E-Mail FAQ
What is the difference between POP and SMTP mail?
POP3 (Post Office Protocol, version 3) is a protocol
that allows you to download your messages when you want to from a
mailbox on a mail server (usually at your ISP) to your local machine
using an email client (such as Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape
Messenger etc).
SMTP simply sends the messages to a server or routes them from one mail server to another.
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What is an IMAP account?
An IMAP (Internet Messaging Access Protocol) account
allows users to view and manipulate messages directly on the server
without having to download them. IMAP provides multiple connections
with simultaneous access to mailboxes, and allows users to request only
portions of messages, such as headers or attachments. IMAP users can
also create new folders in their mailboxes and move or copy messages
between folders. [top]
What is a POP account?
POP (Post Office Protocol) is the protocol used by most
e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. By default, all
messages are downloaded to your computer and deleted from the server. [top]
What causes access to POP3 mail to be slow?
There are several factors that can affect the speed of POP3 mail. These include, but are not limited to:
1. The number of messages in the mailbox, specifically the inbox. The
more messages, the slower it is, due to the amount of data that must be
read.
2. How often the POP3 client is set to retrieve new messages. If the
previous session did not complete before a new session is initiated
this will cause performance issues. The recommended 'check for new
mail' setting should be set for 15 minute intervals.
3. The modem connection rate, if a modem is used.
4. The capabilities of the computer, such as processor speed, RAM, etc.
5. Traffic on the servers.
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Why have I been told that my inbox is too large (I use a POP client)?
One explanation is that the mail client is being run in
"leave mail on server" mode. This means that instead of transferring
messages to the user's system, only a copy of each message is
transferred and a copy is left on the server. These remaining copies on
the server cause the inbox to steadily increase. The recommendation is
to deselect the "leave mail on server" settings. [top]
Where can I find free e-mail clients?
Search CNET for free E-mail tools for your operating system. Or search with Google.
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E-mail or email: Which is correct?
Both are correct. Since it stands for electronic mail, e-mail is
considered more correct. The use of the non-hyphenated form "email" has
gained acceptance over the years and is more accepted now. It's just my
personal preference. [top]
Where is my e-mail kept?
Your e-mail is kept on server until you make a
connections and download it. Then the mail messages are stored on your
computer. [top]
How do I recover my e-mail if my hard drive crashes?
If you have downloaded your e-mail from the system and
left the setting in your e-mail software to delete mail from server,
then your e-mail is lost. So please back up important messages. However
if you have choose leave e-mail on server, your e-mail will still be on
the POP3 server. The problem however is that all of your e-mail will
download to you. It is best to read up on your e-mail software and just
leave the important messages or the server, or as before just back up
your important e-mail on another disk. [top]
What is "bulk email"?
Bulk email is any group of messages sent via email,
with substantially identical content, to a large number of addresses at
once. Many ISPs specify a threshold for bulk email:
----- 25 or more recipients within a 24-hour period -----
Once again, taken by itself, bulk email is not necessarily abuse of the
email system. For example, there are legitimate mailing lists, some
with hundreds or thousands of willing recipients. [top]
What is email harassment?
Any message or series of messages sent via email that meet the legal definition of harassment.
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What is a mailbomb?
Delivery of enough email to a mailbox to overload the mailbox or perhaps even the system that the mailbox is hosted on.
Mailbombs generally take one of two forms. A mailbox might be targeted
to receive hundreds or thousands of messages; this makes it difficult
or impossible for the victim to use their own mailbox, possibly
subjects them to additional charges for storage space, and might cause
them to miss messages entirely due to overflow. This is seen as a
denial-of-service attack, perhaps also harassment, and is not tolerated
by any known service providers. Alternatively, a message will be
bulk-emailed, with the intended victim's address forged in the From:
and/or Reply-To: lines of the headers. The victim is then deluged with
responses, mostly angry.
There is a third, particularly nasty, form of mailbomb. This one forges
subscription requests to many mailing lists, all for one recipient. The
result is a huge barrage of email arriving in the victim's email box,
all of it unwanted, but "legitimate". Many mailing list administrators
are countering this form of abuse by sending a confirmation email to
each subscription request, which must be returned in order to be
subscribed to the list.
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I've been mailbombed - what should i do?
Contact your ISP immediately. They can help stop the inflow, and also help track down the source of the mailbomb.
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How to send mail to more than one person ?
To do this separate their email addresses in the To:,
Cc:, or Bcc: header (or a combination of all three) with commas (",").
Do not use semicolons (";") to separate lists of email addresses. [top]
What is email forwarding/email aliases ?
Email aliases simply forward email to an existing email account. So you
could have me@mysite.com being forwarded to your_mailbox@yourISP.com
for example. [top]
What is SSL?
Secure Socket Layer is a secure protocol. SSL uses
digital certificates, encoding algorithms, and private decoding keys to
make sure your data is safe. The 128-bit SSL is considered safe enough
for banks and financial institutions. [top]
What is SSL certificate and how does it work?
An SSL certificate contains the following information:
The domain name for which the certificate was issued.
The owner of the certificate and the domain name.
The physical location of the owner.
The validity dates of the certificate.
128 bit SSL certificate is a digital document that has unique codes to
identify the holder of the 128 bit SSL certificate to the person
accessing the server. Whenever anybody transacts with a "secure"
server, their browser (or mailer) authenticates the identity of the
server using the SSL CERTIFICATE.
If the server's SSL certificate is not valid, a warning is issued to
the user, otherwise the SSL certificate creates an SSL session and
encrypts any information exchanged during that session. [top]
How can one tell that a web-mail is secure?
The pages of a web-mail which are secured by a SSL certificates are characterized by the following traits:
The URL of the secure web-pages change from http://... to https://
A lock symbol appears in the lower left-hand (right hand) status bar in Netscape Navigator (Internet Explorer).
If one wants to view and verify the encryption information of the secure pages, one should simply undertake the following:
In Netscape - click on the lock symbol above and select "View Certificate" button
In Internet Explorer - double-click on the lock in the lower right-hand status bar.
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How do 128 bit SSL certificate work for different versions of browsers?
The specific browser recognition properties are outlined in the table below.
AOL Browser 6.x Fully supported
AOL Browser 7.x Fully supported
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x Fully supported
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01+ Fully supported
Netscape 6.X Fully supported
Netscape Navigator 4.51X and higher Fully supported
Opera 5 Fully supported
Opera 7 Fully supported
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Is 128 bit SSL certificate tied to any IP address?
No, server certificates do not contain any information about IP addresses.
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How do I find out what someone's e-mail address is?
The best way to find out someone's e-mail address is to ask them. There are a few search systems on the Web here are a two.
1. www.google.com
2. www.search.com
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