>Every so often I run into a problem with my Outlook where I can't send messages out. The Outlook reports the following problem:
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>Task 'dimacorp@mindspring.com - Sending and Receiving' reported error (0x800CCC65) : 'Your outgoing (SMTP) e-mail server has reported an internal error.  If you continue to receive this message, contact your server administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).  The server responded: 503 Valid RCPT TO <recipient> must precede DATA'
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>Usually all it takes to fix the problem is to rebook my computer.
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>Any idea how I can solve the problem without having to rebook my PC?
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>Thank you.

I have seen three different reasons for this.

1. The smtp server requires authentication (I've never known earthlink to require this).
2. Traffic issues because of the Slammer worm (I thought that earthlink used sendmail on Solaris).
3. The local mail spooler is full. This would explain why a reboot fixes the issue. How to change that in Outlook I'm not sure. How's your system resources; disk space, memory, virtual memory?