Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with e-mail

How can I track how much time I spend sending and reading e-mails?

k8lin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:04:57 -0800

I am looking for an automatic time tracker for my e-mail usage. I would like to track how much time I spend reading, composing, and sending e-mails, which I do for both my job and for school. I need this software to be automatic -- I do not want to have to click a button every time I open my e-mail client or every time I start writing a message. I am also not interested in learning how to write my own software to do this for me (I do not have time, although this seems like a fun project).

I am interested in tracking the minutes and hours that I spend sending e-mails to specific people, but would also be ok with using software that just generally tracked my e-mail usage. However, software that breaks down the data by e-mail address would be ideal. I normally use an e-mail client (Thunderbird) but sometimes I need to use webmail. A program that could track both would be best, but one that just works with Thunderbird or another e-mail client (I am not tied to Thunderbird; if there is software out there that does this with another desktop client I would consider switching) would be fine as well.

I have a feeling that this exists, but my Google searches on the topic aren't pulling up anything relevant. I've asked my friends and co-workers and no one has any suggestions (for search terms or for the actual program). It seems like freelancers and people who work from home would be interested in such a product, so I feel like it has to be out there somewhere. If you do not have a suggestion for an exact program, suggestions for other search terms to use and sites to look on would be helpful as well.

I would consider paying for software that does this if it meets all of my criteria (being able to track webmail and a desktop client, tracking who I sent/read e-mails from and to), especially if it is not too costly.

Someone else's gmail

obloquy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:24:37 -0800

I'm getting someone else's gmail along with my own. What to do? I have a gmail account the address of which is my name, in the format firstlast@gmail.com. It seems that someone who shares my name was able to register first.last@gmail.com. I am assuming that I am getting a lot of mail for this person due to the address being mistyped, since I doubt I get all of her mail. 1) Is this a reasonable assumption? 2) What are the chances that this person is getting any of my mail? 3) What is the appropriate action regarding the misdirected mail? Should I set up a script to forward it, ignore it, or what? I'd rather not have to communicate directly with this person; I know too much about them for comfort due to having accidentally read their mail so often.

New! Improved! Mood-brightening and enlightening!

fiercecupcake — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:21:43 -0800

What are some good, fun, little Internet surprises? More like this, less like Goatse. Little things you can make and send to a stranger/acquaintance/friend/lover/imaginary Internet person. Some things I use for this purpose are someecards.com and the above puri site. I'm always looking for more.

Key features:
* Free or for a nominal fee
* Surprising, inspiring, creative, fun, silly
* Not necessarily romantic

Yes, I can draw something in Paint and attach it to an e-mail, or take a picture and send it to someone, but I'm looking for something a little more unexpected. I feel like I've seen threads like this in AskMe before, but I can't find any of them!

Sync 2 IMAP Servers?

4chrisd — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:21:40 -0800

How do I sync two IMAP folders? I currently use Gmail for all my e-mail (personal & work). I currently have about 4,000+ messages archived in Gmail and I'll continue to add 300-500 per month. I also have a IMAP account with my webhost and I was wondering if there was any type of application or script that would connect to the Gmail IMAP servers and backup/sync all of my mail so I know that in addition to being in Gmail's cloud....it is also on my IMAP server in case something happens. Thoughts?

Professional Response In Relation To Private Situation?

Joey Michaels — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:03:05 -0800

What sort of professional response should I write to a person with whom I have some personal issues? Not to go into too much detail, but at the start of this summer, a long term friend of mine surprised me by banning my wife from her house. The reasons for this aren't germane to this question. Suffice to say that it isn't going to be worked out anytime soon.

Anyhow, this week, this friend sent me a request for information regarding a project she's starting at work. Specifically, since I've already gotten a project of this nature off the ground where I work, she figures I have some useful insight into how she can get this project off the ground where she works. This was written from her professional e-mail address to mine.

Since I'm under no obligation to help her (this would be doing her a huge favor), my gut reaction wasn't especially kind. However, since this was written in a "professional to professional," I am of the opinion that my response should be professional - as opposed to profane. Furthermore, work e-mails where I work are all stored by our company.

Were it not for this rather huge personal matter between us, I wouldn't hesitate to share this information. I would probably be willing to share it with a complete stranger under most circumstances.

On the other hand, if I had banned somebody from my house, I wouldn't be asking their spouse for a favor, much less a huge favor.

