AOL Trying to Fix E-Mail Access Problem

America Online is having another access problem, this time involving its ability to process electronic mail sent from the Internet to AOL customers. On Monday, an unusually high number of messages were sent to AOL--11.3 million, up from its daily average of 10 million. Although some messages were able to get through, others were rejected because of the congestion. Most e-mail programs will automatically resend an undelivered message, and that led to more than 12 million sent Tuesday and 13.6 million sent Wednesday. But AOL spokeswoman Tricia Primrose said there is no reason to worry that any e-mail has been deleted. The volume of e-mail sent to AOL customers has more than doubled since early December, when the daily average was about 5 million messages. This week, the Dulles, Va.-based company installed new computers with software designed to route e-mail, and the congestion is expected to be alleviated by the weekend.