WeatherWarn is designed to be simple to use and fast on delivery, however the Internet is complex and unforgiving.
The most common problems occur when people do not enter their correct e-mail address or cell phone e-mail address. For instance, many AOL users don't know that a properly-formed e-mail address doesn't just include the screen name, but it is actually "yourscreennamehere@aol.com".
If you use our troubleshooting page and are still unable to resolve your problem, give us a call at 513-852-4935 or e-mail us at william.bullock@wcpo.com.
Click on a question to read the answer.
- How do I subscribe and unsubscribe from WeatherWarn?
- Where can I find information on my pager/PCS phone service?
- Why isn't my "regular" (text) pager compatible with WeatherWarn?
- Will you keep my e-mail account private?
- How can I figure out what my pager/PCS phone e-mail address is?
- Why do I get more than one bulletin -- they appear to be the same?
- I get e-mails from WeatherWarn but why are they blank?
- I'm getting dozens of the same message -- my e-mail program is filling up! Help!
- I sent a request to remove myself from WeatherWarn, but I'm still signed on! Help!
- I sent a nice message to the WeatherWarn system requesting that I be removed from the list. It responded once with a help file but now will not respond at all.
- Why doesn't my pager respond sometimes and how does my pager get the information from WeatherWarn?
- Why do WeatherWarn messages get cut off on my pager or PCS phone?
1.
How do I subscribe and unsubscribe from the WeatherWarn service?
Simply go back to the main page, then:
- Choose Subscribe to WeatherWarn
- Follow the instructions to subscribe
- You will get an e-mail confirming your signup or removal from the WeatherWarn list for the region you chose.
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2.
Here are a few links to major Alphanumeric Pager and PCS phone providers around the USA. Just click on them to go to their web page.
Arch Paging
ATT Wireless Services
Metrocall
Nextel
Pagemart
Pagenet
Skytel
Sprint PCS
Verizon Wireless
If your pager/PCS phone company is not listed above, try toll free directory information at 1-800-555-1212 or on the web try typing the name into the Excite.com search engine.
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3.
You MUST have an alpanumeric pager or PCS phone capable of receiving text messages in order to use this service. Your Pager/PCS phone provider account must also be set up to allow for e-mail messaging via the Internet. Regular numeric pagers that only receive phone numbers will not work.
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4.
Yes, absolutely. Your information will not be sold or given to any other organization.
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5.
Most commonly, Alphanumeric pagers and PCS phones have e-mail addresses that are a combination of the pager/PCS phone number, possibly a PIN number, and an Internet e-mail gateway address. Here are a few examples for e-mail addresses of the major pager and PCS phone services:
| Pager/PCS Provider Name | e-mail address looks like (use your own number) |
Alltel
phone: 800-325-5190 | yourpagernumber@alltel.net
(please include your area code) |
AT&T Wireless Services
phone: 800-222-0400 | yourpagernumber@mobile.att.net |
Arch Paging
phone: 513-771-4666 | yourpagernumber@archwireless.net |
Verizon Wireless
phone: 800-222-0400 | yourpagernumber@airtouch.com |
Metrocall
phone: 888-417-7243 | =yourpagernumber@metrocall.com (must have equal sign before phone number) or johndoe@page.metrocall.com if you have the advanced paging plan |
Nextel
phone: 513-794-7400 | your pagernumber@
page.nextel.com |
Pagemart
phone: 513-984-4228 | For pin numbers beginning with 13 use:
yourpinnumber@roam.pagemart.net
For pin numbers beginning with 16 or 18 use: yourpinnumber@pagemart.net All other PINS use:
yourpinnumber@scout.pagemart.net |
Pagenet
phone: 513-824-0360 | alphamodemnumber.yourpinnumber
@pagenet.netNationwide Example:
8007208398.yourpinnumber
@pagenet.net Local Example:
5134089999.yourpinnumber
@pagenet.net |
Skytel
phone: 513-554-4001 | yourpinnumber@skytel.com |
| TSR Wireless (formerly American Paging) | yourpagernumber@pageapi.com |
If your paging company is not listed above, call your customer service number for the paging company and ask "what is the address I should use to send e-mail to my pager or PCS phone with?"
