Using Email - Basic Classes

In this lesson you will learn:

Using Email Readers

Email Readers are programs that read email.

These programs are usually automatically installed with the operating system or as part of Office Suites. The developers of each operating system load these readers for convenience for the user, but they are also 'matched' to play nicely with the operating system and other software.

In the early days this was very important, because a program developed for one type of system would not work well on the other. So several different readers were developed, each with its own set of features. Buying one type of system, like an IBM machine, meant that programs developed for the other types of systems (OS2, Mac, Apple, IBM etc.) would not work.

Today, it is not so much of a problem. Most of the features that are most commonly used are incorporated in the program as developers have received feedback on what works, what is necessary and what doesn't work.

Some of the email readers that have you may have heard of over time are Outlook Express, thunderbird, Mac OS X Mail etc.. The Internet readers: AOL, MSN, Yahoo, gMail Etc.

Most of the readers have features that enable chat, music connections and other features. Office suites like MS Office have business level Email readers, like Outlook, that process scheduling, contact distribution lists, calendar functions etc. They are not exclusively email readers, but office business tools covered in another section.

Although each program's general look and feel are closer to being the same, with the same general navigation and features, the actual programs can behave very different from each other. If you have an email program that is the 'default' for the computer, (in other words, it came on the computer and each time you click on 'Email' it always opens the same program) and you want to change settings so that another program opens, generally this has to be done in the 'System' control panel, or in the properties of the email reader that you want to use. If you need to change which program responds, generally the easiest way to change it is to open the program you prefer to use, go to the 'Properties' or 'Settings' page and select 'Use this as my default email reader'.

Setting up Email Readers

Because each program is slightly different, the properties settings, the email set up and the look and feel will be slightly different. As a general rule, they all have to be pointed to the place that your email resides on a server. If you are getting email though your internet ISP, like AOL or Earthlink, for instance, the email readers have to be set up to log onto the server, pick up the email and send out email and then log back off nicely without leaving connections open. Each program will have a help file demonstrating how to set up you 'account' on the reader that can go out and find the server.

At a minimum you will need the email information given to you when you set up your internet connection. It will give the name of each type of server. You must select the one you are using and enter the name exactly as it appears on your paperwork. You must enter your exact username, password and the account settings also.

Setting up email on wireless is similar, except your wireless connection must be active and functioning before making any attempt at setting up email accounts.

Composing (Writing) Email

Composing an email properly will prevent your emails from ending up in the 'junk' mail or not being sent at all! Because there is so much spam and email fraud, most ISPs routinely screen 'suspect' emails and either delete them or send them to a folder called 'Suspect mail', 'Junk Mail' or 'Spam'. To prevent this there are some general guidelines that will help:

For sensitive emails, like legal correspondence, sending a copy to yourself using the Bcc: area. This method can park a copy of the mail in your inbox and give you a record of what you sent, to who and when. Bcc: means Blind Carbon Copy, which is a way of sending something to someone else without the original recipient (in the TO: box) knowing who else you sent it to. Sending to yourself gives a duplicate copy of what is in your 'Sent Items' folder, but is easier to place into another folder under 'Inbox'. For instance, any correspondence regarding a purchase can be placed in a folder called 'Purchases' under inbox and you still have the original in the 'Sent Items' folder.

Address Books

Each E-mail reader has it's own address book. Generally it is a button or a menu item and may be difficult to find, in some cases.

When first learning computers and programs, it is sometimes easier to let the program do things automatically for you. In the case of Address book, this is a good example of how doing things 'automagically' can save some time.

When opening an E-mail there is usually an option on the top or side to 'Add this Person to the Address Book' or 'Guest Book' etc. Selecting 'Yes' will fill in the entries for you with all of the information about that person that is contained in the email. Usually the Address book entry will have the first name, last name and email address as a minimum and you can go to the listing and edit the entry, adding information as needed.

