I have no use whatsoever for computer based email systems, such as Outlook.
The reasons behind those program's existence, barely applies anymore, in this day and age.
Back in the days when...... the internet connection was slower than molasses in the winter, and people paid per minute of connection time, it made sense to write up all the emails, then launch them all off in one shot.
The inconvenience being that you could not access your emails from anywhere but your own puter.
The argument against the web based email systems was that if the net was down, you couldn't get to them, and for business, it could be vital to have quick access.
We could go on and on about all the reasons, pros and cons, but let's just go straight to the solution.
This is how we work it here, and I believe it to be the best solution, so far.
The website's email system is set to automatically forward received emails to my Gmail account, which in turn forwards it into my Hotmail account. The reason for the Hotmail is only because it was my first account and I've always used the filing system for organizing reservations, etc.
The beauty with Gmail is that is that it stacks the to & fro emails with a given client.
Here's an example.
There were 14 to & fros between the sender and us.
With a single click, you can view the "header" of all the emails, if you are looking for details from a particular one.
One more click and you are accessing the email that you are looking for.
Replies are stacked on again, both sent and received in chronological order.
Furthermore, the Gmail account is set to respond to an email received through the website with the websites email address.
So if someone emails to
****@rockysbar.com, his response comes from the same address.
If any of the servers go down, I have access from one of the other accounts, and it's not likely that all three servers could ever go down at the same time.
Your experience posted above is but an example of the difficulties dealing with Codetel and it's virus infested, world black listed email system.
Dump that antiquated system and set your website to feed into a Gmail account and life will be better.