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As you read and send e-mail keep several points in mind. If you
get a totally off-the-wall message that seems out of character coming from
someone, somebody else may have forged the message as a prank. E-mail is
not very private. As your mail passes from site to site, it can be
read not only by hackers but also by your system administrator. Your employer
may even have a legal right to read your e-mail at work.
Emergency E-mail Network
The Emergency E-mail Network provides instant notification of local, regional, national, and international emergencies. Register your e-mail address and the way you want to be notified by computer, PDA, cell phone, digital pager, or fax. Then choose the categories you want to be notified about such as severe weather information, utilities outages, Amber Alerts, etc. You can even turn off notifications during specific time periods.
Emoticons
Emoticons are the little symbols made up of various computer keystrokes that look like or stand for words, sentences, or expressions such as the little smiley face : ) This site contains a comprehensive list of emoticons. Just remember when you are using them that if a emoticon gets cut in half by your sentence length, it won't make much sense to the person on the receiving end of your message.
Family Death, Internet Problems
Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) will cancel an Internet account when a deceased member’s family closes out a credit card account that pays the monthly service bill. Surviving spouses/family members may then not be able to use the decease’s ISP account, this person’s password, or have access to that individual’s e-mail messages, address book, etc. Upon cancellation of a credit card account, AOL sometimes scrambles passwords intentionally to protect the integrity of an account. It then requires the user to call in and verify his/her identify. AOL requires both a death certificate and proof that the successor is entitled to take over the account, and a sworn statement, such as a notice of beneficiary, or executor of will. To avoid this potential problem, a spouse should set up a secondary master of the account. Each AOL account is allowed three “master screen names.” Thus a spouse or family member can become the account’s co-owner.
Forwarded E-mail
If you want to change your ISP from AOL to another ISP, have your AOL e-mail forwarded to your new address. But you have to leave the AOL account open. This means that you have to keep paying for it. However, there are at least two services that forward mail. ForwardAmerica charges $30 to forward mail for six months. Re-Route offers three months' service for $25. There's more information at forwardamerica and re-route.com. Switching ISPs can be a problem. Trueswitch <www.trueswitch.com> will copy a user's e-mail, address book and other personal information to the new ISP; notify friends and family of the new address; forward e-mails arriving at the old provider; and automatically cancel the old account. It may be free, depending on which ISP you select as your new provider. For example, if you are leaving AOL for MSN, there is no charge.
Free E-mail Services
One of the most popular services on the Net today is the free e-mail account. To get more visitors to their Web sites, many large sites are giving away free e-mail accounts. To check out your choices, visit:
see the following tip. Numerous other free services also exist on the Web. Just look for a link that says something like "Free e-mail," click it, and follow the instructions.
Free Hotmail Account
Hotmail is a company that pioneered free Internet e-mail accounts. If you already have an e-mail account, you can still have a separate Hotmail (or other account) because Outlook Express supports multiple identities, which simply means that you can collect mail from more than one place. To set up Hotmail with Outlook Express, double-click the Outlook Express icon on the Quick Launch portion of the Taskbar. Next click the Tools menu and choose Accounts. In the Internet Accounts box, click the Add button and select Mail from the popup menu. The Internet Connection Wizard window should appear at this time. Now type in your name and click Next. If you already have a Hotmail account, fill in your e-mail address. Otherwise click on the button for setting up a new account. Follow the rest of the steps using the Setup Hotmail Account wizard. When finished, you’ll see that Hotmail has been added to your Outlook Express In Box. Clicking on it shows you your Hotmail folders. The advantage of having a Hotmail account is that anywhere in the world you can log on to MSN Hotmail and sign in using your account name and password.
Hoax/Rumors
You can usually tell a hoax by its narrative. Watch for forwarded messages with warnings, proclamations, worrisome stories, or financial giveaways. If a message has many words in capital letters and you see more than one or two exclamation points, it's a sure sign the message is a hoax. Here are some additional hoaxes that circulated last year around the Internet.
Klez.E Worm Immunity Hoax:
First there was the Klez E Worm hoax where millions of computer users thought they had been infected with this virus. Now some miscreant has created an antivirus scan, an alleged immunity for the Klez worm. The message has a "Class.bat" attached to it, which isn't a batch file at all. It's a Visual Basic program with the Klez Worm built in. Click on "Class.bat" and zap, you're infected with Klez. The "free immunity tool" is the scam because the free tool actually contains the Klez worm. The message is made to look authentic, which is why it's an antivirus scam.
