When using Outlook in a corporate environment end users may experience long delays and sometimes even timeouts when sending and receiving email.

Sometimes the long delays or timeouts are related to the opening of large attachments received. And because the file size of the email attachment is too large, the email message cannot be sent or received within the time limits configured for the server. This can result in multiple unsuccessful email send attempts.

Then, while waiting for a large attachment to open, end users will get busy with other tasks and begin to open up other applications which will themselves slow the system down even further. Moving windows may take longer and refreshes will be slow. The worst case is when the users’ last resort – CTRL+ALT+DEL key sequence – is itself slow to open.

Some error message codes that may be displayed include: “0x8004210A” “0x800CCC0B” or “0x8004210B”. If the Post Office Protocol, version 3 (POP3), is being used then when sending or receiving email a user may see an Internet Security Warning dialog box appear accompanied with an error message such as:

Task ‘smtp_server_name – Sending and Receiving’ reported error (0x8004210A): ‘The operation timed out waiting for a response from the receiving (POP) server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).’

Or,

Task ‘smtp_server_name – Sending and Receiving’ reported error (0x8004210A): ‘The operation timed out waiting for a response from the sending (SMTP) server. If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).’

If the system is still running Outlook 2002 then there is a hotfix available for it in the Outlook Post-Service Pack 2 Hotfix Package. Continue reading Troubleshooting Server Timeout Errors