This problem arises in offices where there is a heavy use of emails, so this could be a story of many offices. Mostly most offices go by the router specifications and claims where in the small sub $50 specify a connectivity for 50 plus users and wireless speed of 100 – 150 mbps. This may be true for browsing but if you have 25 – 50 users trying to use the router to download emails, then you will reach reach this page searching for why mails stop downloading on your wireless router.
The answer to this is these router are designed for heavy browsing but not for the email download using the email clients eg. microsoft outlook thunder bird etc. The reason behind this is the email clients use port 587, 25, 110, 465, 995, 143 & 993 for using pop3 and imap protocols to access emails. These small home routers when used for transmitting heavy data transmission using these ports fail to give access and your email client will give back a message “Task ‘server name – Sending and Receiving’ reported error (0x800ccc0f): ‘The connection to the server was interrupted. If this problem continues, contact the server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP)…..”. It becomes impossible to diagnose the reason from the above error message.
A reason to this could also be the sub standard working of your wireless routers. They drop connection for the email ports. However you can continue to browse your internet via the port 80, 8080 and 443, even downloads work in some cases. The only way to resume your email download is restarting your wireless router.
Workaround to mails stop downloading:
1. Timer Power Outlet :
A solution to this by plugging the router in a timer outlet, what this does is switches off the router and restarts it after certain set time interval. This trick really works we had tried it for our clients and the trick really worked because client does not even understand his router was booted. But this is just a workaround and not a solution.
2. Software programs :
If you search for it you will find many but again not necessarily they will work for the model of your router. We have tried using windows scripts to the jDownloader, they work in tricking router to reboot after the set time but will not work as a full fledged solution.
The above solutions cannot be called a solution and termed as a turnaround because if any of user connected to the router is in the midst of a big file download, the router reboot cause the download to fail and he needs to start all over again. Router is needed to be booted every half hour so it becomes a non feasible solution.
Solution to the problem:
It is important to understand the user needs before getting into buying a product. If a sub $50 product could provide you features and functions of a $200 router why would a consumer buy the $200 plus router designed for the commercial use. So basically if you are looking for a full fledged commercial usage you should always go for the commercial routers rather than fishing over cheap home routers.