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How do I use e-mail?
When you sign up with an Internet Service Provider, you'll usually be given at least one e-mail account; sometimes five or more separate e-mail accounts per ISP account. With the big players in the game such as AOL or MSN, it's just a matter of clicking the e-mail icon on the toolbar. AOL (for example) uses its own special e-mail system that isn't really internet mail as much as it is internal AOL mail that has a connection to the internet; you can't use a different e-mail reader for AOL. However, if you have an account with a local or regional ISP, or you have a domain name, you probably have to set up your e-mail yourself.
First you'll need an e-mail reader. If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 or later, you probably have Outlook Express installed. If you don't have Outlook Express, another e-mail reader, or if you want to shop around, click here to see what's available at www.download.com (type e-mail in the search box). Go ahead, I'll wait…
I'll use Outlook Express for the following example. It's easy to use, you can check Newsgroups with it, it's the most popular e-mail reader, and most of all, it's Free!
Your ISP will have given you the details about your e-mail account. Here's an example using the e-mail address danny@inet-asst.com:
username - danny
password - ******
outgoing mail server - inet-asst.com
incoming mail server - inet-asst.com
domain name and/or IP address if one has been assigned to you
Remember that on some machines usernames and passwords are CaSe SeNsItIvE. Joe and joe are not always the same.
Even if you're not using Outlook Express, you should find similar names and options.
Go to the Tools menu, then select Accounts, Mail, then click the Add button.
Enter your name and e-mail address. Your name can be whatever you want to appear in the From: field in the mail you send. Your e-mail address will be formatted like: yourname@yourcompany.com. The @ sign is the clue that's it's an e-mail address.
Incoming and Outgoing mail servers: This depends on your ISP. For incoming mail, this field should read either pop.domainname.com, or domainname.com. If you don't know, try one, then try to send yourself mail.
Enter your account name and password: Here is where you'll enter your account name and password that were given to you by your ISP. Repeat: these are Case Sensitive!
And that's it. You've got mail.
Tips
In Outlook Express, you can go to Tools -- Options to set up more options. Some of the
more important things to look at.
E-Mail Security
Until recently, it was common knowledge that simply opening and reading an e-mail was safe. But "Where there's a will, there's a way" has caught up with us. A new JavaScript code was found that could cause all kinds of weird things to happen to your computer. it isn't a classical virus, but the effects are the same to the person exposed to it. An e-mail attachment called Happy.exe sends copies of itself to people it finds in your address book...most people don't expect a friend to send a virus, so they open it without scanning it first.
These are easily guarded against, however. Just make it a habit to visit the web site of the maker of your e-mail program, and get the latest version or update. If you're using Windows98, click the Windows Update button once a week or so. This is assuming you're using a name-brand e-mail reader. If you're using an e-mail reader you downloaded from Joe's Home Page, you're taking risks.
Never open an e-mail attachment without scanning it first!
What other options do I have?
There are over 1000 web sites eager to give you a free e-mail account. One of the easiest to use is Hotmail, although you may prefer using one of the portal sites' (yahoo, altavista, etc.) e-mail services. To use Hotmail, just click on the Sign Up button and fill in the blanks.
1000 free email accounts
fepg.net - E-mail information and accounts
If you want e-mail but you don't have access to a PC, you're out of luck, right? Not anymore. Shoutmail, a free service that lets you send and retrieve e-mail by phone, has extended its service. Now you can register for your own Shoutmail account entirely over the telephone, by calling a toll-free number (877-969-6245). Previously, registering for a Shoutmail account required access to a standard Web browser. To allow phone retrieval of e-mail messages, Shoutmail translates the text of the message using an expressionless synthesized voice. You can respond to e-mail messages by recording a voice message (up to three minutes long) that the e-mail recipient can listen to as streaming RealAudio or as a downloaded .wav file. Shoutmail allows users to access their POP3-based e-mail messages from their ISP, and from Web-based e-mail services such as Hotmail and Yahoo. The service supports attachments and can be used from any Web browser to send standard text-based e-mail exchanges. Shoutmail also works with wireless application protocol-based cell phones equipped with built-in mini browsers.
