Troubleshooting
Center
|
WeatherWarn is designed to be simple to
use and fast on delivery. However the Internet is complex and
unforgiving, and problems inevitably occur. Most commonly
problems are due to a simple missing detail, like a missing @
sign in an email address or a misspelled word. Here are a few
problems and solutions we'd like to share with you. We'd also like to share this credo: "When troubleshooting, blame yourself first, another persons error second, and the equipment last". We've found that when we follow this simple rule, we usually find the trouble faster than starting from the reverse. |
Table of Contents
- How do I subscribe and unsubscribe from the WeatherWarn service... ?
- Where can I find information on my pager/pcs phone service ... ?
- Why doesn't my regular pager work... ?
- Will you keep my email account private...?
- How can I figure out what my pager/PCS phone email address is ... ?
- Why do I get more than one bulletin- they appear to be the same ... ?
- I get emails from WeatherWarn...but why are they blank...?
- I'm getting dozens of the same message- my email program is filling up! Help!
- I sent a request to remove myself from WeatherWarn, but I'm still signed on! Help!
- I sent a nice message to the WeatherWarn system requesting that I be removed from the list. It responded once with a help file but now will not respond at all.
- Why doesn't my pager respond sometimes and how does my pager get the information from WeatherWarn?
- Why do WeatherWarn messages get cutoff on my pager or PCS phone?
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I Receive an error stating, No valid e-mail address was provided (Email Subscribers)
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I Receive an error stating, No valid pager e-mail address was provided (Pager Subscribers).
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I Receive an error stating, No valid pager e-mail address was provided .
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I Receive an error stating, Too many report types specified - 20 is the maximum.
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I Receive an error stating, Too many counties specified - 20 is the maximum.
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I Receive an error stating, This user name already exists. Please select a different user name for your account.
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I Receive an error stating, A pager privacy time end time was specified without a corresponding pager privacy start time being specified.
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I Receive an error stating, Pager privacy start and/or end time specified but no time zone was selected.
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I Receive an error stating, A time zone was selected without both pager privacy start and end times being specified.
1. How do I subscribe and unsubscribe from the WeatherWarn service... ?
Simply go back to the main page, then:
1.) Enter your user name and password in the login text boxes.
2.) Put a check in the check box for un-subscribing.
3.) Hit the submit button.
4.) Sit back and wait for your confirmation message to come.
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2. Where can I find information on my pager/pcs phone service... ?
Here are a few links to major Alphanumeric Pager and PCS phone providers around the USA. Just click on them to go to their web page. See also our section on pager email addresses
Arch Paging
ATT
Cingular (The New ATT)
Metrocall
Nextel
Pagemart
Pagenet
Skytel
Sprint PCS
TMobile
Verizon
If your pager/PCS phone company is not listed above, try toll free directory information at 1-800-555-1212 or on the web try typing the name into the Excite.com search engine.
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3. Why doesn't my regular pager get the WeatherWarn messages... ?
You MUST have an alpanumeric pager or PCS phone capable of receiving text messages in order to use this service. Your Pager / PCS phone provider account must also be setup to allow for email messaging via the Internet. Regular numeric pagers that only receive phone numbers will not work.
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4. Will you keep my email private ... ?
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5. How can I figure out what my pager/pcs phone email address is...?
Most commonly, Alphanumeric pagers and PCS phones have email addresses that are a combination of the pager/PCS phone number, possibly a PIN number, and an INternet email gateway address. Here are a few examples for email addresses of the major pager and PCS phone services:If your paging company is not listed above, call your customer service number for the paging company and ask "what is the address I should use to send email to my pager or PCS phone with?"
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6. Why do I get more than one WeatherWarn Bulletin- they appear to be the same ... ?
Three possible reasons:
1. If you signed up for more than one WeatherWarn region, you may
receive duplicate weather bulletins because some weather bulletins
cover more than one area. Thus, one will be generated for each area.
Don't subscribe to more than one area if you don't need it! Or, if you
want an area for where you work and an area for home, choose different
email accounts (work and home) to send them to.
2. The National Weather Service may have sent a correction to a previous bulletin. Often, due to the complex nature of the bulletins and the requirement the NWS has for being exact, they may correct a simple mistake in a previously issued bulletin, such as a spelling error or time error by sending another bulletin just a few minutes after the first one. Ofetn the difference is so small, it is hard to see.
3. You may have subscribed twice, with two different email addresses, such as work and home email addresses, and one email address forwards to the other one. This will result in duplicate messages both going to the same location. Unsubscribe one or the other, or remove the forwarding.
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7. I get messages...but why are they blank...?
Some older e-mail programs, especially the original Microsoft Mail "Inbox" that comes with Windows 95, won't properly display messages that have been forwarded from a listserver. The only way to fix this problem is to upgrade your Microsoft Mail Program ( Download for FREE at http://www.microsoft.com/ie ) or use another E-mail program like Netscape Mail or Eudora Mail Light
8. I'm getting dozens of the same message- my email program is filling up! Help!
The most likely reason is that you may have an "Email
Autoresponder" or "Vacation Message" on your email
account. This is usually a courtesy message that gets automatically sent
out by your email server when somebody sends you a message.
