  L1P 1S4
  905-666-0378

  Patrick

  Patrick

  Jon

  User Name:
  Dial Up Number:
  E-mail address:
  E-mail Password:
  POP3 Server:
  SMTP Server:
  ISP Account:
  ISP Password:
  Primary DNS:

  More later.....

  Patrick

    An update:

  Thanks.