| An America Online (AOL) mailbox is divided into three areas: New Mail, Old Mail, and Sent Mail. AOL will store up to 1,000 pieces of New Mail, 550 pieces of Old Mail, and 550 pieces of Sent Mail. This is per screen name. E-mail can be recovered for 24 hours after you delete it. To recover deleted mail, select Mail from the AOL toolbar and click Recently Deleted Mail. Next highlight the e-mail you want to recover and click Keep as New. That deleted e-mail will then be moved to New Mail.
E-mail Message Marks
When forwarding an e-mail, you may not want the recipient to get all those “<” marks that are used to indent an original message. You don't have to use these marks in Outlook Express 6. Just choose Tools, Options. When the Options dialog opens, click the Send tab. Now, under "Mail Sending Format," click Plain Text Settings. Deselect the check box labeled "Indent the original text with < when replying or forwarding" and then click OK. Back in Options, click OK to close the dialog box and save your new selection. "E-mail strippers” are programs designed to clean out the ">" and other symbols to make your replied and forwarded e-mail more readable. One of these programs is a free utility at papercut.
E-mail Mistakes
Literally millions of e-mail messages travel throughout the Internet every day. Many people make easily avoidable mistakes. The most frequent include failing to be brief, using sarcasm, including emoticons in business e-mail, expressing anger, typing with capital letters, forwarding junk e-mail, making grammar mistakes and misspellings, and falsifying the return address. All major e-mail programs can display header information. To see the headers of an e-mail: In America Online, click the Details button. In Microsoft Outlook, click View and Options. In Microsoft Outlook Express, click File, Properties and the Details tab. In Eudora, click the Blah Blah button. In Netscape, click View and Message Source. The sender's revealing information begins with "Received." The originating computer is in the bottom "Received."
That section will have an Internet Protocol (IP) number, such as 124.213.45.11. While the IP number is probably assigned to the sender's Internet Service Provider (ISP), the ISP will be able to identify the sender using that number.
E-mail Photos
To make enemies among your friends and family, just e-mail them high-resolution
pictures which will take forever to download on their computers.
To prevent this problem most scanning programs allow you to set the resolution
and select the file format ( .tif is the most common for uncompressed files,
and .jpg is most common for compressed files). That's also true of photo
programs, like Adobe Photo Elements and Ulead Photo Impact. If the recipient
is going to view the photo on a computer monitor, set the resolution at
72 dots per inch. If you set it higher there won't be any improvement
for the monitor view. Always save files for e-mail in the .jpg format
because almost any .tif file will be huge in size. If the recipient
is going to print the picture, you might want to go as high as 300 dpi,
although 150 will probably work fine. Remember, the higher the resolution,
the larger the file. People with dial-up Web connections will not
appreciate unnecessarily high resolutions. You should also
set the dimensions. For printing, use 4x6 or 5x7. For viewing
on a monitor, go larger than 4x6.
E-mail Security
Using WinXP Outlook Express 6 you can stop viruses from being sent
to your address book list by clicking on Tools, Options and selecting the
Security tab. Now check the box “Warn me when other applications
try to send mail as me.” With most viruses being sent in the form
of an e-mail attachment, you can avoid infection by setting up a mail rule
in Outlook Express. With mail rule you can remove these viruses if
your incoming e-mail messages go into an inbox with special folder(s).
Once in the folder you can check for a virus. If the filename of
an attachment ends with .vbs, then there is probably is a virus in it.
One with txt.vbs is not a text file, but a Visual Basic Script file, again,
probably contains a virus.
E-mail Solutions
Today computer users have many e-mail addresses. You might have one for work, one with your ISP, a Yahoo or Hotmail account, and one "dummy" e-mail address used for signing up for giveaways and contests. Mail2Web, a free service, allows you to check all e-mail accounts without having to surf to different pages. Just enter your e-mail address and password, and you can pick up your mail from any Internet connection using a desktop, laptop, PDA, or cell phone
E-mail Template
If you regularly send similar e-mails, such as customer service notes,
group events, or instructions of some kind, consider using templates.
Templates are easy to create. Open a blank e-mail and enter the information
that is always repeated. Leave blank space for new information.
