Due to the number of problems users have with registration and activation of accounts I've made this basic post with detailed information to help new users to get their accounts working. Email Spam has seriously eroded the ability of legit sites like Neoseeker from being able to send activation emails easily, and often there are problems with people receiving emails from our servers.

Please read this document carefully as it contains MANY helpful things that should solve most problems. If your problem is NOT solved here please do contact us or post in this forum for help (unregistered guests can post in this forum).


Introduction and Help
Neoseeker accounts require "activation" before they can be used. When you first register an account it is not useable. Neoseeker will send you a confirmation email which contains instructions on how to activate your account.

This is a very simple procedure, but sometimes there are problems, such as users who never receive the activation email.

If you do not receive an activation email

Activation emails are sent the very second that you create an account. If you don't see the email show up in your mailbox in the first 5 minutes something is wrong. At this point we recommend the following:

1. If you have a spam blocker, make sure the email is not in your spam. Hotmail, AOL, Gmail, Yahoo mail all have spam blockers. Check your trash and spam. The registration emails are sent from register@neoseeker.com. Search for "Neoseeker", "registration" and other similar words.
   
2. If you have a whitelist make sure that register@neoseeker.com, webmaster@neoseeker.com, noreply@neoseeker.com, and donotreply@neoseeker.com are all in your Whitelist or "Allowed Recipients" list. Do not bother emailing these accounts, emails to these accounts are auto deleted without being read by anyone.
   
3. AOL users also have other functionality that blocks general email. Make sure Neoseeker can even email you!
   
4. Once you have checked all these steps, try to request the activation email again:
   
   http://epsilon.neoseeker.com/members/request_activation_email.php
   
   Note: Use the above EXACT URL!!! Only one server has the special connectivity at the moment to send the email properly.
   
5. If you STILL cannot get an email from the above:
   1. make sure that the email address you are using is actually correct. At least 30% of registration problems are due to the WRONG EMAIL being used!!!
      
      If you DO determine that your email was enterred wrongly, please contact the webmaster and we will change your email for you promptly. Please remember to provide username, the wrong email, and the right email:
      
      http://www.neoseeker.com/info/contact_webmaster.html
      
   2. Post in the Site Help forums asking for help. There might be something you missed that others can help you out with. You do not need to be registered to post in that forum!

If the URL in the Activation URL does not work

The Activation email contains a URL that should activate your account. This URL is generated by the system and cannot be wrong, however, different email services, and email clients may mangle the URL and render it unuseable.

The URL is in the form:

http://www.neoseeker.com/members/activate.html?c=CONFIRMATION_CODE&u=USER_ID_HERE

If your URL looks funny at all or contains strange characters, or is broken into multiple lines, it will not work.

You will note however, that the email also contains an alternate method for activating the account:

quote

If you cannot click on the above link, just cut and paste it into your browser.
Make sure you get all of it.

Alternatively, link to http://www.neoseeker.com/members/activate.html and enter
the following information to confirm:

memberid: USER_ID_HERE
confirm code: CONFIRMATION_CODE

Make sure you go straight to the URL, and then copy and paste the EXACT user ID and confirm code! The confirm code is case sensitive so you must copy it exactly. Do not add extra spaces or characters before or after the code and member id.


If you registered the wrong email (typo or mistake)

There is no automated system to help you with this problem. However this is a common issue and all you need to do is email your username, with the correct email and we will correct this for you.

To reach us use this form mail:

http://www.neoseeker.com/info/contact_webmaster.html


New Account Cannot Log In

If you cannot log into your new account there are several reasons that this can happen:

1. You must have cookies turned on. Make sure your browser allows and accepts cookies.
   
2. Make sure your account is activated.
   
3. Make sure you are accessing Neoseeker from one of the main domains: http://www.neoseeker.com/ or http://neoseeker.com. Using the IP itself will not allow you to log in!

To be very clear there are 2 types of logins:

* Logins that fail at the system side
* Logins that fail at the user's computer side

Failed logins at the system(server) side ALWAYS return you to the login screen and ALWAYS contain an error message telling you why the login failed. Failure reasons include:

* banned accounts
* accounts that haven't been activated
* wrong password
* wrong username

Before contacting us with help PLEASE MAKE SURE you READ the reason why you cannot log in. If your reason is because your account is not activated please follow the help above on how to get your account activated before contacting us telling us you cannot log in.

Failures at the user's computer or browser are often NOT accompanied by an error message. In this case everything looks and feels like a proper login. Your username and password are accepted and you are forwarded back to the page you came from, BUT You are NOT LOGGED IN! This is almost certainly caused by a cookie problem. Try deleting all cookies from Neoseeker. And make sure you are using http://www.neoseeker.com/ or http://neoseeker.com/ URLs.


Problematic Email Services

If you are using one of Verizon, Hotmail, Hotmail.co.uk, or AOL, please read this notice about Neoseeker and receiving emails.

Verizon

Verizon customers who use their verizon.net or verizon.com email addresses to register on Neoseeker may have problems receiving activation emails, password reminders, or password change emails. Verizon uses a very aggressive email qualification method that invalidates and bounces many of our emails before ever reaching your mailbox. This issue is not isolated to Neoseeker alone, but because we're not experts in mail servers I have been unable to resolve the situation.

As a result, I strongly urge Verizon customers to sign up for a free email with Gmail. Gmail has so far shown that it is the most receptive to our emails being sent out and will not unfairly block our emails.

Hotmail/AOL

Hotmail and AOL users should be aware that our registration emails and password emails are being filtered by Hotmail/AOL's automatic spam filter. You will find these emails showing up in your trash.

Try to add donotreply@neoseeker.com and webmaster@neoseeker.com to your whitelist as a first step. Also, try to check your spam/trash box if you are waiting for an activation or password email.

Hotmail UK

For some reason, hotmail.co.uk has a higher probability to block, or filter our emails.

All email hosts

Neoseeker is working hard to try and comply with various email protocols to ensure that our mails get through to you. Unfortunately due to our site size we send out MANY emails and this flags us to some ISPs. In addition to this, we have had bad policy for disabling emails over time and cleaning up our mail outs from inactive members. These are goals for 2007 and we hope to significantly reduce, if not eliminate email problems in the future.


[color=#666666]This message was edited by Doc Bonovitch(moderator) on Mar 01 2007.

Given that the above user now has his own thread on the issue:

Hotmail "Safe List" Instructions

Since the majority of users probably use hotmail or some form of hotmail, here's a quick guide on how to add an email adress onto your safe list.

When you first log into hotmail, you will be taken to your inbox. At the top of the screen, just above the list of email, you should see this:



Move over and click on contacts. That should take you to a page which has all your contacts listed. On the side, you should find a list of the MSN locations you have for messenger. It should like like this:



Underneath the group list, there will be a link to the safe list. Click there, and it will open a page like the below. Enter the email you wish not to block, as seen below, and click on the button next to it.



You've now added a safe email entry!

Important Update!

Recently there have been lots of reports of AOL/Hotmail users not receiving their activation or password reminder emails from Neoseeker, even if neoseeker.com has been added to the whitelist. In light of this, Neoseeker will temporarily NOT be accepting registrations from people using AOL and Hotmail email accounts. If you've recently registered using AOL or Hotmail and have not yet received an activation email, then please be sure to read Redemption's announcement regarding AOL/Hotmail Email Accounts.

For members who are currently using AOL or Hotmail as their registered email accounts, it is advised that you switch to Gmail or Yahoo! Mail to avoid potential future problems — at least until this issue with AOL/Hotmail has been worked out.