Articles in Category: Email
Email – the most used, most long lived communications medium offered by networks of interconnected computers.
Gmail’s Confidential Mode Isn’t
Gmail offers a "confidential mode". It is and it isn't; learn how it works before you use it.
How to (Accidentally) Give Someone Else Your PayPal Account
Entering your email address incorrectly might just be a typo, but it can have surprising ramifications.
Why I (Still) Don’t Like Challenge/Response Spam Blockers
An error caused my newsletter to come "From" the wrong address. Flooded with challenge/response mails, I wonder: what other messages are you missing?
Why Does My IP Address Have a Bad Reputation? And What Do I Do?
Email reputation for your home IP address probably doesn't matter, and having it characterized as "poor" might even be a good thing.
What’s a Relay Server?
Relay servers pass email messages along from one email server to another. I'll review why they exist, and why they might matter.
How Can I Automatically Reply to Spammers To Tell Them to Stop?
It's tempting to want to reply to spam, telling the sender to stop it (or worse). Not only is that ineffective, it often makes things worse.
Will a Hacked Website Leak My Email Address?
Your password protects your account from unauthorized access, but it doesn't protect your email address from exposure.
Why Does My Email Sometimes Show Up with Funny Characters Like “=0D” In It?
Email can use complex methods to encode special (or even not-so-special) characters. Occasionally, those methods accidentally become visible.
How Long Does Email Delivery Take?
Email is typically very fast, but there are several reasons it can be legitimately delayed for hours, or perhaps even days.
How Do I Back Up My Outlook.com Email?
Outlook.com accounts are hacked into and lost every day. I'll review a couple of techniques that ensure you won't lose email or contacts if it happens to you.
How Do I Get an Email Address for Life?
Want an email address that won't have to change for a long time? There's really only one approach that's completely in your control.
Enabling Google Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is a powerful way to protect your account. We'll enable two-factor and take an additional, critical, step to secure it.
What’s This Confirmation Request I Got When I Emailed Someone?
Challenge/Response is a spam-fighting technique that forces you to prove you're human before your message will be delivered. It's controversial, to say the least.
What’s the Difference Between Spam and Junk Mail?
"Spam" and "junk" mean the same thing when it comes to email. There's a lot of confusion about how they, your email service, and your email program all interact.
Can I Still Get a Hotmail Email Address?
Surprisingly, you can still create a hotmail.com email address. I'll show you how.
My ISP Went Under; How Do I Recover My Email and Email Address?
If your ISP goes out of business, typically you can no longer access data kept on their equipment. Prevention is really the only cure.
How Do I Encrypt Email?
It's surprisingly difficult to encrypt email. We'll look at a practical solution that anyone can use, as well as the way things "should" work.
What Happens When I Mark Something as Spam?
Marking spam as spam is an important tool in the war against it, but exactly what happens when you do so is clouded in mystery.
How Do I Get my Name, Title and Other Information to Show at the Bottom of Every Message I Send?
Signatures are a great way to make composing email easier by including standard information at the bottom. I'll show you where the settings are in three popular email interfaces.
The Wrong Way to Change Your Email Address
Simply emailing your entire contact list with a notice that you've changed your email address is NOT the way to change your email address.
4 Alternatives for Windows Live Mail and Outlook.com
Outlook.com is dropping support for Windows Live Mail 2012. I'll look at what that really means, and outline some options Microsoft failed to mention.
Emails Opened? Is There a Reliable Way to Tell?
It's very common to want confirmation that an email has been opened, delivered, or read. In the age of spam, it's simply not possible with any accuracy.
Why Is My Email Marked as Spam?
You can end up with email marked as spam for many different reasons, usually involving reputation - and not only yours.
Am I Sending Spam?
Sending emails with attachments to many BCC'd recipients directly from your Hotmail account looks like you're sending spam. I'll talk about why, and suggest alternatives.
I searched and found a Hotmail support number, but is it legit?
There is no Hotmail support number. If you find one in search results, it's not Microsoft. Whether it's legitimate is up for debate.
Why Is an Email Address Sometimes in Angle Brackets?
