Online Resources for Email Support

Understanding Email

1. Netiquette
2. Email Management
3. Attachments
4. Webmail
5. Spam Mail
6. Spam Protection
7. Software Updates And Service Pacs

• How To Protect Myself Online
• Options For International Email Set Up

 Understanding Email - Links

• LEARN THE NET - Where does it go when it's gone!
• Attachments, Viruses & Effective Communications
• A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email Kaitlin Duck Sherwood.
• Accessing the Internet by E-Mail FAQ Tips and Tricks
• Beginning E-Mail

Netiquette

• DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS. You are shouting.
• Use emoticons sparingly :-)
• Limit line length to 65-70 characters across. Some e-mail programs will wrap the text at wrong points or not wrap it at all.
• Consider what you write; it's a permanent record and can be easily forwarded to others and made public. - very public!
• Don't attach large files (over 50K) without getting permission from your recipient first.
• Don't attach files for posting to discussion groups.
• Don't send entire web pages to a discussion group, just the URLs (http's).
• When sending a web site address, always type it in the form of "http://É" because some e-mail programs will permit the user to click on a web address to go right there. Without the "http:// prefix these programs will not recognize it.
• Don't promote your business by posting an advertisement to a discussion group. You are "spamming."
• Use subject lines.
• Don't quote back an entire message when only responding to one or two points. Delete the excess
• When forwarding - put your comments at the top of the message.
• Don't overuse acronyms like BTW (by the way) or IMHO (in my humble opinion)
• Do not forward personal e-mail to a discussion group
• Use a spell checker if available.

Email Management

• Sort your mail messages into folders you define.
  Keep Personal mail separate from Business mail and/or Information
• Use address books. Save e-mail addresses and automatically insert them into the message.
• Create distribution lists. Save e-mail addresses of several people associated with a group, the message would be addressed to the list and automatically disbursed to the group when sent.
• Use spell checking, please!
• Set up filters. Automatically sort mail, delete mail, reply to mail, etc.
• To forward easy-to-read email, consider using a freeware program like ECleaner to remove excess coding and those annoying >>>> punctuation symbols.

If these features are not part of your current software, there may be an add-on utility program available to accomplish the same thing. Sometimes it's easier just to replace the program with one that offers the features as part of the package.

Check out the links for Software and Service Pacs listed here.

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Attachments

• E-mail is text based but one of its great features is the ability to attach files (documents, spreadsheets, graphics, sound, etc.) to be carried along with the message.
• Before sending off a file attachment, find out if the recipient is using the same operating system (e.g. Windows XP, Mac, Unix, etc.) or program (Word, Works, WordPerfect, Office, Open Office, etc.). If you don't have a match between these features, don't bother sending the attachment. You might consider, if it is a word processing document, database file or spreadsheet, saving the file as text and attaching that instead.
• Graphics and image files, sound clips, video clips and programs can be huge file sizes. It is almost impossible for someone on a dial-up internet connection to download any file larger than 2-5 Mb. If in doubt, don't send it.
• Never open any file attachments without scanning them first.
• Use a virus protection program designed for your operating system.

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Webmail

• You can access your email account from almost any computer in the world via webmail except in some international situations (see Options For International Email Set Up!). All that is involved for simple WebMail is finding your server's webmail page online and entering your account information.

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Spam Email

It is a fact of internet life that you will begin to receive unsolicited and occasionally obscene email messages. Here are some positive steps you can take to minimize the impact of such email on you and your computer.

Inform yourself about Spam mail by reviewing email security issues on the Symantec Site.

• Use the delete key.
  Immediately remove any email messages that come from an unknown sender, contain unsolicited advertising, or have attachments which are suspect. Then go to your Deleted Items folder and manually remove them again.
• Do not reply!
  If you reply to a spam email and request deletion from their "list" - All you have done is verify that your email address is correct and guarantee that you will now receive even more junk mail.
• Do not use your correct email address.
  Create an alias to your email account with your internet service provider. Use it online and when the junk is overwhelming. Delete the alias and create a new one! The junk will disappear - for awhile.
• Obscure your email address.
  To avoid ending on a spammer's mailing list when you post to a Web forum or a newsgroup, you can obscure your email address by inserting something obvious into it. If my email address is emailme@ITRAIN.com, I modify it to read emailme@ITdelete_thisRAIN.com. I will not get spam at that email address, but people who want to send me an email can still do so after they manually remove "delete_this" from the address.
• Use the filters in your email program to weed out unwanted email or install a program that can help you do this.
  see Software Updates and Service Pacs
  
• Report Spam
  Go to Spamcop.net and report it.

Spam Protection

• Try one of the following Spam blockers on your system as there is so much spam coming into each and everyone's mailbox.
• MailWasher for Windows.
  Email Software to bounce unsolicited email, delete unwanted messages automatically and set up a list of approved email contacts. Note: switched to MailWasher and I am hooked, great product - Rochelle (Cyber-Help Coordinator)
  
• Spamarrest for Windows.
  " Spam Arrest is a 100-percent effective solution for blocking automated junk emails. It works through the "CHALLENGE-RESPONSE" system. When email arrives from unknown senders, a reply "CHALLENGE" email is sent back asking senders to verify themselves by clicking on a link to the Spam Arrest website." Skip the free trial, especially favoured by those on dialup - Rochelle (Cyber-Help Coordinator)
  
• Cloudmark.
  Imagine, a spam email message lands in your email, you click delete and it disappears from your Inbox - and the Inbox of your family, your friends and the entire world. Cloudmark SpamNet is a worldwide spam-fighting community that gives you spam-free email just for deleting the spam from your own Inbox.

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Software Updates and Other Service Pacs

• Microsoft Products:
  Updates and patches.
• SlipStick Solutions Centre
  Outlook and Exchange Patches and fixes.
• Mac Users:
  Free software updates, patches and trial versions of new products.
• Pegasus Mail: Support

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