According to market research firm eMarketer Inc., Americans sent or received more than 3.4 trillion e-mail messages in 1998. More than 95% of those messages were "spam."
Analyzing an e-mail
Every piece of e-mail is sent with a 'Header.' Here's a typical example (the lines are numbered for reference) :
----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- 1. Return-Path: (inet@inet-asst.com) 2. Received: from rly-za05.mail.aol.com (rly-za05.mail.aol.com [172.31.36.101]) by air-za01.mail.aol.com
(v56.26) with SMTP; Fri, 05 Mar 1999 16:56:39 -0500 3. Received: from server.inet-asst.com (server.inet-asst.com [209.127.67.17]) by rly-za05.mail.aol.com (8.8.8/8.8.5/AOL-4.0.0) with ESMTP id QAA28389 for (username@aol.com); Fri, 5 Mar 1999 16:56:33 -0500 (EST) 4. Received: from inetasst (art.inet-asst.com [209.127.67.18]) by server.inet-asst.com with . .
RFC 2368 The mailto URL scheme July 1998
URLs for an ordinary individual mailing address:
<mailto:chris@example.com>
A URL for a mail response system that requires the name of the file
in the subject:
<mailto:infobot@example.com?subject=current-issue>
A mail response system that requires a "send" request in the body:
<mailto:infobot@example.com?body=send%20current-issue>
A similar URL could have two lines with different "send" requests (in
this case, "send current-issue" and, on the next line, "send index".)
<mailto:infobot@example.com?body=send%20current-
issue%0D%0Asend%20index>
An interesting use of your mailto URL is when browsing archives of
messages. Each browsed message might contain a mailto URL like:
<mailto:foobar@example.com?In-Reply-
To=%3c3469A91.D10AF4C@example.com>
A request to subscribe to a mailing list:
<mailto:majordomo@example.com?body=subscribe%20bamboo-l>
A URL for a single user which includes a CC of another user:
<mailto:joe@example.com?cc=bob@example.com&body=hello>
Another way of expressing the same thing:
<mailto:?to=joe@example.com&cc=bob@example.com&body=hello>
Note the use of the "&" reserved character, above. The following
example, by using "?" twice, is incorrect:
<mailto:joe@example.com?cc=bob@example.com?body=hello> ; WRONG!
According to RFC 822, the characters "?", "&", and even "%" may occur
in addr-specs. The fact that they are reserved characters in this URL
scheme is not a problem: those characters may appear in mailto URLs,
they just may not appear in unencoded form. The standard URL encoding
mechanisms ("%" followed by a two-digit hex number) must be used in
certain cases.
To indicate the address "gorby%kremvax@example.com" one would do:
<mailto:gorby%25kremvax@example.com>
To indicate the address "unlikely?address@example.com", and include
another header, one would do:
<mailto:unlikely%3Faddress@example.com?blat=foop>
As described above, the "&" (ampersand) character is reserved in HTML
and must be replacded with "&". Thus, a complex URL that has
internal ampersands might look like:
Click
<a href="mailto:?to=joe@xyz.com&cc=bob@xyz.com&body=hello">
mailto:?to=joe@xyz.com&cc=bob@xyz.com&body=hello</a> to
send a greeting message to <i>Joe and Bob</i>.
References
[RFC822] Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text
Messages", STD 11, RFC 822, August 1982.
[RFC1738] Berners-Lee, T., Masinter, L., and M. McCahill, Editors,
"Uniform Resource Locators (URL)", RFC 1738, December 1994.
[RFC1808] Fielding, R., "Relative Uniform Resource Locators", RFC
1808, June 1995.
[RFC2047] Moore, K., "MIME Part Three: Message Header Extensions for
Non-ASCII Text", RFC 2047, November 1996.
