Have you made any changes to the boss's laptop, e-mail program or e-mail address? fish asks. "Yes," says shipping guy, "We changed Web and e-mail hosting companies. But I've already made those changes in the e-mail client."

Why did you change Web hosting companies? fish asks.

"To save money. The new one is US$10 less per month," says shipping guy.

Fish does a little research on the new provider. Turns out the old vendor allowed mail to be sent by anonymous SMTP. The new one doesn't, and the boss's e-mail software don't support SMTP authentication.

So fish recommends the simplest fix: returning to the old Web-hosting provider.