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6.
Three possible reasons:
1. If you signed up for more than one WeatherWarn region, you may receive duplicate weather bulletins because some weather bulletins cover more than one area. Thus, one will be generated for each area. Don't subscribe to more than one area if you don't need it! Or, if you want an area for where you work and an area for home, choose different e-mail accounts (work and home) to send them to.
2. The National Weather Service may have sent a correction to a previous bulletin. Often, due to the complex nature of the bulletins and the requirement the NWS has for being exact, they may correct a simple mistake in a previously issued bulletin, such as a spelling error or time error by sending another bulletin just a few minutes after the first one. Ofetn the difference is so small, it is hard to see.
3. You may have subscribed twice, with two different e-mail addresses, such as work and home e-mail addresses, and one e-mail address forwards to the other one. This will result in duplicate messages both going to the same location. Unsubscribe one or the other, or remove the forwarding.
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7.
Some older e-mail programs, especially the original Microsoft Mail "Inbox" that comes with Windows 95, won't properly display messages that have been forwarded from a listserver. The only way to fix this problem is to upgrade your Microsoft Mail Program ( Download for FREE at http://www.microsoft.com/ie ) or use another E-mail program like Netscape Mail or Eudora Mail Light
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8.
The most likely reason is that you may have an "e-mail Autoresponder" or "Vacation Message" on your e-mail account. This is usually a courtesy message that gets automatically sent out by your e-mail server when somebody sends you a message.
TURN ALL AUTORESPONDERS OFF if you don't know how, contact your Internet Service Provider.
In this type of problem, when WeatherWarn sends you a message, your e-mail account sends one back to WeatherWarn. WeatherWarn doesn't understand your message, so it sends one back saying "unrecognized command" or something similar, your e-mail account autoreplies again...and the loop keeps going until something stops it.
Although WeatherWarn is designed to detect and stop such "mail loops", sometimes it still happens.
The bottom line: If you want to use WeatherWarn, turn off any autoresponders or vacation messages.
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9.
Usually this problem occurs for one of three reasons:
1. You misspelled the e-mail address when you asked to unsubscribe. Really, this happens a LOT. Its hard to get all those periods .com's .net's and @ signs in the right place.
2. Your e-mail address is actually forwarded through an "alias" e-mail address, and the alias address is the one subscribed. Try using the alias e-mail address to unsubscribe.
3. Your e-mail server actually changes the e-mail address when mail is sent out. For example people who are subscribed to Microsofts MSN network have an e-mail address like myname@msn.com but when the e-mail actually goes through MSN, it comes out on the Internet as myname@e-mail.msn.com While both names will work to send and receive e-mail to that person, an automated list server has a database with one or the other stored in its file. You have to type the correct one when you unsubscribe or it won't find the name in the file.
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<10.
The WeatherWarn system is totally automated. Nobody is there to answer e-mails and the system does not respond to plain language requests like "please remove me from the list". It only understands the words SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE. If it gets a message it cannot understand, it will respond with a help file once. After that it will not respond again to your e-mail account. This is to prevent a "mail loop" from occuring if you have an autoresponder setup on your e-mail account. See item 8 on that subsject. Please use the TV station web page where you originally signed up to unsubscribe from WeatherWarn. Instructions are listed initem 1 above.
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11. Sometimes your pager gets out of range, resulting in a non-delivered or late bulletin. Sometimes interference from other electronic devices (like computers) can scramble the radio signal. Some pager systems that use PCS phones or have some sort of two-way technology will keep trying to deliver a message until your pager/pcs phone gets it and ackknowledges the message.
Here' some info on how paging works: click here
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12.
Pagers and PCS phones vary in the number of letters (characters) they can display. Some do as few as 60 characters while others display as many as 240 characters. We send most bulletins designed to fit in a 200 character window, so some pagers and PCS phones will cutoff part of the message. The solution is to get a better pager or PCS phone that displays more characters.
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