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Email (incl Newsgroups)

The electronic transfer of any plain text or rich text with or without a file, where the file could be a word processing file, a spreadsheet, an image, a video...etc.

   Email ' How to's ' and problems

Note: 

For WindowsXP the preferred email client is OUTLOOK, not ‘Outlook Express’, moreover, Microsoft has stopped support for the Outlook Express client program.

 

Outlook Express users will find that they have the same functionality in Outlook, e..g. Send/Receive, composing an email…etc using the same boxes (inbox, outbox ..etc), but there is also a wealth of other useful functionality in Outlook.  

 

You will find functionality such as an the A-Z database of contacts where not only are email addresses stored, but where you can store much other detail about the recipient – in other words you can use it as a contacts or customer database.

 

You plan events using a Calendar, and set Appointments with alert pop-ups and sounds (You may need to download sounds.exe from Microsoft for the sound element which also adds sounds to office products as well as Outlook). 

 

There is also a Notes section, and other functionalities – in other words – it’s time Express users moved over to Outlook.   You can IMPORT mail (inbox,outbox..etc), and addresses from Outlook Express using the FILE Menu in Outlook, so that you don’t lose valuable date.

 

Connection Problems

Composing

Your email address

File Attachments Problems

Newsgroups

Sending & Receiving Email

More than 1 email address with the same Internet Service Provider (ISP) account

General Internet Problems

Common email problems and answers

Multiple Email Accounts on the same PC

 

 

 

 

 

Connection Problems

If you are not using Microsoft software (ie: Internet Explorer, Outlook or Outlook Express) then contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) for advise if you consistently cannot connect to, or send or receive email.

Email connection problems can occur when:

Although your Email is received using Outlook or Outlook Express and web pages are browsed by Internet Explorer, BOTH use the same Dial Up setting. If you cannot connect and browse web pages in Internet Explorer as well as connect using Outlook, then the first thing to do is to check that your account name, password and dial-up code and number are correct. See eprobs.htm for more details on Dialup settings

 

In Outlook Express the following must also be correct:

The email account name: With many ISP the email account name is usually the first part of the email address eg: account name: michael_small where email is: michael-small@lineone.net.

The password: normally the same password as the ISP main account.

The Incoming Server Name (pop3 server): eg: pop3.lineone.net

The Outgoing Mail Server Name (smtp server): eg: smtp.lineone.net

The 4 pieces of information above must be absolutely correct for everything to work. If for example I was told over the phone that the servers were at Lineone and I used pop3.line1.net and/or smtp.line1.net then quite naturally I would get an error saying that the server(s) could not be found. So make sure that all 4 elements are exactly correct. Check also for lowercase/uppercase typing errors.

Multiple email accounts from different ISPs:

Finally, if you are picking up mail from more than one account and not all accounts are with the same ISP, then ensure that ALL the connections use the same dial-up connection. For example if I have 3 accounts, 2 with my original ISP (say Lineone) and one with another ISP (say Powerone), then the dialup connection for ALL 3 accounts must be to Lineone. It will pick up the 2 Lineone account emails, then re-route from Lineone to Powerone to pick up the 3rd.

 

 

 

 

 

File Attachment Problems

File attachments are files sent along with the normal text (In Outlook Express 4/5: Insert, File attachment).

The rule of thumb (even if you have a virus checker which checks email), is NOT to open or save files that are sent by an unknown source or by an inexperienced source. Unless you have trust in the sender, or you have a pre-arrangement to receive a file from a trustworthy source, then if in doubt simply delete the file, before opening it.

It is pointless sending a file that the recipient cannot open. To avoid this use the most common file formats e.g: doc (Word Document), wav (sound wave), gif (image format which is usually 4 times smaller than a BMP image), xls (spreadsheet file), mdb (database file). Note: I know these are all Microsoft applications BUT there are the most widely used. An alternative is Adobe Acrobat - but again don't send an Acrobat file, if you are unsure whether the recipient has the Acrobat Reader.

If you are sending a doc file to a user with an older machine you may be using a word processor version far newer than the recipient which will lead to the recipient not being able to get the file to open/open properly.

e.g: A Word97 doc file sent to a recipient who is still using Word7.

If you email is just going to be text and not too long then compose it directly in your email program rather than by a word processor.

Alternatively, if you need to send an existing document generated by a latest version word processor and you know the recipient has not got that version, then save a copy of the file in the file format the recipient is using, and then send that copy as a file attachment.

 

 

Composing an email

You can compose and send an email whilst you are on-line to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), but this wastes valuable on-line time. The best way is to compose your email off-line and have it sent (and any others you may have) when you next go on-line.

 For some common email problems and answers, see the Q&A page

 

Sending and receiving email

Both sending (as previously mentioned) and receiving of email must be done on-line to your ISP.

 For some common email problems and answers, see the Q&A page

 

Your email address

Is usually your username, (the name you chose when joining your ISP) followed by @ then followed by the name of your ISP. E.g:

My username: michael_small

My ISP: lineone.net

Thus my email address is: michael_small@lineone.net

 

For some common email problems and answers, see the Q&A page

 

 

More than 1 email address from the same ISP

If you have more than 1 computer at your site, then each computer can have it's own email address (and it's own username and password) provided from the original ISP account. This is often referred to as a sub-account and is subordinate to your main account.

 

With LINEONE and many other ISPs, the free subscription gives you a main account plus 4 free sub-accounts, some other ISPs are less generous.

 

Multiple Email Accounts on the same PC

Q. How do I enable multiple Email accounts ?

A. You can have the main account and sub-accounts accessed by the same computer by either:

Adding new email account details, (In Outlook Express: Tools, Account, Mail tab).

or

In Windows 98, adding a new User profile to the PC (Start, Settings, Control Panel, Users). This option has the added advantage that you can use a completely different Dialup account with a same or different ISP, have a separate email account, and have a completely different Internet Explorer setup. In addition you can also have separate copies of My Documents and even a different Desktop theme and background with a different computer log on username and password.  

 

Transferring email between computers on a network

This can be done in several ways:

A note to mention here, the best 'Firewall' type of protection for a network, is to have just one pc to use for email and either permanently or occasionally, take it off the network. In this way, no file attachment with a virus can invade the network - a low cost, low-tech solution if you can't afford 'Firewall' software.