I know this guy whose neighbor, a young man, was home recovering
from having been served a rat in his bucket of Kentucky Fried
Chicken. So anyway, one day he went to sleep and when he awoke
he was in his bathtub and it was full of ice and he was sore all
over. When he got out of the tub he realized that HIS KIDNEYS
HAD BEEN STOLEN and he saw a note on his mirror that said "Call
911!" But he was afraid to use his phone because it was
connected to his computer, and there was a virus on his computer
that would destroy his hard drive if he opened an e-mail
entitled "Join the crew!" He knew it wasn't a hoax because he
himself was a computer programmer who was working on software to
save us from Armageddon when the year 2000 rolls around. And
it's a little known fact that the Y1K problem caused the Dark
Ages. His program will prevent a global disaster in which all
the computers get together and distribute the $250.00 Neiman-
Marcus cookie recipe under the leadership of Bill Gates. (It's
true-I read it all last week in a mass e-mail from BILL GATES
HIMSELF, who was also promising me a free Disney World vacation
and $5,000 if I would forward the e-mail to everyone I know.)
The poor man then tried to call 911 from a pay phone to report
his missing kidneys, but reaching into the coin-return slot he
got jabbed with an HIV-infected needle around which was wrapped
a note that said, "Welcome to the world of AIDS." Luckily he was
only a few blocks from the hospital-the one where that little
boy who is dying of cancer is, the one whose last wish is for
everyone in the world to send him an e-mail and the American
Cancer Society has agreed to pay him a nickel for every e-mail
he receives. I sent him two e-mails and one of them was a bunch
of x's and o's in the shape of an angel (if you get it and
forward it to 10 people, you will have good luck but 10 people
you will only have OK luck and if you send it to less than 10
people you will have BAD LUCK FOR SEVEN YEARS). So anyway the
poor guy tried to drive himself to the hospital, but on the way
he noticed another car driving along without its lights on. To
be helpful, he flashed his lights at him and was promptly shot
as part of a gang initiation.
Send THIS to all the friends who send you their junk mail and
you will receive 4 green m&ms, but if you don't the owner of
Proctor and Gamble will report you to his Satanist friends and
you will have more bad luck, your wife will develop breast
cancer from using the antiperspirant which clogged the pores
under her arms, and the U.S. government will put a tax on your
emails forever.
FROM: laocoon@doomgloom.edu TO: Trojan Army Listserv < Trojans-L@troy.org RE: WARNING!! BEWARE GREEKS BEARING GIFTS! Hey Hector, This was forwarded to me by Cassandra--it looks legit. Please distribute to Priam, Hecuba, and your 99 siblings. Thanks, Laocoon WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! IF YOU RECEIVE A GIFT IN THE SHAPE OF A LARGE WOODEN HORSE DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT!!!! It is EXTREMELY DESTRUCTIVE and will overwrite your ENTIRE CITY! The "gift" is disguised as a large wooden horse about two stories tall. It tends to show up outside the city gates and appears to be abandoned. DO NOT let it through the gates! It contains hardware that is incompatible with Trojan programming, including a crowd of heavily armed Greek warriors that will destroy your army, sack your town, and kill your women and children. If you have already received such a gift, DO NOT OPEN IT! Take it back out of the city unopened and set fire to it by the beach. FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW! Poseidon =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= FROM: hector@studmuffin.com TO: laocoon@doomgloom.edu RE: Greeks bearing gifts Laocoon, I hate to break to you, but this is one of the oldest hoaxes there is. I've seen variants on this warning come through on other listservs, one involving some kind of fruit that was supposed to kill the people who ate it and one having to do with something called the "Midas Touch." Here are a few tipoffs that this is a hoax: 1) This "Forward this message to everyone you know" crap. If it were really meant as a warning about the Greek army, why tell anyone to post it to the Phonecians, Sumerians, and Cretans? 2) Use of exclamation points. Always a giveaway. 3) It's signed "from Poseidon." Granted he's had his problems with Odysseus but he's one of their guys, isn't he? Besides, the lack of a real header with a detailed address makes me suspicious. 4) Technically speaking, there is no way for a horse to overwrite your entire city. A horse is just an animal, after all. Next time you get a message like this, just delete it. I appreciate your concern, but once you've been around the block a couple times you'll realize how annoying this kind of stuff is. Bye now, Hector
