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Back By Popular
Demand
By Cate Eales
Appeared January 31, 2008 on castanet.net
Some questions are more popular than others, I guess.
When it comes to email, these are the three questions I am most often
asked.
What's up with the red X's in email?
Friends, clients, readers, and even total strangers at parties ask this
one again and again.
When you see a red X in an email where a picture belongs, it means one of
two things. It could mean that your email program or a security program on
your computer is preventing the image from being displayed. It could also
mean, however, that whoever sent you the email didn't actually include the
image, even though s/he meant to. Here's how to troubleshoot the problem
if you have Outlook Express:
The first thing to check is whether your email program is blocking those
images. Try this:
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Open Outlook Express |
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Click on "Tools" |
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Click on "Options" |
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Click on the "Security" tab. The top part of that is
"Virus Protection".
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Internet zone = selected |
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Warn me... = selected |
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Do not allow attachments... = NOT selected |
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Block images and other... = NOT selected |
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Click OK |
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Click on "Read" and make sure"Read all messaged in
plain text" is NOT checked.
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OK your way out |
If that doesn't solve the problem, it's likely something
else is blocking attachments. The usual suspects are Norton Security
Center, Trend Micro Internet Security, and some firewalls, including
ZoneAlarm. If you are running any of those products, check the
configuration for email scanning, and make sure attachments/images are
allowed to download/display. The settings differ for each product, so you
might need to use the product's Help..
If you receive email and can see the images just fine, but people you
forward to complain about the red X, it could be you're not really sending
those images. Check these settings:
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Open Outlook Express |
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Click on "Tools" |
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Click on "Options" |
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Click on "Send" |
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Click on "HTML Settings"
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Click on "Send pictures with messages" |
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OK your way out
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I have two computers. How can I
synchronize my email between them?
There's an easy and reliable way to end up with messages on both
computers. Don't worry about syncing them, instead set up your email
account on both machines, and select "Leave mail on server."
You can check your mail either machine. When you get it on one computer,
it will still be on the server waiting for you to grab it from the other
computer. Just be sure to specify a reasonable amount of time for the mail
to stay on the server, or your ISP will complain about you exceeding your
quota.
If you travel with a laptop, just set it up to "Leave mail on server." You
can check your mail while you're on the road, and it will still be on the
server when you get back, provided you've left it on the server for the
entire length of time you'll be travelling! Check your mail from your main
computer, and it will all be there, too.
I got an email about something shocking. How do I know if it's a hoax?
When you receive an email asking you alert everyone on Planet
Earth, just wait a minute before you click on that “Forward” button. If
the email has any or all of these characteristics, be suspicious; it's
probably a hoax:
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The email contains technical-sounding language.
It’s often pure gibberish, but it sounds technical, so we
get sucked into believing it. |
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The information in these emails is attributed to a
credible-sounding, yet vague, source, like Microsoft, AOL, or “the
manufacturer.”
Who at Microsoft or AOL or the manufacture said this? When was this
child abducted (“two weeks ago” is not specific enough on the
Internet!). |
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The email pleads with you to “…SEND THIS TO EVERYONE
IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK!”
Why would Microsoft or Sony or Disney be relying on us to email each
other about product defects/refunds/security alerts instead of
announcing this in the newspapers or on television or even on their
own websites? |
If you want to check further, my favourite place to look
is Snopes.com. You can
also check Sophos for a list of hoaxes, here:
http://www.sophos.com/security/hoaxes/, or view the top 10 hoaxes on my
website, here.
If all else fails, use Google to search on a significant
phrase from the email. Searching on “Penny Brown”, the subject of one of
the most frequently circulated hoax emails, returns about 372,000 hits,
most of which indicate that this email is a hoax. That search took less
than two seconds, and it saved someone else some aggravation.
Thank you to everyone who used their email for good, rather than evil, and
sent in questions, comments, and suggestions. Please email
cate@rlis.com with more of those! You can also
browse the column archives at any
time by pointing your browser here. If you'd like to subscribe
to this column by email,
please visit this link. It's easy, and free. If you'd prefer the
RSS Feed, click here.
Links
Snopes.com
http://www.snopes.com
Sophos Hoaxes
http://www.sophos.com/security/hoaxes/
Top Ten Sophos Hoaxes
http://rlis.com/sophos.htm
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives
http://rlis.com/column.htm
Get Cate's column by email
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618
RSS Feed:
http://rlis.com/rlis.xml
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Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible
and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric,
and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions,
helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware
eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image
management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management.
Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your
comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit
the Real Life Internet Solutions website at
www.rlis.com.
©
Cate Eales 2008 – All Rights Reserved
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