TURN ALL AUTORESPONDERS OFF! If you don't
know how, contact your Internet Service Provider.
In this type of problem, when WeatherWarn sends you a message, your
email account sends one back to WeatherWarn. WeatherWarn doesn't
understand your message, so it sends one back saying "unrecognized
command" or something similar, your email account autoreplies
again...and the loop keeps going until something stops it.
Although WeatherWarn is designed to detect and stop such "mail loops", sometimes it still happens.
The bottom line: If you want to use WeatherWarn, turn off any autoresponders or vacation messages.
9. I sent a request to remove myself from WeatherWarn, but I'm still signed on! Help!
Usually this problem occurs for one of three reasons:
1. You misspelled the email address when you asked to unsubscribe. Really, this happens a LOT. Its hard to get all those periods .com's .net's and @ signs in the right place.
2. Your email address is actually forwarded through an "alias" email address, and the alias address is the one subscribed. Try using the alias email address to unsubscribe.
3. Your email server actually changes the email address when mail is sent out. For example people who are subscribed to Microsofts MSN network have an email address like myname@msn.com but when the email actually goes through MSN, it comes out on the Internet as myname@email.msn.com While both names will work to send and receive email to that person, an automated list server has a database with one or the other stored in its file. You have to type the correct one when you unsubscribe or it won't find the name in the file.
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10. I sent a nice message to the WeatherWarn system requesting that I be removed from the list. It responded once with a help file but now will not respond at all.
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11. Why doesn't my pager respond sometimes and how does my pager get the information from WeatherWarn?
Here' some info on how paging works: click here
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12. Why do WeatherWarn messages get cutoff on my pager or PCS phone?
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13. No user name was provided.
You must enter a unique user name to use WeatherWarn. This is used for logging back on to modify your account. If you got this message then you did not enter a user name in the correct text area. Please go back and try again.
14. No user password was provided.
You must enter a password to use WeatherWarn. This is used for logging back on to modify your account. If you got this message then you did not enter a password in the correct text area. Please go back and try again.
15. No valid e-mail address was provided. (Email Subscribers)
Either you didn't enter an email address in the correct text area, or you didn't enter one correctly. Check to make sure that you are entering your entire email address. Attn. AOL users: You must enter more than your screen name. E-mail addresses must be in the form of example@myprovider.com
16. No valid pager e-mail address was provided (Pager Subscribers).
Either you didn't enter your pagers email address in the correct text area, or you didn't enter one correctly. Check to make sure that you are entering your entire email address. If you don't know what your pagers email address should look like Click Here Use the example you see to put your pagers email address into it's correct format.
17. No valid pager e-mail address was provided .
Either you didn't enter your pagers email address in the correct text area, or you didn't enter one correctly. Check to make sure that you are entering your entire email address. If you don't know what your pagers email address should look like Click Here Use the example you see to put your pagers email address into it's correct format.
18. Too many report types specified - 20 is the maximum.
Because of server side processing limitations we must stop people from selecting more than 20 types of WeatherWarn bulletins. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.
19. Too many counties specified - 20 is the maximum.
Because of server side processing limitations we must stop people from selecting more than 20 counties. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.
20. No report types were specified.
You must select at least one type of WeatherWarn bulletin. If you don't select any, there won't be any thing for you to receive. To select a report type, go back to the signup page and click on at least one check box next to the type of weather bulletin you want. If you really don't want any bulletins sent to you don't subscribe.
21. No counties were specified.
You must select at least one county. If you don't select any, there won't be any thing for you to receive because you don't have any counties selected. to select a county, go back to the signup page and click on at least one check box next to the county you want.
22. This user name already exists. Please select a different user name for your account.
Sorry, someone beat you to that user name. Please go back and try another in the text area that asks you for a user name. Try using something that not many people have thought of using or try adding some extra characters to the end of the user name you already have tried selecting. If you get the same error again, keep repeating this process until one gets accepted. The user name and password will be sent to you when it is accepted, so don't worry about forgetting which one was used.
Go back to the signup page and double check that you selected a time to start your pager privacy time.
Go back to the signup page and double check that you selected a time to end your pager privacy time.
25. Pager privacy start and/or end time specified but no time zone was selected.
In order to calculate the actual time that you want there to be no WeatherWarn service we need to know what time zone you are in.
26. A time zone was selected without both pager privacy start and end times being specified.
If you want pager privacy times set then please set them as well as your time zone. If you DO NOT want to set a privacy time for your pager there is no need to set a time zone. Please go back to the signup page and select the option from the drop down menu that says, "Select a Time Zone."
Written by Mike Crossfield WeatherWarn Sysop
Copyright ©2000 WeatherWarn. All rights reserved.
Revised: March 29, 2010
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