General Tips & Info FAQ

How to use Outlook Express safely

I use OE - I have a couple dozen pop email accounts that I monitor and it works best for me. BUT I make it safe thru these steps:

1. Tools > Options > Read tab > check the box for Read All Messages in Plain Text. This prevents html from showing up at all and prevents viruses from auto-executing when I open an email. Since I don't subscribe to a bunch of html newsletters and I prefer lists that use only plain text, this works great for me. None of that hot pink text on a yellow background. :) (Note that this feature is only available in the last version of OE, 6.00.28 - you must upgrade if you see anything less than that. But it's a good idea to upgrade anyway, get the latest and most secure version of OE and IE.)

2. Tools > Options > Security tab > select Restricted Sites zone. This helps protect you from some of the hazards of OE's integration with IE.

3. I use Avast's home edition anti-virus program which is free and automatically checks for updates at various times when I'm online in the background. It integrates with OE as well, running all incoming and outgoing mail thru it and alerts me when there's a virus in an email, flagging the subject line with a warning.

4. I have filters (message rules in OE) set up to automatically delete anything Avast flags as a virus. I also have filters set to put any email with an attachemtn OR that's over 30k in size into a folder labeled "ATTACHMENTS". When I look at that folder, I know to be careful, scan subject lines and if I don't recognize it, then I right click on the subject and select Properties, then click on the Details tab and then on the Message Source button to view the message safely without being infected by the virus. (I do this with spam too, that way any tracking html or images they have in the spam message don't phone home to the spammer.)

5. Tools > Options > Maintenance tab, select Empty Messages from the Deleted Items Folder on Exit. This dumps all viruses (and spam too) everytime I close OE so it's completely gone.

All of this is mostly automated and doesn't disrupt my use of OE or require any time from me on a regular basis. Avast catches most viruses and they go straight to trash which gets dumped at least daily. Occasionally a virus turns up in the ATTACHMENTS folder but since I scan subject lines carefully there and use the Properties option to view the messages, I see the virus safely and then delete it.

It does require paying attention and using the tools given, but OE can be run safely. If these kind of precautions are more hassle than OE is worth, then I recommend using another email program, Eudora, Thunderbird, most any email program other than OE will be safer than OE.

For Outlook users, you can follow some of these steps, I think #1 is only available in recent versions of Outlook tho and I'm not sure if Outlook has ever had #2. Avast however will integrate with Outlook as well and scan all email for viruses (it also works with virtually any pop email program). Steps #4 and #5 can be done in Outlook, although in some versions of Outlook, it's not possible to see the message source and so no way to safely view the message.

I have Outlook on my computer and for businesses, it is a great digital day planner and the ability to access global folders, other employees' schedules and projects is very useful. On a business network where the IT department can take other precautions to keep out viruses, it's a good thing to use. At home, I never use it for email tho, it's never allowed to connect to the internet. I use it only for keeping my Contacts and for synching with my Palm Pilot.

So for Outlook users, I suggest using something else to send and receive email instead of Outlook. If you use OE and set it up to run safely, you can then easily export your email into Outlook if you want to store it there along with Contacts and other stuff.

Don't use Internet Explorer!

I don't normally make blanket statements like that, I'd rather have a choice and I like to let other people make their own choices too. But it just keeps getting worse and worse with IE, more and more criminals (hackers, phishers, spammers) keep finding more new ways to exploit all the problems in IE and it will only continue to get worse, not better.

What's prompted my urge to everyone to switch is the latest and most dangerous exploit - read this article at CNet.

Any site hosted on a server using Windows (2000, 2003, NT, etc.) can get infected. Sites hosted on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and other types of server O/S can't get infected.

There are a good chunk of large and reputable sites running on Windows servers. As the CNet articles notes, even bank sites are getting infected and then the site can infect their customers - even going to an https url is not safe, the virus can infect the user from a secure https url.

The big lesson here for users is: Don't use IE - except for going to the Windows Update website (and if you're on Windows XP, you don't even have to do that, the XP update feature will do it automatically and without going thru IE). For all browsing, other than the Windows Update site, here's safe alternatives that cannot be infected by this virus or other malicious adware, spyware or any other nasties that automatically install thru IE.

Links open in new windows - all of these browsers are free of charge and advertising except for Opera.

Firefox (recommended for IE users)
Mozilla (recommended for Netscape users)
Opera (for Windows or Mac users, also note that this browser is not free, you can either pay in cash or pay thru having ads displayed at the top of the browser)
Camino (for Mac OS X users)
Safari (for Mac OS X users)

(While Mac users aren't affected by this virus, the IE version for Mac is not a great browser, imho, so I'm including alternatives for Mac users as well.)