Next, do the following depending on your mail program: Outlook Express/Outlook:
Click File, Save As, Name the template with the extension EML (OFT in Outlook),
in the Save in box, select Desktop, click Save, and to open the template,
go to the desktop and double-click its icon. Eudora: Click
File, Save as Stationery, name the template, in the Save in box, select
Desktop, click Save, to open the template, go to the desktop and double-click
its icon. Netscape: Put the template's name in the Subject
box and click File, Save As, Template. The template will be saved
under Templates in the Name box in the Netscape e-mail window. To
open the template, click Templates, and then double-click the template
in the Subject area.
E-mail on Vacation
To access e-mail while on vacation, you have to set up your e-mail software so it can access your e-mail for any location. E-mail programs such as Microsoft Outlook, Netscape, and Eudora allow you to set up extra accounts. Typically all you need to know is the names of your servers and a couple of computer terms. Computers that receive e-mail usually are called "pop3" servers. They have addresses like "mail.companyname.com." Machines that handle outgoing mail are called "smtp" servers. They often share the name of the pop3 server. Using a laptop as a home computer, you need an additional account in your e-mail program to check work e-mail. For this, you'll need the names of the pop3 and smtp servers for your work e-mail address. Ask your system administrator for these details. Then you can set up your laptop to receive your personal e-mail. If you are using a work laptop that already has the office server names on it, no need to enter them again. But you will want to set up a home account. You'll find the server names within your e-mail software on your home computer. Your ISP can also tell you this information. Whether you're adding home or business accounts, the process is the same. If you're using Outlook 2002, choose Tools, E-mail Accounts. Select "Add a new e-mail account" and click Next. Select the type of server and click Next. Fill in the user and server information and click Next. In other e-mail programs, it's mostly a matter of entering information in wizards. Outlook Express requires you to choose Tools and Accounts, click Add, Mail, and follow the wizard. In Netscape, you choose Edit, Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings, click New Account, and then follow the wizard. In Eudora 5.1, click Tools and Personalities. Right-click in the Personalities window, click New, and follow the wizard. The programs will ask if you want to remove the e-mail from the server after you download it. Consider leaving the e-mail on the server. That way, when you return to home and work, it will still be there, and you can save it to your computer. America Online (AOL) has access numbers almost everywhere. You can find local dial-up numbers using the Keyword: Access. AOL also has a nationwide 800 number that costs $6.00 per hour. If you find yourself with an Internet connection at a friend's house, an Internet cafe or a local library, you can access mail at AOL's Web site. Just enter your screen name and your password. Accessing e-mail using a Web browser is probably the easiest option. Many companies allow you to check work e-mail in this manner. As long as you can get to the Internet, you can access your work e-mail. Your company's system administrator can tell you the Web address. If this is not an alternative, there are places on the Web where you simply enter your e-mail address and password to get to your mail. Some sites that provide this service free include:
Do not put an automatic response on your home computer's e-mail. That's an invitation to burglars.
E-mail Virus
If you receive returned e-mails with attachments, it’s because one of your friends probably has a computer virus, like the Sobig.F worm that has been circulating on the Internet. When Sobig infects a computer, it goes to the address book, sends itself to every address, and selects one of those addresses as a return address. When the virus hits a protected computer, it is rejected and sent back to the return address. You can try to identify who owns the infected computer by looking in the e-mail's header information, although this action won't tell you the person's name. But you can learn the name of the sender’s ISP. You can contact the ISP and have them tell the person who has the computer virus. In case you want to take this route, Komando can trace e-mail back to a recipient. Other than that, there's not much you can do to eliminate this problem short of changing your e-mail address. However, you’ll have this same problem the next time a virus comes around and hits a computer owned by someone who has your new address.
E-mail Vulnerability Test
It's a good idea to make sure that your computer is protected from the different types of viruses and threats. The GFI site will test your e-mail's vulnerability and let you know of any weaknesses. Just enter your name and e-mail address. After you receive a confirmation e-mail, click on the Universal Resource Locator (URL) provided. The GFI site then performs a vulnerability check of your e-mail system. You receive the results by e-mail. This company sells software to protect you from threats. You don't need to buy anything from GFI for the test.
Two of the most popular ISPs are AOL and MSN. If you’re thinking
of making one of them your ISP, it would be a good idea to first look at
the pros and cons for each of them. In terms of the pros, MSN is
a few dollars cheaper than AOL, and it has a better e-mail program.
AOL has an easier installation, better instant messaging program, and overall
user-friendly content. These features make it a slightly better ISP
than MSN. The speed, reliability, and tech support are about the
same for each one.
|
