Problems with Outlook Express can arise intermittently when checking for email. It's more prevalent in version 4 than in version 5. To check your version, go to the 'Help' menu, then to 'About Microsoft Outlook Express'. If you have version 4, click here. This will present you with a list of the newest updates Microsoft has to offer that will improve the performance of your Internet software. Look for Internet Explorer 5, this will come bundled with Outlook Express 5. If you already have OE5, read on for possible fixes.

Problem: Your server has unexpectedly terminated the connection. Possible causes for this include server problems, network problems, or a long period of inactivity. Account:...

• The easiest thing to try is to just disconnect, restart the computer, reconnect and try to get email again.
• If restarting doesn't work, the next thing to do is recreate the email profile, this can be done by following the instructions posted here.
• At this point if the above solutions haven't worked, you may have a server side problem in your mailbox, including a large email or corrupted message, in that case follow the instructions posted here.
• If at this point nothing is working, we strongly recommend adding another email program to your computer. Having another program can greatly help in troubleshooting problems. Try out Netscape Communicator. Links to download their software are all over the site.