leaving behind your old email address can be a very distressing and painful experience.  Many have been using the same email account given to them by their ISP for years and the address is known to all their friends and family.  The fear of missing messages sent to that address is a strong incentive to put up with the lousy service provided by their ISP.  Now, there are many better solutions for email but making the change can still be daunting.

Google’s GMail is a particularly good replacement for the old ISP email .  It’s free, has a lot of features including some pretty good anti-spam filtering.  GMail also gives an constantly increasing amount of storage.  Right now, it’s past 7GB which is easily twice the storage that your ISP might offer.

Please note, The following tip will only work for email accounts using POP3. It will not work for a lot of webmail accounts.

Set up Gmail to check mail on your old ISP account:

1. login to gmail and click “Settings” on the top right corner of the page.
2. Select the “Accounts and Import”” tab
3. Click the “Add POP3 email account” button from the Check mail using POP3 section.

Next type in the email address that you would like GMail to check.

Lastly all you need to do is type in the setting for the email account using the username/password and ports given by your ISP or email provider.

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Formatting emails in HTML is a very powerful tool and is often used very attractive emails.  Examples of legitmate uses of HTML email are for online promotions or newsletters.  However HTML has been heavily abused and has some very serious consequences for security.  It is very easy to hide the true destination of a link using HTML.  This is part of the nature of HTML.  Here is the code used to create a link.

<a href=”evilsite.com”> (This is the actual address of the link)

https://www.onlinebankingsite.com</a> (A fake address posing as a legitimate site)

In HTML a spammer can easily define a url and include also descriptive text which is presented to the recipient rather than the link.  The recipient does not see the url hidden behind the descriptive text and will click it, thinking it is the site referenced in the descriptive text, and is directed to whatever site the spammer wants. It is a potent tool often used in Phishing attacks to steal usernames and passwords, banking information, credit card numbers, etc.

Here is a real example

I got this suspected phishing email.  The link says www.paypal.com.  It’s also https so it’s secure right?

Here’s what what the link looks like if you look at the code.  Notice that the real address for the link is not https://www.paypal.com, but an IP address.

How to protect yourself

1. The safest way to protect yourself is to turn off the display of HTML in your email program.  This will ensure that all your messages are sent in plain text.  This is the safest way to use email.

2. If you absolutely need to follow a link in an email, copy the descriptive text of the link and paste it directly into the address bar of your browser.  This should ensure that the descriptive text is used as the address and not any hidden address.

3. Many email programs will automatically disable links in emails from unknown senders.  They also will recognize the spoofed address and warn user before enabling the links.  Although you should never rely on your email program to keep you totally safe.

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Mozilla Thunderbird is a free open source alternative to proprietary email clients such as Microsoft Outlook.  However a feature is missing from Mozilla Thunderbird that is present in other email clients such as Outlook.  Thunderbird does not have a calendar module.  However the great thing about Thunderbird is that it’s functionality can be expanded with plugins.  Thunderbird is incredibly flexible and the lack of a Calendar is fixed by installing a plugin from Mozilla called Lightning.

Thunderbird With Lightning Installed

Installing Lightning

1. Download the lightning.xpi file from http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
2. Open Thunderbird
3. Click “Add-ons” from Thunderbird’s Tools Menu
4. Drag and drop the lightning.xpi file from your desktop (or whatever folder you downloaded it from) onto the add-ons window.  The result will look like this, and you will be prompted you to restart Thunderbird for the add-on to take effect.

If you don’t want to access your calendar from your email client or if you don’t use Thunderbird you can download a stand alone calendar client called Mozilla Sunbird.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

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In a previous post I went over exporting email contacts from a webmail account and importing them into Mozilla Thunderbird.  However, what if you want to add extra contacts directly into the .csv (comma separated value) file that you exported?   What if you have a list of contacts on an Microsoft Excel file that you would like to import into Thunderbird.  Any spreadsheet program, such as outlook (but also openoffice.org and even Google Docs)will be able to read, edit, and save .csv files.  I can easily open the contacts.csv file that I exported from Hotmail and edit it in Excel.

Then I can type in the new contacts.  One limitation of Thunderbird is that they only import the first 36 or so fields of the csv and the Hotmail .csv file has a lot of unnecessary field.  You need to make sure that you eliminate all but 36 of the fields.

If you have an Excel file (.xls) containing contacts that you would like to add to your Thunderbird Address book, No problem.  Open the spreadsheet and click on “save as”.  Then select CSV (Comma Delimited) as the document type and its ready to import into thunderbird.

Lastly, Whenever you are importing your .csv file make sure that all the fields in Thunderbirds Address Book match up with the fields that you are importing.  You may need to move a couple fields up or down to match.

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Today a great deal of communication takes place by email, but a surprising number of people are really bad at writing email.  Most mistakes are overlooked when sending emails out to friends and family, but when you send email to coworkers, clients, and you employer (bosses) you need to convey a sense a professionalism.  Here are some dos and do nots for writing email.

