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E-Mail FAQ's
I know it is illegal to
send spam but I still get a lot of it. What can I do?
What is an e-mail client?
Do I have one?
Friends send me pictures
and things in E-mail but when I try to click on them a box comes up that
says 'Open With' and I don't know what to do. What should I pick?
Can I send the same e-mail to more than one person?
 . I know it is illegal to
send spam but I still get a lot of it. What can I do?
 . There are several things
you can do. Many ISP's now have spam blocking capabilities. Check with your ISP
to see if they have these capabilities and how to use them. Be aware however
that sometimes legitimate messages can be flagged as spam so you still need to
check your flagged messages periodically to be sure that no good ones are in
there.
You can also use a spam filter in your e-mail client. The most
recent versions of Outlook and Outlook express have the ability to filter mail
for subjects or content that appear to be spam. There are also programs that you
can install that will filter spam. Most of these have the ability to "learn"
what is spam by flagging messages as spam or recovering flagged messages as not
spam. The same issue exists with these attempts to filter spam that legitimate
mail may get caught in them.
Finally, if you get mail that is clearly in violation of the CAN
SPAM act you can forward it to the FTC at
spam@uce.gov. The FTC website can be found at
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/spam/ with further information about
spam. The law makes it makes it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail with false or
misleading headers or deceptive subject lines. Unfortunately there is
insufficient enforcement of the law because of the huge volume combined with the
fact that many spammers are outside the U.S.
: What is an e-mail client?
Do I have one?
. An e-mail client is a
program whose function is to create, get and send e-mail and store the e-mail on
your computer. All Windows computers come with Outlook Express which is an
e-mail client. Microsoft also makes Outlook which is an e-mail client with a
calendar, task list, notes and contacts. There are a number of other available
e-mail clients such as Thunderbird, Netscape Mail and Eudora. Which one you
choose depends on your needs.
It is also possible to use a website for mail. AOL, Comcast, SBC
and many others support webmail. In this scenario you go to a website and log in
and can see your e-mail, send e-mail and maintain an address book. The e-mail is
not downloaded to your computer but you can access it from any computer in the
world that can get to the internet.
.
Friends send me pictures
and things in E-mail but when I try to click on them a box comes up that
says 'Open With' and I don't know what to do. What should I pick?
. There is no easy answer to
this question. By default many programs tell Windows what kinds of files
they will open. However they don't always register all of the files that
they can open. When you get the 'Open With' box it means that no program
has claimed it will open files of the type you have received. You may
choose from the list of registered programs or select another program. If
you know you have a picture file your can try to open it with any picture
software you have such as Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photo
Deluxe or others. In some cases you can save the file to disk and then
open Microsoft Word and do an Insert|Picture|From File and put the picture
into a document. This may also work in another word processor if you don't
have Word.
The important thing to remember is that if you are not sure that the
program can open the file type you should unclick the box that says
"Always use this program to open this file". If you are wrong
you won't get an 'Open With' box again, you will automatically start the
program which will then tell you that it can't open the file.
. Can I send the same e-mail to more than one person?
. Yes. Each
e-mail client handles sending messages to multiple recipients slightly
differently but the basic procedure is to enter each e-mail address in the To:
line separated by a semicolon (;). If you are sending to people who probably
already have each others' e-mail address (family or a committee) it is okay to
put all of the addresses on the To: line. If you are sending to a group who are
not associated with each other (your customers or your friends who may not know
each other) it is considered polite to use the BCC: line. The BCC stands for
blind carbon copy so no recipient will see anyone else's' address. I'm sure we
have all received the mass forwarding of the mass forwarded message originally
sent to many people. By the time you get it there may be hundreds of e-mail
addresses in the list. Should one of these messages get to someone who is less
than reputable you have provided them with a large list of e-mail addresses that
are available for spamming. The BCC line does not always appear automatically
when you start a new e-mail so you may have to hunt for it. Usually when you
select your address book it will add the BCC line for addresses.
It is also possible in most e-mail clients to set up a distribution list. If
you send frequently to the same group of people you can create a distribution
list that contains the e-mail addresses of everyone in the group. Then when you
want to send to them all just put the group in the To: or BCC: line and you are
done addressing
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