Anyhow, I'm looking for suggestions regarding some professional ways of responding to this person. Thank you for your time!

How do I enable print layout when opening attached .docs in Outlook 2003?

stevedee — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:51:39 -0800

Outlook 2003 user here-- is there a way to open .doc attachments in print layout, instead of (what I consider useless) reading layout?

Error Message Sending E-mails

tangyraspberry — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:32:36 -0800

I'm getting the following message attempting to send e-mails: "An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded. 4.3.0 problem running virus scanner. Please check message and try again." Is this a Thunderbird, Dell or Cedant issue?

secure, HIPAA-compliant e-mail service

bananafish — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:44:14 -0800

I need a recommendation for a secure, HIPAA-compliant, e-mail server for a small law firm. I'm an attorney at small law firm (4 attorneys and 3 staff). E-mail is absolutely crucial to our practice and our in-house server keeps crashing and our tech people can't seem to fix it. We're fed up and looking at possibly hosting our e-mail off-site. However, we need the server to HIPAA-compliant (we represent health plans) and we need to have the mail encrypted so that we have some assurance that our e-mail won't be turned over if the the outside server receives a subpoena. My concern is that much of our e-mail consists of confidential, privileged communications and I don't want some outside server responding to subpoena before we get a chance to fight it in court. Reliability and 24/7 service are also crucial. Any ideas?

Mozilla Thuderbird glitch

tangyraspberry — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:49:01 -0800

I use Mozilla Thunderbird for e-mail but, beginning about a week ago, although people received and continue to receive e-mails from me that are ok, when I open the same e-mails in my "send" file to review them, they're either blank or a jumble of code, often, related to e-mails other than what I just opened. Help!

Web Page E-mail Links That Don't Work: Bug or Feature?

BrooklynCouch — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:53:04 -0800

Web Page E-mail Links That Don't Work: Bug or Feature? Greetings Mefi-World! Here on my Mac OS X Panther PowerBook, nothing happens when I click on e-mail links on any web page in Safari and Firefox. Is this a feature I need to turn on, or is this intentional; an anti-spam thing? If it's the former, what do I change to make clicking on these links open a new e-mail (in Apple Mail)? All suggestions appreciated greatly.

E-mail etiquette

Anonymous — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:36:35 -0800

What is the correct e-mail etiquette in this situation? I was asked (via e-mail) to interview for a job. The prospective employer signed with his first name and addressed his e-mail to me, "Hi anonymous first name." I thought that meant it was acceptable to call him by his first name so I addressed my acceptance of the interview e-mail, "Hi employer first name." Was that an acceptable thing to do, or did I make a huge mistake? If it helps, this is in the education field.

Rules for Old E-mails in Webmail

LGCNo6 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:35:32 -0800

Forcing Outlook Web Access (aka Webmail) to execute a rule manually? I've got a rule set up to send all my OLD e-mails (1/1/07-3/1/08) in Webmail to a new Gmail account. So far so good. But I can't get Webmail to execute the rule on the old e-mails, even if I put them in the Inbox and mark them as unread and do a Send/Receive. Webmail has no option to execute a rule manually, so what are my options?

ALSO: I don't want to sync the Webmail account with Outlook or Thunderbird--I'd like to send things directly from the Webmail interface to Gmail.

AND: I can't set up an IMAP drive, since Webmail won't allow me to do that.

If I were really hitting on guys via Craigslist, at least I'd have better grammar

korres — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:14:51 -0800

Can I do anything about a spammer using my e-mail address to answer ads on Craigslist? My primary e-mail address is MyFirstNameMyLastName@gmail. I've had it for several years now, used it for online banking, shopping, personal e-mailing, and my resume, and have never had a problem.

Yesterday, I started getting e-mails at that address from strange men. They all look like this:

From: Some Guy

[message like "lol ur sexie lets hook up lol!!!!!!"]

On [date] [time], MyFirstName MyLastName wrote:

Hi. I know I did not have a pic on craigslist and I am sure you dont want to meet someone your not attracted to. Go to [suspicious-looking URL/MyFirstName/] to see my pic. I got some more info about me on there as well. So if your still interested contact me and we can talk further.