Do Not:

• Do Not, under any circumstances, compose your entire email using all capital letters.  All Caps is a way to convey shouting and should be avoided.  Often people capitalize words they want to EMPHASIZE, but it’s not acceptable in many situations.  If you can, bold any words you wish to emphasize (can only do this if your email client accepts Rich Text).
• Do not use a lot of Abbreviations.  Besides the fact that the recipient may not understand your message, abbreviated words reflect poorly on your (and/or your company’s ) professionalism.  You should instead take time and spell out words completely.   Emoticons :-) should also be avoided.
• Do not go overboard with the goofy fonts and colors.  Just because you can change the color of every third word doesn’t mean that you should.  excessive use of colors and fonts tend to distract from the message.
• Do not use “web beacons” to track the receipt of email.  Many users utilize third party services that will notify you when someone opens your email message.  Often this is a transparent one pixel image that tracks the user as the image is being loaded.  This is often done without the knowledge of the user opening the message.  It is a favorite tool of spammers and is a huge privacy issue.   There are other less invasive, although more annoying, ways of finding out if your message was read.
• Do not send any attachments unless you know the recipient and they are expecting an attachment.  Because of the threat of malware in email attachments, most users will not open them.  Try sending as much as you can in the body of the email.  If you need to send an invoice to a client, type it in the body of the email rather than on a Word document or a PDF.  If you need to send something as an attachment make sure that the recipient knows that you are sending it, and know what it is.

Dos:

• Check your spelling and grammar.   Reread your email and make sure that it makes sense and that it says what you mean.  Spending a little time looking after the little things can really add a lot to your email.
• Use a neutral tone.  Joking and sarcasm does not translate well in the written word, and avoiding those devices helps eliminate a lot of misunderstandings.
• Use the Cc field when sending copies of the email to others rather than placing all the addresses in the To field.  Also make it clear to whom you are writing to.   That way there is no confusion over who needs to respond to the email.
• Be clear and concise.  Try and place the most important information in the first paragraph and all the extra details in the subsequent paragraphs.  That way people do not need to read a long rambling email before they can get to the important information.
• Close your email and talk to the person on the phone or face to face (if possible) whenever it is appropriate rather than sending emails.  Emails can be very impersonal and if you always stick to writing email you may miss out on opportunities to get to know your coworkers.  This is especially important (although very difficult to do) if you telecommute or work from home.

References:

http://careerplanning.about.com/od/communication/a/email_etiquette.htm
http://iwillfollow.com/email.htm
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA012054101033.aspx

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Free webmail services such as Microsoft’s Hotmail, Yahoo mail, and Google Gmail are inexpensive, easy to use, and accessible anywhere that you have a browser.  Over time you may collect many email addresses and contacts that you would like to share with other email addresses.  This tip is for exporting contacts from Hotmail and importing them into the Mozilla Thunderbird email client.  However, the process is similar for most other mail services.

Step 1: Export your contacts from Hotmail

1. login to your Hotmail (or Windows Live Mail as it is now called)
2. Click on the “Contacts” button on the left of the screen
   
3. Click on the options button on the top right corner of the next screen to pull up the options for contacts
   
4. Select Export Contacts
   
5. Click the Export Contacts button and it will save you contacts as a .csv (Comma Separated Values) file

The Comma Separated Values file that you export can be read by Microsoft Excel.  You can use this same process to move all your contacts over to an excel spreadsheet.  If you are using a different webmail then hotmail, you may export your contacts as a Tab delimited file (.tab) and this file type functions in pretty much the same way as a .csv

Step 2: Import contacts into Thunderbird

1. From the Thunderbird  tools, click on Import.
2. Select “Address Book” as the type of material to import.
3. Choose “Text file (LDIF, .tab, .csv, .txt)” as the format and click on Next
   
4. From There you can browse for the contacts file  which you previously exported.

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Part II: Edit your contacts using Microsoft Excel and import them into Thunderbird
(added Oct. 7, 2008)

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Mozilla Thunderbird is a wonderful and free alternative to Microsoft Outlook.  Stationary is a useful plugin for Thunderbird that will allow you to use pre-made HTML files as templates for your email messages.  Normally email is simple text, but using HTML allows you to create colorful and dynamic looking emails.  In the small business worlds there are many uses for html mail.

• Professional looking Letterhead for your formal communications
• Attractive Advertisements/Newsletters (Be sure that any advertisements are solicited by the recipient.  You don’t want to spam people).
• Gives you greater control over the look and feel of your messages

There are some disadvantages to HTML email.  The first is that it can be a security and privacy risk.  A maliciously formed HTML page can be used to install malware on your machine(although this is usually done through a flaw in windows.  Note: Keep you computer patched).  This is why many email programs block the loading of images and many users disable the receipt of HTML email.  Regardless it still can be useful.

For these instructions to work, you need to use Mozilla Thunderbird.  You can get Thunderbird here:  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

You will also need the Stationary Plugin.  You can get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4394

Part 1: Install Stationary

1. Open Thuderbird
2. Click “Add-ons” from the Tools Menu
3. Drag and drop the stationary.xpi file you downloaded on to the resulting add-ons window.

Step 2: Create message using HTML Template

1. You should create your HTML Template in advance using your HTML editor or notepad (if you don’t have an HTML editor).
2. Click on the arrow to the right of the Write icon in thunderbird.  Select “Other Stationary”.  Then just browse to the template.  In the future this file will be added to the dropdown list.
   
3. Compose your email and send it.  In case the recipient has disabled HTML mail you should be sure and send your message in both plaintext and HTML.

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