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If my Net Watchdog inbox is any indication, gripes about Web sites and Internet services are up in 2007. I've been fielding a flurry of angry e-mails complaining about everything from questionable Web sites to Web services like Yahoo Mail that are causing headaches for some users. This month, I'll address two of the more interesting reader complaints.

Mystery Error

One comes from Clifford Tong, of Lafayette, California, who says he has been locked out of his Yahoo Mail Plus account for months. He reports that every time he tries to access his e-mail account, he gets a cryptic 'Error Code 1' pop-up message. The problem has been a major headache, he says.

He claims his premium Yahoo Mail Plus account, for which he pays about $20 year, has been out of service since late November 2006. Since then, he has tried to access his e-mail account from numerous PCs, but each time he has been unable to access his messages. He is able to sign in to his account, but when he attempts to access his messages, his Yahoo inbox generates the 'Error Code 1' message.

Tong uses the Yahoo Mail account as a universal inbox to which he forwards several other e-mail accounts. A professional consultant, he also uses the Yahoo Mail account for his business and gives the address out to his clients. "I was dead in the water," he says. "I had no way of knowing what personal or business e-mail I was missing."

Tong is still paying for the account, and Yahoo has not offered him any sort of reimbursement, he says. He claims that he has spent 20 hours dealing with the problem by redirecting e-mail away from his Yahoo Mail account and spending more time than he'd care to talking to Yahoo Mail tech support on the phone.

Tong isn't alone. I poked around on Yahoo's Help Forum and used Yahoo search and found no shortage of people impacted by 'Error Code 1' and scratching their heads wondering why they were having problems accessing their e-mail accounts.

I called Yahoo's tech support line on the behalf of Tong and asked a tech support rep how often she fields calls regarding that error message. She said gets a handful of calls a day. At that rate, the problem is likely impacting only a tiny fraction of Yahoo Mail users, given that Yahoo manages 248 million Web-based e-mail accounts worldwide, according to comScore Networks.

The tech support agent I spoke with said she believed that 'Error Code 1' occurs when multiple people try to access their individual Yahoo Mail accounts hosted on the same server at the same time. She said that typically all people have to do is wait a few minutes and try again. Tong's problems seem much more severe, but she was unable to say what else could be causing them.

Yahoo spokesperson Karen Mahon offered little additional information. She told me that 'Error Code 1' indicates a "temporary access error" and said that the root of the problem could have to do with "different issues depending on [your] specific computer system." I was still confused, but Mahon would not elaborate. She also said she could not comment on why Yahoo had not offered Tong a refund, saying it would violate the company's privacy policy to discuss his particular e-mail account.

Mahon suggested that Tong's problems were an isolated incident and added that Yahoo has not seen an "unusual spike in inquiries to our customer care department."

Mahon's lack of answers leaves me wondering whether 'Error Code 1' and the notoriously secretive Air Force flight test center Area 51 in Nevada might be linked. The day that I contacted Yahoo media representatives about Tong's problems, they were resolved within 5 hours. Coincidence? I don't think so.