How will I know if I have email in my inbox?

There are two ways to be notified of email you've received: on the computer and on your mobile device, such as a wireless phone or pager. In order to receive notification on your computer, you will need to download MSN Messenger or Microsoft Windows Messenger. When new email arrives in your Hotmail inbox, a notification will appear on your Desktop. MSN Hotmail offers a new-mail notification service that will notify you via your mobile device. All you have to do is register your device. To register, go to the "Options" screen after signing onto your Hotmail account and click Mail and Mobile Alerts. Provide the requested information, and every time you get a new email, you'll receive a message on your mobile phone or pager.

How can I protect myself from spam?

There are ways to protect yourself from junk email (spam). First, do not reply to junk email, even to request to be removed. This lets the spammer know that he has a valid address and the problem will only get worse. It is best to delete the message and add the sender to any filter you have applied. You should also remove yourself from any directory that shows your email address to anyone.

How do I block messages or set up a spam filter?

After signing into your Hotmail account, go to the Mail page and check the box next to the address you want to block. You will be asked to add the sender or the domain to your blocked senders list. If you block the sender (for example, user@emailprovider.com), only email from that account will be blocked; if you block the domain (emailprovider.com), all email from the domain will be blocked. You cannot block email from the Hotmail.com domain.

Yahoo! Mail

Yahoo! provides free Internet mail accounts very similar to MSN Hotmail. It has similar features, but a few set it apart. Yahoo! offers the ability to check your mail from anywhere, mobile device message alerts, spam guard, email filters, and subscription upgrades. Yahoo! Mail accounts offer virus scanning from Norton AntiVirus to scan all incoming messages to alert you of viruses contained in your incoming mail. It also gives you the option to auto-complete email addresses in your address book, customize the views in your inbox depending on who sent the email, and check the addresses in your replies to ask if you want to add them to your address book. Some of the features below are analogous to those in MSN Hotmail. The terminology might be different, but the concepts will be similar.

What is my Yahoo! Address Book?

Contact information is stored in your Yahoo! Mail account and can be added to outgoing email messages. This contact information is stored in much the same way your email is, on a central server, so it is available at any computer with an Internet connection. You will always have your email addresses when you want to send mail and you will never have to worry about updating contact lists when you switch Internet providers or get a new computer.

How do I add contacts to my Address Book?

When you are first starting your account, you will most likely have to manually enter your contact information. If you know the address of the contact you want to add, you can use the Quick Add Contact option, which is similar to the Add Contact option. Provide the necessary information and your contact is created. You can search Yahoo!'s online directory for Yahoo! Mail users and add contacts by clicking Add To Address Book.

When you receive mail, you can click Add Addresses or Quickbuilder to add contacts contained within mail you've received. You can also export an address book from another email account or software as a *.csv file. Click Address Options and Import/Export to export the file to your computer. Once the file is created, you import the address book into your new software. This procedure depends on your specific email application, one of which will be discussed later in this article.

How do I send email to my contacts?

To send email from your address book, open your contact list and click the address to which you want to send email. To send to more than one contact, check the boxes next to the contact names and click Compose. You can use the Pop-up Address book if you want to add an address to an email already in progress. Click either "To," "Cc," or "Bcc"; select the addresses; and click Add Selected Contacts. Finally, if you have a contact saved with a nickname, you can simply type the nickname in the "To" field.

How do I view or save an attachment?

When you receive a message with an attachment, a paperclip symbol will appear next to the size of your message. To view the attachment, right-click and select Save Target As or Save Image As and choose a location on your computer to save your file. You can also use Scan And Download Attachment, View Attachment, or Scan And Save To My Yahoo! Briefcase options when you receive a file. Scan And Download Attachment will scan the file before you save it to your computer, View Attachment will allow you to view the attachment without opening the associated program, and Scan And Save To My Yahoo! Briefcase will scan the file and save it to your Yahoo! Briefcase if you have subscribed to that service.

How do I add an attachment?

When composing a message, click Attach Files and Browse to find the file you want to attach. Repeat the procedure for each attachment you want to add. Yahoo! will only allow you to send emails smaller than 10MB.

Can I get mail from another account?

