I have been having a problem of not getting some email messages. I can see them from work by logging onto comcast.net, but then at home it says no messages. This had been happening for some time.

THEN, last night I was helping my wife with her email on her computer, and saw a message I sent to myself from work(to my own email) was in the spam filter (mcAffee). We each have our own email address'.

My computer runs XP pro. Hers runs XP home. We both have user accounts on each other's computers, but we don't use the other's computer.
So, why have my emails been held on her computer if I am not logged on (I just logged on and had 187 emails...some 2 years old...some were important, or used to be important) It acted like it was downloading them from the server, but I had just viewed from my computer and there were no messages.

It looks like if she is on her computer, it also downloads my emails from comcast's server? How can I stop this from happening?

Comcast, RCA modem, Netgear router, wired network.....don't trust wireless, Shane might be nearby

 

It looks like an issue from the email system. Not the computer. Did you check your mail through a browser or a client server like MS Outlook? I check my email through Outlook with Cox. And here's one of my deal, if i check my email through Outlook from my laptop, the email will not duplicate and go to Outlook at my home computer. BUT! If i check my email through the browser, it will always stay there. But i use Cox Cable Modem so i'm not sure about your type of email system work.

 

Hey Dave...

Buried in your Outlook config is the login address for the mail server... Does it happen to be the same on both yours and the Missus' machines?

I'd guess what's happening is that the pop3 account (mail server) is merged either on the Comcast side, or from both you guys using the same login addy. So, when one computer logs in to get mail, it's actually pulling for both accounts.

Is the Missus' machine happen to be always on and Outlook always open at home? If so, that would mean that Outlook will be polling the mail server every 9 minutes (I think that's the default), which is why the mail's there and not on your machine.

Then, you can see it from the web interface 'cause of the way that Outlook works. It's probably configured to treat the POP server as IMAP, which roughly translates to "leave the messages on the server, flag them as read, and only pull the whole message locally when opened".