A similar challenge may be caused by unusually large message. Again, this problem is more common with dial-up modems, where hefty messages may take an annoyingly long time to download. In the worst cases, you may find yourself unable to receive other messages, because the connection with the server where your messages are stored is severed when a time limit has been reached.

Use of Web mail can also do the trick here. Just log on to the third-party site, peruse the list of messages in your inbox, and choose the one that is the largest (most Web mail programs automatically list the size of each message). If the message seems of potential interest, open and read it, and then delete it. Or if it is obviously spam or something in which you have no interest, you can delete the message without even bothering to read it. Once you have removed the offending message, your other incoming mail will no longer be blocked.

If you do not have Web mail, an option is to contact your Internet Service Provider and ask for help. Once a customer service representative deletes the offending message from the ISP's server, you can then download all remaining messages.

Also keep in mind that retaining too much e-mail can be an organizational problem, if not a technical one. Take time to delete e-mail that does not need to be saved for future reference. Allowing too many messages to accumulate wastes storage space and makes it more difficult to find important messages when you need to refer to them. For messages that merit retention, create a series of folders so that they can be readily located, and so that your inbox will not become too full.