MyFirstName

---- Original Message ----

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY ** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home ** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping ** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html
[message that seems like a response to something, such as "it sounds like we like the same things" or "I like your ad, do you want to meet me"]
------------------------------------------------------------------
this message was remailed to you via: pers-549473412@craigslist.org
------------------------------------------------------------------

The suspicious URLs aren't anything porn-y, but they do sound sketchy, like "mybestwebsitehosting4free.info." The URL is different most times but they all point to the same page, a pretty innocuous picture of a chick with some fake vaguely-porny text and links to "XXX Black Book," which I assume is the actual porn site.

So it seems like a spammer puts an ad on Craigslist, a guy replies, and the spammer responds using my e-mail address. Then I get a creepy response from the guy.

Is my assessment right? And is there anything I can do about it, since it appears that my e-mail address isn't actually in these ads? I've only received six of these e-mails so far, but I'm afraid that it's only a matter of time before my inbox is flooded.

First message in Outlook takes a long time to open

Joleta — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 18:29:31 -0800

Why does it take forever (well, almost a minute) for the first message to open in Outlook (2002)? And what can I do about it? This started about a month ago and I'm getting really tired of it. Whenever I open Outlook (2002) and click on a message to open it, it takes a very long time to open. The same thing happens if I want to compose a new message or if I start in Calendar and try to open an appointment. Opening subsequent e-mail or calendar items is quick; it's only the first item I try to open after starting Outlook that takes forever. I don't use the preview pane. I just added 2 GB of memory but that didn't help this particular problem. My Outlook.pst file is 280 MB. My Inbox is about 50 MB, but I have lots of subfolders. I have Auto Archive set to run every 7 days and archive everything that's more than a week old. And in case it matters, I'm running Windows XP (Media Center Edition) with SP2.

Outlook Express Gone Wild!

tangyraspberry — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:34:22 -0800

New Dell laptop has screwed up my Outlook Express. Any suggestions? After transferring everything over to my new laptop when I attempt to send e-mails I get an "error" message. The e-mail then stays in the "out" box and, as frustrated recipients have let me know, Outlook Express repeatedly sends it until I delete it from the "out" box.

It also leaves no record in the "sent" file.

I've done the 45 min. calls with my provider (Qwest) as well as Dell and neither can figure it out.

Any help would be most appreciated!

Is it possible to create an image map in an HTML e-mail (especially Microsoft Office Outlook?)

branparsons — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:32:09 -0800

Is it possible to create an image map in an HTML e-mail (especially Microsoft Office Outlook?) Is there a best way to go about this? I don't need to do anything else or have any other fancy goodies, such as rollovers, etc. I'd just like to do clickable hotspots on an image. I don't know if I need to get into the source code at all -- or even how -- with Outlook.

Thanks!

we'd like to help you but please ddon't try to contact us

Xurando — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:41:25 -0800

My e-mail account is in never-never land. Help me get it out. A couple of years ago my ex web designer recommended a hosting company and I signed on. I've had nothing but trouble and will switch hosting providers once my e-mail is up and running again.

The current problem is my mail box is full. They are supposed to send me a warning before it filled up completely, but they didn't. There is no phone support (th voice mailbox is full) and they do not respond to e-mails outside of their support ticket system. I can't access c-panel to delete mail or send a support ticket because my log-in isn't working. Of course the requests for lost/wrong password or user name help are sent to the same mailbox that's full. The only thing I haven't tried is to reregister using my alternative e-mail address which I think they'll reject because the address isn't linked to one of their hosting accounts. My last hope may be certified snail mail.

I do have e-mail addresses for the support technician and the administrator but so far there has been no response.

Any suggestions, I'm desperate.

E-Mail Legalese. SMTP POP3 WTF BBQ

cavalier — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:45:43 -0800

E-Mail Legalese Signatures: This email is only intended for the recipient, if you are not the recipient, please douse your computer in moonshine and howl at the moon. We have all seen these crop up, but has anyone seen proof that they are worth anything? Every day the amount of (legit) emails that comes into my mailbox seems to grow with signatures like "This email is confidential" all the way to "IF YOU ARE NOT THE INTENDED RECIPIENT, YOU MUST DESTROY ALL RECORD OF THIS EMAIL FROM YOUR SYSTEM".

At first I thought it was some office intern somewhere trying to impress the boss, but as I see more and more of these I wonder... is there any point?

In the Federal and State case law I have searched, I can't find any indemnification achieved by putting it in an email. Likewise I haven't found any libel or slander suits that have been dismissed by this email line. Is there any point to these disclaimers, besides making the sender feel important, that I'm missing?