Yes, by configuring your External Mail within your Yahoo! Mail account to retrieve your POP (Post Office Protocol) mail. POP mail is that which you can access through an email client such as Outlook, Eudora, or Netscape Mail. To set up your account, click Mail Options and choose Mail Accounts. Click the Add button and enter an account name. POP mail is the only server type supported at this time. Enter your POP account server name, your username, and your password. Your username is the text in your email address before the "@" symbol, and the server name is the text after the symbol.

Can I use my Yahoo! Mail Account as my default email application?

By downloading the Yahoo! Default Email Application, you can set your Yahoo! Mail as default for all of your Windows programs. Go to help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/ext/ext-11.html and download the program and install it on your computer. From this point on, anytime you send email from a Windows program, you will be taken to the Yahoo! Mail attachments interface.


ISP Mail

If you subscribe to an ISP that provides you with an email account, you will need to set up software on your computer to download emails from the ISP's server and save them to your computer. The most common types of ISP email are IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) and POP. IMAP creates folders on a server to organize messages before their retrieval. You can read the message headers and download the ones you want. POP is a protocol that allows you to download messages directly. Both Netscape and Microsoft offer software to download and store email on your computer.


Microsoft Outlook

How do I set up Outlook to download my IMAP and POP mail?

Click Tools and Accounts. Once the dialog box has been displayed, go to the Mail tab and click Add Mail. Follow the prompts, adding the required information. When the Wizard asks you for your email server name, you will need to know whether your email is POP3 or IMAP; select the appropriate option from the drop-down menu. The Incoming server is usually the name of your ISP proceeded by POP3 or IMAP (for example, pop3.emailprovider.com or imap.emailprovider.com) and the outgoing (SMTP) server is normally the ISP name preceded by SMTP (smtp.emailprovider.com). Your ISP will provide you with your incoming and SMTP server information. Your account name is the part of your email address before the @ symbol. After you click finish, you can compose, send, and receive email from Microsoft Outlook.

How can I use Outlook to download my AOL mail?

Create a new email account as described above, with the incoming mail server set to imap.aol.com and the outgoing server set to smtp.aol.com. Configure your account in the Internet Accounts box. Click the Properties tab of your AOL account and click the Servers tab. Select My Server Requires Authentication On The Outgoing Mail Server Section, click Apply, and then click the Advanced tab. Change the Outgoing Mail (SMTP) box to 587 and click Apply, OK, and Close.

How do I prevent spam with Outlook?

If you set the protection level of the Junk Email filter to High or Safe Lists Only, you will enjoy the maximum protection offered by Microsoft Outlook. To access your junk mail filter, click Tools and Organize. The filter is set to low by default in order to catch only the most obvious junk mail. You should also keep the filter updated by downloading updates available online. You should also block images in HTML messages that may be used as a beacon by spammers. You will need to set your automatic download settings to block automatic downloads by clicking Tools, Options, and Security. Make sure that the Don't download pictures or other content automatically in HTML email option in Change Automatic Download Settings is selected. There are spam-avoidance techniques that are not related to Outlook settings that will not be covered in this article.

How do I back up my email and address book?

You will need to export your address book and email as text data. Using the Microsoft Outlook Export Wizard, which you can find under File and Export, you can export your Outlook data to a comma-or tab-delimited text file. Saving the file will save all of your email or address book settings as one text file that you can then import into Outlook or many other email client programs. Import files by clicking Import in the File menu. This method is useful when trying to back up large quantities of emails and large address books in case of system failure.

Netscape Mail

Netscape provides a mail client that is equivalent in many ways to Microsoft Outlook. Netscape Mail provides access to multiple accounts, both IMAP and POP3, as well as integrated Instant Messenger service (discussed later in this article) and newsgroups. Netscape Mail is available as a package with Netscape Communicator, which can replace Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook. Many of the features of Outlook are included in Netscape, so the procedures listed below may have equivalents in both software packages. The procedures listed above for Microsoft Outlook can be loosely followed in Netscape to achieve the same effect once you determine the different feature names.

How do I transfer mail from Outlook to Netscape?

File types used by Netscape and Outlook to store and view email and address book entries are different, so they will need to be converted if you want to use a different package. In order to convert Outlook files to be used in Netscape Mail, you first need to click File and Import. Netscape then starts a conversion wizard that will take you the rest of the way through the procedure. You will need to select Outlook Express or whichever version of Outlook you were using and the location of Outlook on your computer. Netscape will then convert email files and address book entries from Outlook to Netscape format and you will be able to use Netscape to handle your communications.


