# Gmail having problems **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 22, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646 "2004-06-22T15:52:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/1 "2004-06-22T15:52:30Z")
I love my new Gmail account, courtesy of **alterego** (in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260726&page=1&pp=50) thread) except for one tiny problem–I can’t get to it anymore! For over twelve hours now, I get Google’s 502 error message–“The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request. Please try again in 30 seconds,” whenever I try to go to \<[http://gmail.google.com/gmail](http://gmail.google.com/gmail)\>. Is this the result of a distributed denial-of-service attack? (Possibly the one aimed at Akamai?) Or are they having technical problems of their own? I assume others must be having the same problem, because I’ve encountered it on two different computers using two different ISPs. Anyone have any info? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/2 "2004-06-22T15:55:01Z")
One more time: [http://gmail.google.com/gmail](http://gmail.google.com/gmail) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/3 "2004-06-22T15:59:55Z")
Been working fine for me. Try deleting your cookies and browser cache. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/4 "2004-06-22T16:59:42Z")
That got me as far as the login page, but when I tried to sign in, I got first a “404-Server not found” page and then on refresh, I got Google’s 502 error again. It seems to be a problem with my account. I guess I should email Google, unless anyone has any other ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/5 "2004-06-22T17:08:57Z")
Hmmm…since I can’t access my account, I also can’t seem to find the email address fo gmail support, which doesn’t seem to be listed anywhere else (presumably so they aren’t bombarded with requests for accounts). Could someone please find it for me? ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/6 "2004-06-22T18:05:52Z")
No problems here. You _do_ realize this is a beta, no? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Mr\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/7 "2004-06-22T18:16:27Z")
I cannot access it either nor can my friend (both N. Americans). My euro friends seem to have no problem though. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/8 "2004-06-22T18:34:07Z")
> [@Rex Fenestrarum](#): > > No problems here. You _do_ realize this is a beta, no? Oh, well if it’s Beta, then I guess it doesn’t matter. Seriously, of course I know it’s a Beta, and I expect minor glitches and imperfections, but I can’t even access my account. And you’re suggesting I just accept it and don’t even try to fix it? I don’t even know for sure yet if the problem is on my end or theirs. Maybe I can do something simple (like clear my cookies, though unfortunately that didn’t work) and have access again. I mean come on! If I was pitting Google for putting a substandard product on the market, then your comment would make sense, but I’m not. I understand it might have problems, I just want to find a way around them. Besides, the whole point of a Beta phase is to gather data to improve the product. I’d like to help them with that by letting them know that I’m being blocked from my account. So why don’t you do something helpful and get me their support address like I asked? ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/9 "2004-06-22T18:41:30Z")
> [@Alan Smithee](#): > > And you’re suggesting I just accept it and don’t even try to fix it? So why don’t you do something helpful and get me their support address like I asked? Jeez - who pissed in _your_ corn flakes this morning? Since you seem to know everything about beta apps, I suppose you know then that hosted beta apps tend to be down for tweaking far more often that production hosted ones. Note that system downtime is the number one complaint about the _other_ geek email service, [My Real Box](http://www.myrealbox.com). So I was just suggesting that perhaps the system is down. However, I just checked my Gmail on my system (running through Outlook) and it appears to work just fine. Given your snippiness today, maybe it’s just karma? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/10 "2004-06-22T18:59:56Z")
Sorry if I came across as that pissy. Frankly, I thought your post was snippy and mean. I understand now that you were suggesting it was down for tweaking, which is a reasonable suggestion. Part of my reason for posting was to determine if it was something like that or a genuine problem. Unfortunately, it seems to be something limited to certain accounts such as mine and **Mr Jim** ’s. From your post, however, I honestly thought you were suggesting I just suck it up and deal, because who expects a beta app to work anyway? (Which seemed especially cold-hearted juxtabosed with the comment that it was working just fine for _you_!) ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/11 "2004-06-22T19:14:44Z")
I’ve never had a problem accessing it… ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/12 "2004-06-22T19:37:43Z")
Here is a link to their page to report problems: [http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/request.py](http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/request.py) ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/13 "2004-06-22T19:52:07Z")
> [@Rex Fenestrarum](#): > > Jeez - who pissed in _your_ corn flakes this morning? That was me, sorry. The “do you pee in the sink” thread had a queue. > [@](#): > > I just checked my Gmail on my system (running through Outlook) and it appears to work just fine. eh? Wha? You can check your Gmail through Outlook? How? I mean, do you have pop3 access to this thing? Cos I thought we couldn’t get that yet. Did you got it? I mean, have you get it? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/14 "2004-06-22T20:14:50Z")
> [@Ross](#): > > eh? Wha? You can check your Gmail through Outlook? How? I mean, do you have pop3 access to this thing? Cos I thought we couldn’t get that yet. Did you got it? I mean, have you get it? Ditto on that. I thought that wasn’t available yet. ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/15 "2004-06-22T20:22:56Z")
That’d be a surprise - as of right now, Gmail’s help center has [this to say](http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7402&query=pop3&topic=&type=f) on POP3 access: > [@](#): > > Does Gmail support automatic forwarding and POP3 access? > > Not at the moment, but Google believes in helping people access information whenever and however they want to do so. In the future you will be able to access Gmail messages from non-Gmail accounts for free or at a nominal fee. However, since Outlook is … integrated … with IE, you’re able to enter a web URL into the address bar (hit alt-D if you can’t find it; that moves your cursor to the address bar and highlights the existing text) and browse to Gmail from there. Is that how you’re using it, **Rex**? ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/16 "2004-06-22T20:57:53Z")
Yeah, sorry to get you guys excited, but perhaps I should have phrased it differently. I should have said “I use Outlook as an IE wrapper to view GMail”. I created folders for each of my webmail services and click that folder to view the web page rather than having to open a new IE window when I wanna get my mail. To do this yourself: 1. Go to File \> New \> Folder. Create a new folder for “Mail and Post Items” 2. Once that’s done, right-click on the folder and select “Properties” 3. On the “home page” tab, make sure “show home page by default for this folder” is checked and enter the URL for the webpage (i.e. [http://mail.yahoo.com](http://mail.yahoo.com) or [http://gmail.google.com/gmail](http://gmail.google.com/gmail) ). Click OK. 4. Click on the folder to get to the webpage. I get a “you must have cookies enabled” message when I click on my “Gmail” folder, but if I click “refresh” I get in no problem. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gmail-having-problems/251646/17 "2004-06-23T22:21:38Z")
Thanks for your help, everyone. I tried **Bone** ’s link, but (guess what) you have to already be logged on to get to the support page! Thanks anyway, **Bone**. After that, I tried calling them. Their automated system directed me to [help@google.com](mailto:help@google.com). I never got a response to my email (besides an acknowledgement of receipt), but within a few hours, I was able to access my account. I still have no idea why I had a problem, or whether my emailing them had anything to do with clearing it up, but if anyone else is having trouble, I’d try emailing them. I do love that Gmail. It’s even better now that I can get to it!