Curb my internet addiction

jujube — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:08:45 -0800

I spend way too much time surfing the web and checking e-mail when I should be working on my job. My job requires that I use the computer, so I cannot simply turn the computer off. Is there a way that I can disable my web browser (Mozilla Firefox) for a set amount of time? Also, because sometimes my job requires that I conduct web-based searches, even better would be if I can disallow me from certain addresses, such as mail.google.com, for a set amount of time. Ways in which I can do both or either would be much appreciated!

Sending E-mails with PHP

kaozity — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:57:35 -0800

How do I get PHP to send an e-mail. Is there a way to do it without recompiling PHP/Apache. If not, how do I recompile PHP/Apache on a linux system to do this? How do I get PHP to send an e-mail. Is there a way to do it without recompiling PHP/Apache. If not, how do I recompile PHP/Apache on a linux system to do this?

Ideally, I would like to find a way without recompiling my software, but if there is not other way, I can recompile the software.

Identity theft via attachment?

deliriouscool — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:40:59 -0800

How likely/difficult would it be to steal identity information from an e-mail attachment, like a Word document or an Excel file? For example, if I send my Christmas card spreadsheet via e-mail to one family member (or my entire extended family), what kind of identity theft risk is that for the people whose names and addresses appear on the spreadsheet?

Other email accounts on my Gmail.

NoMich — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:59:33 -0800

Doing my foo@foo.com email stuff on my foo@gmail.com? I want to be able to read, reply, forward, create new email from my foo@foo.com account using my foo@gmail.com email account. Here's the rub, I want everything that I send from foo@gmail.com account to actually be from foo@foo.com. Is that possible? If so, how do I set this up?
Why I want to do this is immaterial. Let's just say that if I don't set this up, the terrorists win. Terrorists are not allowed to post in this thread.

Thunderbird Won't Fly

NinaLee — Tue, 29 May 2007 07:12:02 -0800

I'm unable to open my Thunderbird e-mail program. After I upgraded it, it wouldn't open when I clicked on any of the appropriate icons or its listing in program files. I then did a system restore to before attempting the upgrade, hoping at least to be able to use my older version. Still no luck, not even in safe mode and not even after rebooting several times. A further complication is that I can't even bring up the Thunderbird profile by typing "thunderbird.exe -ProfileManager" in Run. I'm using XP Home. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

OSX Mail ate my homework.

mrmcsurly — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 12:16:29 -0800

Help me make the OSX Mail program stop mangling my attachments. I use the standard OSX Mail program and by-and-large am very happy with it. It has only one major flaw: when attaching files, particularly images, they often arrive unopenable or unusable for a Windows-based recipient.

I always select the "send-windows friendly attachments" option, and no, it isn't a file extension issue (I know that file extensions are sometimes dropped in the OSX/Windows conversion). It appears as if Mail tries to "embed" the images in the e-mail, rather than just attaching them as files.

Is there a setting to change, or a plugin I can use to correct this? I don't want to change mail programs, as I am otherwise 100% satisfied with the program.

Schools Filtering DotCom E-mail - DotCom vs. DotOrg

MaxVonCretin — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:40:14 -0800

Two Part Question: 1) Do some educational institutions flag ALL .com e-mails as spam? 2) Is it unseemly for a for-profit company to use the non-restricted .org TLD for its e-mail addresses? Part 1: A small educational publisher for which I sometimes freelance - and which has never sent spam - has inquired about changing all their e-mail addresses. (They use the .com variant of their domain, but also own the .org & .net versions.) In making the inquiry, they stated:

"Most of our clients are elementary and high schools, and most school firewalls now detect .com email as spam and send it to antispam folders where it is deleted before being read. Oftentimes our emails never reach our clients!"

Can this be true? I would imagine this would make it impossible for school personnel to communicate with 99% of the outside world.

This client has a propensity for interpreting anecdotal events as sweeping trends, so I'm tempted to think that's what this is - but they insist that they are hearing this from "many people". Can anyone verify this trend, and if so, which TLD(s) are best for combatting it?

Part 2: I could switch them over to .net or .org - though they seem to prefer the idea of using .org. Thing is, they are not organized as a non-profit (though they're barely profitable). I know the .org domain is not restricted, but it is popularly perceived as representing non-profit status. As such, I have advised them that using the .org might cause some people to feel they are somehow misrepresenting themselves. What do people here think - given the (possible) issue above, is using a .org address in a for-profit context a no-no?