Connection to the server failed or was dropped - Entourage 2008

Hi,

My Entourage cannot find the server. When I am checking mail in Entourage using IMAP to through ISP I get this message in the Error Log below


Error Description :

Connection to the server failed or was dropped.

Explanation:

The server is not responding.

Connection to the server failed or was dropped. This has become a common problem before with Entourage. The first thing I would do is try to ping the IP address of other computers constantly and see if their dropping of a connection between the two pc's. Try pinging yahoo or something and see if it gets a connection from there. You can also try testing in a new Identity to see if that helps.

Your ISP's DNS servers, which resolve server names to IP addresses so that your machine can connect, have given some poor Mac information. First, try clearing your computer's DNS cache. It's fast and does not cause damage:

1. Open the Terminal application found in / Applications / Utilities.
2. Enter this command followed by a return:

dscacheutil-flushcache (for Leopard)
lookupd-flushcache (Tiger)

3. Try downloading again. The computer must have to consult DNS
servers again for an address.

If that does not work, then your ISP's DNS servers are still causing a problem. Use opendns.org to replace their DNS server addresses with this service from your ISP's DNS servers. It is also very simple and very probably allow you to download the updates. You may have to run the terminal command above again after changing your DNS servers. You might also consider just using these new DNS server addresses permanently. See if your accessing websites improves the speed and observe whether or not more or less problems connecting to sites.