Another way to make shorter urls

There's also shorl which gives you a mnemonicised code (rather than the other two's alphanumerics) and a password. The password is used to access stats on how many people have visited your shorter URL (not for limiting who can visit your shorl).

Shorl has a nice bookmarklet feature, you save the bookmarklet in your bookrmarks or favorites, then when you're at a site with a really long url, just click on the bookmarklet and you'll get a popup window with the shorl url.

(Thanks to Iain Truskett for this info!)

Helpful urls for copyright information

Here are some resources for copyright information. Please note that most of these sites talk about US copyright law but much of this will apply to other countries if they signed on to the Berne Convention which requires each signing country to honor the other countries' copyrights.

10 Big Myths about Copyright Explained

What is Copyright Protection

Rights for Artists

Chapter 5 of the US Copyright Law

Graphic Artists Guild: U.S. Copyright Law

Graphic Artists Guild: Links

Tracking spammers

Here's a good website for looking up IP addresses and domain names:

Network-Tools

If you've got the IP address where a spam originated, you can plug in the IP address here to find out what ISP hosts that IP, then you can send a spam report to their abuse@ address.

It's also useful for tracking trolls and other bothersome types.

And yet more free anti-virus and firewall software!

Now no-one can ever say they can't afford anti-virus or firewall software! Along with Avast, AVG and ZoneAlarm, here's more free options, courtesy of Melinda Meahan:

For virus protection, there is Antivir.

And for firewalls, there is also Agnitum Outpost, which I decided on after going through various freeware firewalls, as well as Kerio Personal Firewall, which a lot of people on alt.comp.freeware like but it kept crashing my computer. Kerio Personal Firewall can be found thru PricelessWare, the repository for listings of favorite freeware programs of all types recommended by the participants of the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup.

Thanks, Melinda!

New Free Anti-Virus Software

There's another free anti-virus program, Avast Home Edition. I looked at it awhile ago, the cost was a bit high for me but now it's freeware, the only cost is registering with them (give them valid email address to get the registration key for the program but the rest of the info doesn't have to be too accurate ;)) and it has free automatic updates for up to fourteen months and then you just need to re-register to continue to get them free.

It was recommended by a sys admin on the technical anti-spam list I'm on and I've only started using it but one thing I really like better than AVG is the integration with Outlook Express. It will check both incoming and outbound mail quickly as it's being received or sent out.

AVG will also check OE mail but it works by scanning each folder in OE as you go to it. So even if there's no new mail, if you click on a folder of saved mail, it'll scan it first, then display the contents of the mailbox, resulting in rather long delays at times, especially if you have a lot of saved mail.

Avast does it like Norton and McAfee do, by changing the incoming mail settings to run incoming mail thru the virus scanner before putting it in your mail folders so there's no delay in vieing mail folders and no noticeable delay in receiving mail.

One big difference between Avast and Norton tho is that Avast does the scanning of incoming mail locally, checking it against its downloaded anti-virus database, whereas Norton would actually send it thru Norton's servers over the internet, then bring it to your computer. Whenever Norton's servers were overloaded, popping mail would timeout repeatedly and you'd have no mail. That's the main reason I quit using Norton, I got tired of never being able to download mail in the evenings because Norton's servers were overloaded.

I also like that it does automatic updates whenever you're connected to the net, unlike AVG which you have to set to a specific time and if your computer isn't on at that moment, then it won't check for an update until the next day. (I have my parents on Norton specifically because of this, their computer times are erratic and Norton also checks automatically whenever your computer is on, but if this program checks out, I will probably switch them over.)

Avast will also generated an "Virus Recovery Database" which aids in restoring infected files should you be unlucky enough to get infected.

All in all, it's a nifty program so far. The user interface is a bit daunting, but there's really not much to change in the default settings so it doesn't really matter. The mail wizard for reconfiguring your mail program and email accounts to scan them is very simple and the program works with OE, Outlook, Eudora, Pegasus, Mozilla Thunderbird and many other email programs as well. It is a Windows only program tho, I believe, but most viruses are written for Windows anyway.

New US Govt Virus Alerts email lists

The Government is setting up a virus alerts email list, here's an article about it at Wired.com and another one at PC World.

You can sign up for the virus alerts at the US-Cert (Cert = Computer Emergency Readiness Team), there's four lists with varying degrees of technical and non-technical info, plus you can visit that page for info on the latest viruses, for each one, you'll see a link to "technical info" and "non-technical info". The non-technical info page is written in plain English for everyday users, letting them know what to watch for, likely subject lines, etc. and tips to prevent virus infections, like running an anti-virus program and personal firewall.

