E-Mail in General

 

E-Mail in General Email Security 101 Attachments 101 What to attach How to attach a file How to forward an attached file Opening Attached Files Drafts

 ex

[version 20090114a]

 

Email Security 101

 

So, you got spam?  Up to 80% of email traffic on many days is now estimated to be spam.

 

Never, repeat again NEVER, repeat yet again, NEVER!!! reply to spam, INCLUDING the "click here to stop receiving this annoying crap".  That "click here" line is really a trap, which lets the spammer verify that yours is a valid address - and then it will be sold all over the place as a verified and more valuable address.  That gets you even more spam.

 

The exception to this is a legitimate company that you did business with, that went ahead and put you on their email list.  For those, you can use the "click here to stop" links.

 

If your email allows, mark it as spam (Thunderbird and other email programs often have a "junk" button).  Check the options in your email program to see what the email program does with spam (usually (1) send it to the trash, and (2) mark anything from that address to go directly to the trash in the future).  You still have to download it, but you don't have to see it -- it goes directly to trash.

 

Also -- if you have the option, turn off the automatic loading of images.  If you load an image from spam, the spammer can tell that email address so&so loaded an image and is therefore a valid target.  Turning this off lets you decide whether or not to load images, as needed (and lets you load your email faster, quite often).  This also reduces the chance of getting an infected graphic (yes, you can now get viruses and trojans from pictures).

 

Check the ComputerHelpers page on email for other things you can do.

 

Remember, telling a spammer to not bother you is like telling a younger sibling "stop touching me!".... you KNOW they're going to keep doing it.

 

Attachments 101

 

What to attach

 

LionsLink and some other mail servers may have trouble with certain formats, especially the new Office 2007 formats with suffixes ending in "x" such as .docx .  Be sure to save in the older formats before trying to send files from Office. 

 

Also remember that nasty stuff can lurk in graphics now, and infect your computer if you open a graphic, so some mail servers may have trouble with some graphics when you attach them.

 

How to attach a file

 

You can, of course, use the "Attach" function.  If, however, you are NOT using LionsLink or an online email service, but instead have email such as Thunderbird or Outlook on your computer (and it's set as the default email program), you can simply go to the file, right-click on it, and choose Send To, then choose Mail Recipient.  This should open your default email program and create a new message with your file already attached.  Just address it, add the message and send.  (Note: you usually need to have the file closed in order to do this -- if it's still open in your word processor, say, this won't work until you close the file.)

 

How to forward an attached file

and why you can't send it when you see it right there

 

Email servers are funny beasts.  There are lots of different programs that are used to turn a server into an email server, and between that and add-ons, upgrades, enhancements, and all, what you can and cannot do can change rapidly.

 

I notice lately that some attachments ARE getting forwarded with email, at least on campus, so people are getting the hang of it.

 

However, email servers may treat the email message and the attached file(s) as separate things, and they will not forward the attachment with the email.

 

In this case, you need to attach the attachment.

 

Except you can't.

 

Because -- it exists only in the email file!  It's not really "there" except in the email message on the server.  And you can't pull the file from the server to attach it.

 

So, when using an online email program such as LionsLink, try this:

 

* First, open the attachment and SAVE it to someplace on your computer.  That 1downloads directory you created earlier in this wiki training, for example.

 

* Now, ATTACH the attachment to the email you are forwarding, from where you saved it.  This is the surest way to be certain it will go along with the email.  If the recipient gets two copies, will that really hurt?

 

Of course, if you're using Thunderbird, the attachment probably stays attached when you forward something.  That's because you downloaded the attached file along with the email and it's on your computer now.

 

Opening Attached Files

 

So, you can't seem to open that attached file?

 

* Check the tiny print and see if it says anything about encoding, such as "base64" encoded.

 

* Read base64 encoding in About.com. 

 

Some email programs have defaults which, if not changed, automatically put the attachment into a special code to protect confidential information.  Not everyone realizes that, however, and might leave it that way -- or accidentally change to it.

 

In such cases, you'll have to have the sender re-send the file, this time without encoding it.  (That's usually easier than dealing with passwords to unencrypt the file, etc.)

 

* What if the file is not encoded, but you get a popup asking what to use to open it?

 

* First, be SURE that this is a legitimate file that was intentionally sent, and not something sent by malware (bad software, such as a virus or trojan horse).  Malware can use an email contact list to send out copies of itself without the computer owner knowing it, so you can't just trust it because you know the person who supposedly sent it.

 

Let's say, however, that you were expecting this file.  The popup means that Windows doesn't know how to handle this type of file.  

 

* What is the extension of the file, meaning the letters after the period in the file name?

 

* If you don't recognize the type of file this extension indicates, you can always Google the extension.  That's right, type the extension (not the entire file name) into Google or another search engine and quite often you can find something on the type of file the extension indicates.

 

How does Windows figure out what to use to open something?

 

* Open My Computer and click on the Tools dropdown menu, and then on Folder Options.

 

* Open File Types.  Here are a list of extensions along with the program that Windows would normally use to open them.

 

These begin with a list of places, rather than files (the file extensions are further down).  For example, you might have something like "(NONE) AudioCD" as the first type.  This is because you might want to open a file, or do something else with it.  So, there is no default and you will get a popup listing your choices.

 

* Let's scroll down a ways to the .DOC extension.  The default is to open it with Microsoft Office Word (usually!).  But what if you preferred to open it in, say, WordPerfect?  You could use the Change function to select that instead.

 

Normally, you won't change these, but sometimes, you can have a program "hijack" a file type.  Media programs, like RealPlayer, often do this to all the audio files you have.  In that case, if you'd rather open a music file in, say, Windows Media Player, you can go here to change that file extension so it opens in WMP instead.

 

Or, let's say you have Adobe Acrobat Professional installed.  It automatically takes over any time you find a .pdf file.  But it takes longer to load, and more resources.  What if you wanted to load a file with Adobe Reader or another PDF reader instead?

 

* For one choice, you can often right-click on a file and select Open with and choose a program to use.

 

* If you'd rather not deal with that every time, you can follow the directions to File Types and change the program used for .pdf files to Adobe Reader.  You can still right-click and open with Acrobat Pro if you want to handle a specific file that way, or just open the program and then call up the file from within it.

 

This works with all sorts of files that are listed, as long as you have something that can read or run them.

 

Drafts

 

 

Draft 1

Draft 2