QUICK SOLUTIONS FOR EMAIL ACTIVATION PROBLEMS
1.
Test Your Email Address (To check that you can receive emails from the Forum's server)
2.
Change Your Email Address (To send your Activation Email to another email address)
3.
Resend the Activation Email (After checking your email address, use this to re-send the Activation Email)
4.
Manually Activate Your Membership (If you can't get the link in the Activation Email to work)
DETAILED SOLUTIONS FOR PROBLEMS RECEIVING FORUM EMAILS
Greetings Everyone,
A small number of potential and current Forum Members have been experiencing a persistent problem of not being able to receive the emails sent by the Forum's software, and specifically the Activation Emails that are used to verify new member registrations and Confirmation Emails that are used to confirm email address and password changes.
This problem also effects Members trying to receive notices of new Private Messages and notices of new reports in any sections they have subscribed to.
After doing several hours of research on the vBulletin website (the publishers of the software used by the Forum) and reading hundreds of reports on the subject in their Forum (of course they have a forum), I have identified two primary issues, as follows:
- Your Email program's Spam settings are blocking or filtering out the Forum's emails.
- Your Internet Service Provider is blocking emails from the Forum's server.
To solve this problem, you need to employ one or more of the following strategies:
- STEP ONE: Use the
Email Test to test and verify that your email address can receive emails from the Forum's server.
- STEP TWO: Check and/or change your email program's spam settings to allow you to receive emails from the Forum's Server.
- STEP THREE: Call your Internet Service Provider on the telephone and ask them to unblock the Forum Server's IP address.
- STEP FOUR: Change your email address to an email address that you have tested and that you know can receive emails from the Forum's Server.
STEP ONE: TEST YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
The first step is to test your email address to establish that you can or can not receive emails from the Forum's server.
I have a form on the site that will allow you to send a test email to yourself through the Forum's server. This
Email Test may be accessed by clicking
Here. This form will send you a test email that you should receive within a few minutes.
If you
DO receive the test email, then you will not have a problem receiving emails from the Forum's server.
If you
DO NOT receive the test emails, then you should proceed with the solutions described below.
You may use the
Email Test as many times as you wish, and for as many different email address as you need, in order to find an email address that you can use to receive emails from the Forum's server.
After you have followed the solutions described below, you should use the
Email Test to verify that you can receive emails from the Forum's server.
Again, you may use the
Email Test as many times as you wish until you identify an email address that will receive emails from the Forum..
Assuming that you do not receive the Test Email, then you should proceed to Step Two.
STEP TWO: CHECK YOUR EMAIL SPAM SETTINGS
The most common reason for not receiving emails from the Forum is your email program's SPAM settings, which are probably filtering out the Forum's emails because they are being mistaken as SPAM. This can occur because the Forum's automatic emails are created by and sent to you from the Forum's server. This is different that the emails that I may send to you personally, which are sent to you through my email program, and explains why I can exchange emails with Forum Members and other persons who are simultaneously unable to receive the emails from the Forum.
AOL, HotMail,Yahoo and other web-based email service users almost ALWAYS have this problem, but email programs such as Outlook and Outlook Express can also be set up to filter suspected spam emails.
I have no control as to how your email program is set up, or how it is filtering email messages for spam. This is totally under your control.
Nevertheless, with most email programs, any suspected spam messages are usually moved to another email folder, either the "Deleted" folder, or in some cases a folder called "Spam", "Bulk Mail", "Junk Mail", etc. although it is possible that the email may have been deleted entirely.
In either case, you can go into this folder, find the email from the Forum, and then move it to your "Inbox", where you can respond to it just like any other email.
Please see the specific instructions for finding your Yahoo Bulk Mail or Hotmail Junk Mail folders at the end of this webpage.
The permanent solution is to set your email service or email program to automatically accept all mail from the following...
- usasexguide@gmail.com
- apache@usasexguide.info
- usasexguide.info
- internationalsexguide@gmail.com
- apache@internationalsexguide.info
- internationalsexguide.info
If you don't understand any of this, or if you don't know how to change your email program's filter settings, then please call a friend who does.