Remember, the two most important things to prevent viruses:

1. Install an anti-virus program! Can't afford to buy one? Use AVG by Grisoft, it's free.

2. Get DAILY updates to your anti-virus programs! An anti-virus program is USELESS if you never update it! (If you're using AVG, you get free udpates as well.) Most popular virus programs, Norton, McAfee, AVG, etc., can be set to update at least once a day. And if you hear there's a new virus going around, go run the update manually to get any recently issued updates since the last automatic update.

Adware & Spyware

Even advertising on reputable sites can contain tracking programs and bots to watch your movements around the internet. Most times this information is used to help you, by offering you ads and products geared towards your interests, based on where you've surfed. More malicious programs gather info about you and send it back to their creators for criiminal use.

To detect and remove both the benign and malicious ones, check out these two programs, Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. Both programs are free but don't forget to bookmark those sites and check for updates as the programs are revised to detect and remove newer spyware.

The Nigerian 419 scam

Some person with important sounding titles and a sob story wanting to share tens of millions of dollars with you? Don't believe it!

That's known as the Nigerian scam, and it has its variations and is also run out of Amsterdam as well as parts of Africa. It's also morphed recently into requests to buy lots of (various items) from you, the scam is that they'll send you a check or charge a (stolen) credit card for more than they owe you and then ask you to send them a refund of the excess...only then their check bounces or the credit card charge is revoked and you're out the refund you gave them. You should forward the email with full headers to the US Secret Service, they have a task force that is tracking down these people and arresting them in cooperation with the Nigerian and various other governments:

419.fcd@usss.treas.gov

Put a note in the subject of the email, NO LOSS if you didn't pay them anything and if you did pay them, put LOSS and then detail the loss in the body of the email.

For 419 spams to Canada, you can also use:

info@phonebusters.com

Phonebusters is a combined effort of the Ontario Provincial Police and
the RCMP initially set up to stop telemarketing fraud but, according to
the local RCMP Commercial Crime Division, they also handle 419 scams.

Recommended by Spews

Three spam filtering programs recommended by Spews (I don't care for their blocklist but their recommendations on filtering software are good :)).

SpamPal, according to its website: How does SpamPal work? SpamPal sits between your email program and your mailbox, checking your email as you retrieve it. Any email messages that SpamPal considers to be spam will be "tagged" with a special header; you simply configure your email client to filter anything with this header into a separate folder and your spam won't be mixed up with the rest of your email anymore!

SpamEater, according to its website: SpamEater is an advanced spam filtering tool that will rid your mailbox of spam before you download it with your mail client software! SpamEater Pro uses a complex set of rules to catch even the most persistent spammers with a 90% or better hit rate! With the amount of spam being sent ever increasing, SpamEater Pro is a tool that you can't afford to be without! Don't fret over waiting for your mail to download with all the spam! Get SpamEater Pro and start stopping it today!

Email Express!, according to its website: The program is a liason between your email program and your POP3 and SMTP servers. The program becomes your email program's mail server. Email Express! can check an email's header information about its routing servers against an aggregate of RBLs, or Realtime Blackhole Lists. RBLs are special lists that contain information about various points of abuse in the email system used by spammers to inject their spam in to the system, and is updated constantly. If a server in the email headers is found in the RBLs then Email Express! can automatically delete them or sequestor them in to a special Access table. The RBLs are accessed by Email Express! in real time. This process is one of the layers of protection that Email Express! offers its users.

SpamPal, SpamEater and Email Express! are available for use at no charge, SpamEater is available in a shareware Pro version with extra features and Email Express! has also added a shareware Pro version. SpamPal also has the ability to include other people's Plugins as part of it's filtering process.

Cleaning up quoted text

To clean up the >>>>s and properly word wrap emails that I forward post I use a shareware product that is available on both PCs and Macs called Smartwrap. I've used it for many years on all the PCs and Macs that I own. Being a shareware product you can download it and test it out to see if it works for you. It does save the hassle of cutting and pasting when all you want to do is re-format. It is a real time saver!!!

Thanks to Betty Fellows for posting this info to EL-M.

For AOL users

Enetbot for AOL users, read and send mail on an AOL account thru most pop3 email programs like Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express, etc. and send real PLAIN-TEXT mail (no html part) from an AOL address.

Links to Copyright Info

Want to post something that someone else wrote? Want to forward something posted to a list, website, forum or elsewhere? Just because it's the Internet doesn't mean it's all free. Check out the ownership of those words before you run off with them. And just being outside the US doesn't change anything, most countries have signed on to the Berne Convention, an international copyright agreement.