Computers use email addresses to route email. Angle brackets are used when a more human-readable name is also included.
How Do I Route My Email through Gmail?
Gmail can be used to handle email for almost any email address. I'll show you how to route your email through Gmail, and why it's worth considering.
What is IMAP? And How Can it Help Me Manage My Email?
IMAP is a protocol that your email program may use to access your email. Among other features, it makes dealing with email on multiple devices much easier.
Why Does Email Disappear from My Phone?
When adding another device to access your email, it's easy to run into a situation where email seems to disappear. I'll look at the most common reason and what to do about it.
The Best Ways to Back Up Gmail
Relying on free email services can be an unnecessary risk. Fortunately it's possible, even easy, to back up Gmail.
Change Your Hotmail or Outlook.com Email Address With An Alias
Outlook.com has added the concept of email address aliases. They serve as a good solution when you want to change your email address.
How Do I Change My Gmail Password?
It's not necessarily obvious where Google/Gmail hides the "Change Password" functionality. I'll walk you through it.
How do I Choose a Good Domain Name?
Registering your own domain is one way to keep an email address that you'll never need to change. I'll look at some of the issues in choosing a domain name, and choosing a registrar.
Who do I contact for legal help?
I get questions like this all the time. Individuals' accounts have been hacked and they want to know who did it, or they already believe they know. And with that knowledge they want to do something. Typically, they want to see the offender get punished in some way. Sadly, life on the internet just isn't ... Read more
Why Am I Getting Email for Another Person in Another Country?
It can be unnerving to get email for someone else - that clearly isn't spam - which appears to have been sent to your email address. If that person is in another country, look closer.
Why Am I Getting Email with the Right Email Address but the Wrong Name?
This sounds like a problem in your friend's contact list or address book. To sort it out, first we need to understand where email names come from.
Why am I getting Amazon notifications for someone else?
It's pretty scary that you are getting notifications from someone else's account - but not scary for you!
How Do I Force My Email Account to Close on Another Device?
There are possibilities here that are, perhaps, even more unsavory than having someone you know reading your mail. So first things first!
What’s this new anti-spam policy about, and how will it affect me?
At first blush the new policies look like a good thing... until they start hitting email discussion groups and creating all sorts of havoc! Bottom line: blame spammers.
Why Does My Account Keep Sending Out Spam?
Unfortunately most of this is out of your hands now. There are a few things you can check for, and then you'll have to just get on with your life.
I got two identical spam messages from two friends. Which of us has been hacked?
It's unlikely that you've been hacked. It's possible that your friends have both been hacked, but this kind of thing can happen without anyone being hacked at all!
Is it worth upgrading to get Windows XP Mode?
Installing a recently unsupported operating system so you can use an email program that hasn't been supported for years is something I'll advise against. There are safer ways to go.
Someone Is Signing Me Up for Newsletters I Don’t Want — What Can I Do?
If someone, even someone you may know, is targeting you with spam - it's still spam. We'll treat it as such.
How Do I Copy Email from Outlook to Gmail?
It's easy to get email providers and email programs mixed up. So the first step in setting this up is to understand which does what.
How Do I Get a Recipient’s Email Address and Name to Show in the To: Line?
You have control over what recipients see in the "from" field when they receive email from you. But the "to" field when you're receiving a message? Not so much.
Why am I suddenly getting spam in my inbox?
It can be very frustrating if it suddenly seems like spammers have found you. There is one thing may help your email provider catch up and slow the deluge.
Why Aren’t My Friends Getting My Email?
If your email service is on a blacklist it's going to be pretty hard to get it removed. Let's try a work-around and see if that helps.
What Email Program Should I Use After Outlook 2003?
There is an easy solution, and a not-so-easy solution. It's going to depend on how much money you want to spend.
Why Do I Always Have to Sign Out Other Sessions in Gmail?
Isolating other sessions in Gmail can become pretty complex. We'll walk through a number of scenarios.
Why Does Email I Send to a Large Contact List Bounce so Often?
You're not a spammer, I know that - but you're acting like a spammer. And there's your problem.
