Mayfield Electric & Water Systems

Error Message: "bad or invalid password"

If you receive a password error while trying to get your e-mail, try the following steps to troubleshoot the problem.

You will need your MayfieldEWS Wireless e-mail username and password to complete these steps. Both the username and password must always be entered in lower case letters with no spaces. 

1. Check to see if the Caps Lock key is turned on. If it is, turn it off and try again.
2. Erase and retype both the username and password in lowercase letters.
3. Restart your computer and try again.
4. Try to access your e-mail using MayfieldEWS Wireless Webmail.

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Not receiving e-mail

If someone tells you they have been sending you e-mail but you haven't received it, there are several possibilities for why this may be happening.  They may have misspelled your e-mail address, didn't have your correct e-mail address, there may be a mail server delay, or your e-mail box may be full.

Full e-mail box

Your MayfieldEWS Wireless e-mail box is 20M in size.  Large e-mail messages, which often contain pictures or attachments, may take a long time to download from the MayfieldEWS Wireless mail server to your computer. If the e-mail is too large, several MB (megabytes) in size, or the attachment is not properly coded, you may not be able to download that message at all. Unfortunately, the large message will also block any new messages from arriving.

You can check for large e-mail messages using MayfieldEWS Wireless Webmail.  Webmail is a tool provided by MayfieldEWS Wireless which allows you to check your e-mail messages anywhere you have Internet access by using a Web browser. You can use this tool to delete any large e-mail messages which may be causing a problem (as long as your e-mail box is not already full) allowing you to then download the rest of your e-mail to your computer with your regular e-mail program.

Please note that with MayfieldEWS Wireless Webmail, the Trash folder is considered part of the total size of the e-mail box.  You must purge the Trash folder to free up space in your e-mail box. 

E-mail server delay

When someone sends you an e-mail, there are two places where a delay may occur: the mail server which they send messages through (their Internet Service Provider's server), and the mail server through which you receive messages (the MayfieldEWS Wireless server). Sometimes either server can be slow if there is an overload of e-mail to process at any particular time.

The major server performance factors which determine e-mail service delivery are mostly determined by the following:

• The ISP (Internet Service Provider, such as MayfieldEWS Wireless Internet Services) which processes the e-mail and sends it out to the Internet.
• The traffic volume and capacity of the part of the Internet involved in routing the piece of email, as well as the computers along the mail delivery route.
• The other ISP which receives the e-mail at the other end, and stores it in the system for the intended recipient to retrieve.
• The traffic pattern at the time (e.g. it will be slower during peak times).
• The other user activities at the time.

For instance, if your friend is using a different ISP and sends you an email, the speed of processing the e-mail by MayfieldEWS Wireless is only one part of the overall process. There could be a delay at any point in the process: at our servers, the friend's ISP, or the Internet itself.  Unfortunately, the problem can also be random in nature, making it harder to determine which part of the process is failing. If the mailing process is carried out during an off-peak time, the two persons will have a higher chance of experiencing faster mail delivery because of less network traffic.

We continually work hard to ensure that our e-mail service is speedy, and is not a performance "bottleneck" in the overall process.

If you still have further concerns or inquiries, please contact MayfieldEWS Wireless Internet Technical Support.  Please provide specifics regarding the problem you're experiencing such as exact date and time when it occurs, what operations you are trying to perform, the sender's address and the system response time experienced by you and the sender. These specifics will help our staff in their troubleshooting efforts.

Received an "undeliverable mail" postmaster response

The Postmaster is a set of rules that determines whether or not your e-mail gets to its destination. Each e-mail address you send to must be spelled correctly, and must be a valid address (belong to someone) or your mail will be returned by the Postmaster.

Here is an example of a typical Postmaster response:

This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason: The following destination addresses were unknown (please check the addresses and re-mail the message): SMTP <wrong_address@internet.com> Please reply to Postmaster@address.net if you feel this message to be in error.

To solve your Postmaster problem try the following:

Step 1:  Understand why your e-mail was returned

1. Directly after "the following reason": in the Postmaster response message, you will find the reason your e-mail was returned.
2. Perhaps the destination address was unknown, or the address had a permanent fatal error. This means the e-mail address you were trying to send to was either misspelled, or it no longer exists.
3. In some cases you may be sending a message that is too large for the person you're sending to. Many free e-mail services such as Yahoo or Hotmail have space limits and if their mailbox is full it will reject any new messages being sent to them. Your MayfieldEWS Wireless e-mail box is 20M in size.

Step 2:  Try sending the message again

1. Try sending the e-mail again in a new message.
2. Double-check the spelling of the e-mail address.
3. Send only plain text in the message with no attachments.
4. You may have to phone the friend you're trying to e-mail and ask for their correct e-mail address.