What's with this message my email host sent me...

[Heel n Toe]

...at the point when I was about to type in my password and log in?

In red font just like I saw it just now:

Another email client, such as Outlook Express, is currently accessing your email account. Please wait for that session to complete before attempting to sign into Email on the Web.

I don't use OE.

Does that mean my account is being hacked?

I backed out immediately to come here and consult the PPOT brain trust... and I'm now gonna reboot to make sure the antivirus updates I just DL'd are in place. BRB

[Heel n Toe]

After the reboot, the message did not appear.

Logged into email no problem... everything seemed normal.

Anyone have any idea what was going on?

[jeffgrant]

Email servers sometimes have "lock files" that are set when an email client accesses a person's mailbox.

Basically, when your email client starts to connect, it will look to see if a lock file exists (on the server side), and if not, then will create one and continue the process of checking your email.

When your email client is done, the email server will remove that lock file.

If, on the other hand, the server finds that the lock file is there (on the server side) when you go to check your email, it usually means some other client is already accessing your mailbox, so it throws that generic message back at you, and won't let you continue.

Think of it as a "do not disturb sign" for your mailbox.


Sometimes, mail servers get "confused" and lock files might not get cleared up as well as they should, or it takes a little longer than immediately, so it's not necessarily the case. (Really, it only means "I found a lock file", and there could be multiple reasons for it being there other than "someone is hacking my email").

The "Outlook" part of the message is probably there because that's the email client that a vast majority of people use, but really it just means that "a" mail client may already be accessing your email.


It "could" be that someone else is accessing your email, but odds are not.

Make sure you don't have multiple computers checking mail at the same time, and see if it happens again.

If you find that some email messages show up as having been read, when you haven't, that kind of thing, I'd tend to be a bit worried.

If you only got this message a couple of times and never again, I wouldn't worry about it.


Still, wouldn't be a bad idea to change your password.

And make it a good one.


$0.02

[Bill Douglas]

Computers go a bit whacky sometimes. As a tech I found a restart fixed nine out of ten problems.

[stomachmonkey]

Does your cell phone access your email?

I generally have two PC's and my phone concurrently logged into mail plus I use gmail to aggregate all my accounts so I can have up to 4 hits at once.

Never seen one of those messages though.

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by jeffgrant

Email servers sometimes have "lock files" that are set when an email client accesses a person's mailbox.

::::::::::::snip:::::::::::::::::::::::::

If you find that some email messages show up as having been read, when you haven't, that kind of thing, I'd tend to be a bit worried.

If you only got this message a couple of times and never again, I wouldn't worry about it.


Still, wouldn't be a bad idea to change your password.

And make it a good one.

$0.02

Thanks Jeff... I really appreciate your taking the time to explain all that.

I read it twice, and I don't fully understand it all, but I think I'm close... and will follow your advice about changing the password.

This occurred on the PC at home, and we're on dialup, so that may have exacerbated the delay/lock thing.

Are you sure that <$0.02> is a good password?

[jeffgrant]

No problem.

And it's probably better than most in use.

[Joeaksa]

John,

Do you have a blackberry? I sometimes get this when my BB is getting emails.

Joe A

[Heel n Toe]

No Crackberry... but thanks for the idea.

And, stomonk, I forgot to answer you... I don't have a cellphone.

It hasn't happened again.