E-mail Tax:
Neither Congress nor the U.S. Postal Service has any plans for taxing your e-mail messages, so don’t believe anything to the contrary.
Jdbgmgr.exe:
This seemingly credible hoax warned you to delete Jdbgmgr.exe from your system because it is supposedly a virus sent automatically by Microsoft Messenger, but it is actually a necessary Java file.
Sulfnbk.exe:
Like Jdbgmgr.exe, the hoax explained that Sulfnbk.exe is a virus. It isn't, but a legit file on your PC that's used for fixing long file names. This hoax message provided step-by-step instructions on removing the alleged virus. Before you send any of those messages that circulate the Web of a virus warning, make sure you check them out at one of the following websites otherwise you may just be forwarding a hoax:
By the way, chain letters are illegal, and, in some instances can constitute a federal offense. All of us have received e-mail messages with stories that are questionable but seemingly true. Before you forward these messages to family and friends, check them out for false rumors or hoaxes at these web sites:
Hot-spot Hazards
When using your wireless laptop at airport lounges, hotels, café, etc., be aware that all wireless Local Area Networks have security problems. As with any wireless local area network, signals can penetrate walls and ceilings. Therefore anyone in range with a standard wireless card can connect to it. Hot-spot services are designed for maximum ease of use, but they don’t offer Wireless Equivalency Protocol or Wi-Fi Protected Access encryption. Someone at a nearby table may be able to connect to your notebook. To be safe, disable your wireless card’s ad-hoc mode. You can do this via the adapter’s utilities or within WinXP by clicking on Network Connections in the Control Panel. You should remove or disable your wireless card if working offline. Of course, you should install a personal firewall and anti-virus software, which is key to your security. However for best protection, you should use a Virtual Private Network to provide strong authentication and encryption for all your hot-spot communications.
Import E-mail Addresses
If switching your e-mail program to Outlook Express, you will want
to import your addresses. To facilitate this change, click the program's
Inbox icon. Now on the main menu, you need to click File, Import,
and Address Book. When a list of competing e-mail programs pops up
in a window, you select the name of your old program from the list and
click Import. When your addresses copy themselves into their new
mailbox, you should now click the Close button to finish with this tip.
Messages
To remove the “>” formatting characters from jokes or messages you’ve
received but want to copy and send to someone else, highlight the e-mail’s
text copy and paste it into a new document in your word processor. Then,
use the word processor’s Search and Replace tool. In the Search box,
type in the character you wish to remove and put nothing in the Replace
box. EmailStripper and StripMail are two free programs that will
do the same job for you with less effort on your part.
Message Stationery
This tip applies to Outlook 98/2000/2002. Stationery is a background
image that you can use to make your e-mail messages appear as though they
were written on a fancy pad of paper. Stationery may look pretty,
but it increases the file size of your e-mail messages and takes longer
for you to upload and for recipients to download them. To create
a new message using stationery, select Actions, New Mail Message Using,
More Stationery. When the “Select a Stationery” dialog box appears,
scroll down through the stationery choices and double-click the stationery
you wish to use. You'll likely find several stationery choices that
display the message “Stationery not installed yet.” It will be installed
when you compose mail. If you wish to choose one of these options, you
will need to have your Outlook CD-ROM available so that your selection
can be copied to your hard disk. If the choices shown in the “Select
a Stationery” dialog box don't quite fit your needs, click the Get More
Stationery button to visit the Office 2000 Web site. There you'll
find additional stationery options that you can download. Click the
OK button to close the dialog box to begin creating a new message using
your selected stationery. Make certain the text of your message stands
out especially if the stationery you choose uses a dark background.
You may need to change the text color and size to make sure your message
is readable.
Word Messages
Since MS Office 2000 Word has many formatting features, why not use
it for sending e-mail. To do this, just write your document and choose
File, Send To, Mail Recipient. When the e-mail toolbar opens, select
a recipient from the Address Book, or type in an e-mail address and then
click Send a Copy. Word will send the document and close the e-mail toolbar.
Finally, remember that mass distribution of unsolicited e-mail, known
as spam, is becoming more and more of a problem each and every day. Because
most spammers use phony return addresses, replying with a complaint proves
to them that your address is valid. A response may result in your receiving
more spam.
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