STEP THREE: ASK YOUR INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER TO STOP BLOCKING EMAILS FROM THE FORUM'S SERVER
Another reason you may not have received the Activation Email is that your ISP (internet service provider) may be blocking the emails sent through the Forum's server by the Forum software. I have no control over this situation.
The permanent solution is for
YOU to telephone your ISP's technical support department and request that they un-block the Forum's Server's IP address, which is...
- For www.USASexGuide.Info =
209.172.35.240
- For www.InternationalSexGuide.Info =
209.172.34.102
This is a common request that should take only a few minutes to employ.
STEP FOUR: CHANGE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
Sometimes the easiest solution is to simply use another email address that you have first tested using the
Email Test, and then use that address for communications with the Forum.
You can open another email address with any one of the numerous free email services such as
Gmail,
Yahoo,
Hotmail,
POBox.com,
BlueBottle.com, etc.
If you've never registered a Forum User Name, then use the
Email Test first to find an email address that works, and use that address to register your user name.
If you have already registered a User Name, and your registration is in limbo because you've never received and thus never returned the Activation Email, then login to the Forum and use the User CP link in the top menu bar to change your email address to an address that you have confirmed can receive emails from the Forum.
Please DO NOT send me an email asking that I change your email address for you. For membership security reasons, all email addresses must be verified by the Forum's software.
IF YOU DON'T TAKE STEPS TO RESOLVE THIS SITUATION...
If you for any reason you are not receiving the emails from the Forum's server, and you do not take steps to resolve the problem, then:
- You will not receive and thus cannot return the Activation Email sent to new members, which means that your membership will not be activated.
- You will not be able to use the Forum's User Control Panel change your email address.
- You will not be able to use the Forum's User Control Panel to change or recover your password.
- You will not be able to receive email notifications of Private Messages sent to you by other Forum Members.
- You will not receive email notifications of new reports in any sections that you may subscribe to.
Please DO NOT send me an email requesting that I change your email address or activate your membership manually until you have first tried every suggestion on this page. Hundreds of new and current Forum Members get emails from the Forum every day, so I'm inclined to believe that the Forum is functioning properly. Therefore, if you cannot receive emails from the Forum's server, the problem is probably at your end, and thus I cannot fix it from here.
I would like to hear from any one who has or is experiencing problems receiving emails from the Forum and who has employed all of these methods in an attempt to resolve the issue.
I would also like to hear from anyone who may have further insight or technical experience in this issue, either with this or other forums or websites. Please use the Forum's
Contact Us form to send me an email.
I hope this helps.
Thanks,
Jackson
HOW TO CHECK YOUR YAHOO MAIL BULK MAIL SETTINGS
We have received reports from some of our Forum Members that occasionally email from the Forum will be routed to Yahoo's Bulk Mail folder.
If you experience problems receiving emails from the Forum and you are using Yahoo Mail, we recommend that you check your Bulk Mail settings.
How to check your Yahoo Mail Bulk Mail settings
If you have Yahoo Mail's spam filtering enabled, some emails will be automatically routed to your Bulk Mail folder. After logging into Yahoo Mail account, you will find your Bulk Mail folder in the folder list on the left.
Click on your Bulk Mail folder to review any emails that have automatically been routed there. If you find any emails from usasexguide.info OR internationalsexguide.info, select the email and then select the
This is not Spam link near the top of the message.
Sample Yahoo Bulk Mail Link
HOW TO CHECK YOUR HOTMAIL JUNK MAIL SETTINGS
We have received reports from some of our Forum Members that occasionally email from the Forum will be routed to Hotmail's Junk Mail folder.
If you experience problems receiving emails from the Forum and you are using Hotmail, we recommend that you check your Hotmail Junk Mail settings.
How to check your Hotmail Junk Mail settings
If you have the Hotmail Junk Mail filter enabled, some emails will be automatically routed to your Junk Mail folder. After logging into Hotmail, you will find your Junk Mail folder in the folder list on the left.
Click on your Junk Mail folder to review any emails that have automatically been routed there. If you find any emails from usasexguide.info OR internationalsexguide.info, select the email and click on the
This is not Junk Mail button near the top.
Sample Hotmail Junk Mail Link
Revised 08-08-06