Internet Chat

Internet Chat and IM (Instant Messaging) give you the ability to exchange text, video, and images over the Internet in real-time. Instant messaging is a conversation between two people, while chatting involves any number of people in the same chat room. In order to utilize chat or messaging services, you will need an Internet-connected computer and one of any number of software packages designed to allow you access to the chat rooms. You set up a list of friends and online contacts and the software will notify you whenever one of your contacts is online. You will then be allowed to converse and share files across the Internet. There are several different software packages available and even some applications that allow the use of contact lists from multiple software types. See the sidebar for a discussion of these applications.


AOL IM

How do I start using AOL IM?

Netscape Communicator includes an embedded copy of AOL IM. If you do not have a copy of the software, you will need to go to www.aim.com to download the most recent version. Once you've downloaded and installed the software, follow the instructions to register your software. Registration and activation of your new screen name and password happen simultaneously. If you are an America Online user, you can use the same name for IM that you use for AOL. If you are a new user, type in a new screen name and password to begin using the software. Within 48 hours of your registration, you will be sent an automated email that you must respond to in order to be fully registered.

What if I entered the wrong email address during registration?

Go to the File menu and click My Options and Update Email Address. Enter the correct email address and click OK.

What should I do if I forget my password?

If you enter an incorrect password, AIM will display an error message. Click the Forgot Password button on the error message and a web browser will open. Enter your screen name and click Submit. Your password will be sent to the email address entered when you registered your IM screen name. If the email address is no longer current, there is no way to get your AIM password. If this is the case, you must register a new IM screen name. If your AIM screen name is the same as your AOL screen name, you can sign on to AOL and go to keyword: AIM PASSWORD. There is no way for AOL to reset your password for you.

How do I change my password once I'm signed on to AIM?

From the My AIM menu, select My Options and Change Password.

How do I add a Buddy?

Once AOL IM is open and running, click the Setup button. This will take you to the Buddy List setup screen. Click Add Buddy and enter the Buddy's screen name. You can also import a buddy list from an old account by clicking File and Load Buddy List. In order to do this, you have to save the buddy list from the previous account.

How do I send an Instant Message?

Double-click a name on your Buddy List, type your message, and click Send. If the user returns your message, a separate message window will open. New text is displayed in the upper window and you enter text into the bottom window and click Send.

How do I participate in Chat?

Click the Chat icon at the bottom of your Buddy List and enter the screen names of the people you want to invite to chat. Once your invitation has been accepted, the chat can begin. Responses to the chat appear in the order in which they are received in an upper screen.


MSN Messenger

Can I use AOL IM and MSN Messenger at the same time?

Yes. If you install Messenger, and AOL IM no longer starts automatically, it is because MSN Messenger has turned off the option within AIM to start automatically when you start your computer. To reactivate this feature, go to General Preferences in AIM and enable the Start AIM When Windows Starts option.

What do I do if I've forgotten my password?

You have to go to memberservices.password.com, click the I forgot my password link, and enter the required information. You can also make other administrative changes to your account, such as change your password, profile, and mobile phone number for mobile alerts.

How do I keep unknown people from sending me instant messages?

Anyone who knows your email address can send you an instant message, even if she's not on your contact list unless you activate certain security features. You can block all messages from anyone who is not on your contact list by going to Tools, Options, and Privacy. Click All Others on the My Allow List and click Block. To block an individual, click Block on the toolbar in the conversation window. You will appear offline to the blocked person and deleting his or her name will not remove the block. If someone invites you and the blocked individual to a conversation, the block will not be in effect.


Yahoo! Messenger

How will I know when someone sends me an instant message?

Incoming instant messages will automatically open on your Desktop. Typing in the empty area at the bottom of the box will reply to the message.

How can I personalize my Yahoo! Messenger?

Yahoo! Messenger offers several personalization features. Yahoo! Avatars are stylized graphical representations of yourself that others see when you are communicating with them. A related feature allows you to select a personal graphic to represent yourself while chatting. Yahoo! Messenger also offers Voice Chat, Web cam, and Stealth Settings, which allow you to appear online to some users and offline to others.

Final Thoughts

There are so many more features of all of the applications we've talked about above that discussing them would take far too long to be covered here. Going to the Help feature/link of any of these applications will offer you a much more in-depth look at the special features of that particular service.

by David Miller