However, remember that the Address book is for automatically filling in E-mail addresses for you. It is NOT meant to be a contacts folder or a place to add personal information like street addresses, home phone numbers, cell phone numbers etc. Adding too much information on the contact list fills each E-mail that you send to that person with their information that is readable by all on the internet! There are programs designed to 'scrub' E-mails and strip the header information from the message and park that info into a database file and the listing is then SOLD to companies that market or target individuals for different purposes. You probably do not want your friend or family to be subject to the problems that this can cause.

If you get an email from someone in your contacts list but they did not send it - your contacts have been hacked - your mistake

As a rule of thumb, keep the E-mail address book listing that is located inside of any E-mail reader to a minimum. First Initial, Last Name and E-mail address. Nothing more. That way you will not become the source of spam, junk mail, identity theft, or unwanted phone calls or sudden home visits.

Contact Lists, Distribution Lists and Groups

So if the Address Book isn't for placing street addresses and phone numbers, what is?

Here lies one of the main differences in E-Mail Readers and E-mail Office PROGRAMS.

In E-mail readers, the Address book is for the public. In other words, it is just for your E-mail to help you keep track of names and E-mail addresses. That means Internet names, not necessarily legal names. E-mail readers allow groupings of different addresses under one name. By using groups, like 'My Family, Her Family, Relatives, Work' etc. then the people in these groups will ALL receive the same letter even though you only write one and send it one time. This is a tremendous time saver! Creating groups and placing different contacts into those groups will save a lot of time, as you only do it once and use it as many times as you need to. It is easy to use and has only a few possible features which keeps it simple.

Office Programs, like Outlook (Not Outlook Express whose main purpose is a reader) are for inside, or personal or work related contacts. These programs are specifically designed for a large amount of users, larger listings, more fine detail and most of all.... SECURITY. The 'Groups' are called Distribution Lists and have exactly the same functions. These lists can be created from the 'Contact Lists', which can be generated or created on large scales. These are internal (to the company for instance) for communication inside of the corporation, and the lists include departments, contact phone numbers, calendars for reminders and schedule times. The Distribution list is not available throughout the rest of the internet and firewalls and routers are set up by professionals that deal in security. Distribution lists and Calendars, Scheduled Tasks and Specific settings for E-mail are what these programs do best. Generally they are not as user friendly as a smaller-scale 'Reader'.

Junk Mail, Bulk Mail and Deleted Items

As mentioned previously, some mail ends up in the junk mail or spam category. What makes the mail go there instead of the inbox? How can I keep some mail out of the Junk or Spam box?

Each reader and program has set rules that determine if the message that was sent out was friendly or if it contains certain words, phrases or comes from a source that is known to contain advertising or solicitations or malicious code. The Junk and Spam filters are your friend and help keep users from opening files or having their inbox stuffed with hundreds of emails over time, none of which you wanted or asked for. Each reader has 'Personal Preference' settings that can be changed to keep the reader smart. If you have any messages inside of the Junk/Spam folders, simply right clicking and selecting 'this is not Spam' or 'Move to Inbox' will flag the program to not count the sender as part of a spam list. Selecting 'Move to Inbox and Add Contact' will place the sender into your Address book for you (Not inside of one of the groups). Then when sending letters and correspondence the new contact will be available along with your others contacts inside the Address book.

So it is wise to check the Junk/Spam folder often and move files back out into your inbox BECAUSE:

You cannot open E-mails from inside the Junk/Spam folders! These messages are 'Quarantined' just as if they had a virus, and there is a good possibility that they do. So to open the file it has to be MOVED to the inbox, which is something only you, (as a human) can do. A machine cannot do this automatically, ensuring that it was moved OUT of the Junk/Spam folder in INTO the inbox ON PURPOSE. In other words, a human made a decision to physically move the file. That means that whoever moved the file takes responsibility for what happens when the file is opened. If you are logged in on the machine and the computer gets a virus, guess where the very first place that a technician will look for the source? YOUR E-mail! Which means YOU did it!

When the message is move into the Inbox, all of the security settings attached by the reader to that file are removed. OPEN AT YOUR OWN RISK. If you are very sure it is from a legitimate source then is is probably safe.

Security - Is it Safe to Open??

But how do you know which email is safe? Some emails are kind of obvious that they are fishing for information or that there is something wrong with them. The English is phrased funny, typos, mispronunciation of common words, or out right advertising. Some marketers have gone to great lengths to imitate legitimate web sites, from Ebay, Pay Pal, or Banks, Insurance or Medical Companies. Most of the time they will give a contact address somewhere toward the bottom and if you HOLD the mouse over the link (DO NOT CLICK IT) then the true address (given from the internet authority or purchased from an ISP) will show at the bottom of the page in the Taskbar. If the address there is different from the banks, then it is really SPAM and should be reported as a spoof site. Most of the legitimate sites will attempt to shut them down, although many of them come from different countries where Internet / Fraud laws are different, don't exist or cannot be enforced.

Safe messages are from people you know, have well formed messages and have a subject line at the top. If they don't beware!

Maintenance of the Mailbox

Usually there is a warning that the mail box is getting full, or a bar graph will show the percent of the space used.

Most internet ISPs that handle E-Mail insist on enforcing mail box size limits. You could imagine if thousands of people each have over 10 messages, that the amount of space needed by the servers grows as the message boxes fill up. In the early days, disk space was a bigger issue with ISPs because smaller disks meant that more units were needed and entire rooms and cabinets were needed to keep up. So as a general rule they allowed a maximum of 10 Mb of space for each user.

Storage technology has advanced to the point that restrictions are a thing of the past in some cases. Some ISPs set their limits to 100Mb (thousands of messages for each person!). To fill up 100Mb of disk space is not as difficult as you might think!

The question is: what counts against the quota, and what doesn't? In some cases Sent Items and Junk/Spam counts and in some places it doesn't. But the Inbox, ALL of the folders that the user created under Inbox and the Deleted Items and Large Messages (if there is one), Undeliverable Messages and some RSS feed connections DO count.

Emptying your Deleted Messages folder will help. The Sent Items may help, anything not needed in Inbox will count and any folders created will also count. Address Book entries are so small that it probably won't make much of an impact on the folder size.

What is Spam?

Spam is a word that means sending or receiving the unwanted emails that clutter up your email Inbox. The problem with spam is that apparently all of the harassment, intrusion, aggressive tactics and persistence works.

Spam has become an art-form to some. Once a 'spammers' get a hold of an email address (especially if you respond!) then there seem to be no bounds to the amount of email that is possible to receive. If only a very small percentage respond, it pays the way for many more spam mails.

Email addresses are sold as commodities. Address lists, especially 'active' lists (those who respond, showing that it is a current address) are sold to companies for additional revenue. The transactions may or may not fall under the company 'Personal Information' disclosure laws or company definitions of privacy.

Spam is usually confined to out-of-the-ordinary purchase items: the deal you can't refuse, the attempt to get you to buy some cheap item, product or idea. Enhancement products that would be uncomfortable to purchase over the counter, self-care products that are not readily available in stores due to their unusual nature, or they are outrageous or they are manufactured in limited numbers.

Spammers spend a lot of time looking for and combing through email 'contact' lists, distribution lists and printed email lists. Once they have access to the email header they collect all of the email addresses of email contacts that you send mail to in the 'To:' box. These are entered into a database which can print out thousands of email addresses that can be sold to other companies. In fact, some companies make more on the 'meta' data (Information about data collected) than they do on their regular product, like phones, cell phones, electricity etc.. So your email address becomes known to the database owners worldwide. But worse, all of the other addresses of millions of other email accounts, like all of your friends or contacts, become recipients of the same emails and so the process continues. Social Networking sites have become recent favorite gold mines, because they routinely send you emails like 'Hey you, do you know these friends?'Most users of social media are not concerned about security and privacy so they are ripe for the taking.

Spammers have intruded into millions of lives; in fact there are now laws regulating the advertisement and intrusion of privacy.