Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet and email

Email lost in space?

MaudB — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 09:28:19 -0800

Where does email go when it's sent and then lost in the ether? I recently read -- or think I remember reading -- an article wherein the author explored where lost email goes - not lost in your email software, but lost in space once it's been sent. Now a friend wants to see the article and I can't find it anywhere and can't seem to Google it, either. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Help me logon to my email!!

dmbfan93 — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:37:19 -0800

Please help me fix an internet/computer problem....I keep getting the message "Invalid Security Certificate" when I try to logon to my email accounts. I'm trying to logon to both my gmail account and my msn account and this morning I get the message "google.com uses an invalid security certificate"? This is just occuring, I was able to login last night. Does this have anything to do with a windows update that installed on my computer last night?

I try to logon to my MSN account and the exact same thing is occuring. The following message I get:

# This could be a problem with the server's configuration, or it could be someone trying to impersonate the server.

# If you have connected to this server successfully in the past, the error may be temporary, and you can try again later.

Please help me fix this!

What's the simplest email service?

SuperErin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:52:05 -0800

Email-filter: I have promised to help my aunt set up an email account. She is totally computer illiterate. Doesn't own a computer, probably doen't know how to turn one on, but wants to email her granddaughter who just started college. Help me pick the best email service for her! I personally use Gmail, because I like all the features and tools and extras. But I'm trying to see this through her eyes: would these same features be overwhelming or confusing?

She'll be accessing the internet at the public library, so there should be a librarian nearby to assist, if she runs into trouble.

What email service is the simplest, most intuitive, and most beginner-friendly? Also, she'll probably go a good while between logging in -- I want to make sure her account won't be disabled if she goes a month w/o checking it.

Thanks!

Sending dirty videos securely

Anonymous — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:26:39 -0800

How can I send a dirty video securely? Trying to send my partner an explicit video of myself. Too big for gmail, even zipped (73 unzipped, 57 zipped). I am wary of potentially unsecure, 3rd party services (e.g., yousendit). Any ideas?

have your email call my email

diode — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:57:02 -0800

How can you mitigate the disaster of an email message that disappears en route? I work for a small nonprofit. We have a pretty reliable mail server. It's older technology (SIMS on OS 9 for geekoids) but is fantastic for the price, meaning it's free.

One of our worker bees has had a few message disappear into the ether over a few months time. As far as we know, they were handed off to a remote mail server then got munged, filtered, or otherwise shunted into the fifth dimension.

The missing messages cause consternation because they mean missed appointments and a general concern that messages are disappearing.

Since email is not a 'guaranteed' service, what do people do to mitigate the possibility of disaster caused by an email that goes awry? Technically we can't change anything at the moment and think our mail server is working correctly.

It's the overall big picture of crucial emails and an imperfect world that is the crux. Perhaps there is some technical service that could help (hopefully free or cheap). I'm basically wondering what people do to make sure they don't get boned by a missing email, to put it in a rather ludicrous context.

Help! I forgot my email address!

hasna — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:21:37 -0800

Help, I forgot my email provider! It was an old one... and switched over to Hebrew within the past year and a half... anyone remember it? Sure enough, I forgot my hotmail password... ( oh gmail, how i love thee!) So I sent the "send to alternative email address" but I forgot what that email address is! I accessed it about a year ago - after having forgotten my password again - only to discover it had been switched over entirely to Hebrew...

At the time, I remember googling to find out why, and many people said the change was recent.. Prior to last time, I hadn't logged into that email account in about 4.5 years; it obviously didn't have a "minimum sign-in" requirement...

Does anyone remember that service? I feel like it might have started with a Q, K, W or S... but I might be wrong. Thanks in advance, mefites! :)

(and before you suggest it, I can't answer my "secret question". It asked me my spouses name... I don't have a spouse! :/ )

How to save emails offline and maintain a good organizational system?

jeffmshaw — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:51:01 -0800

OutlookFilter: we've been instructed to clean out our work e-mail. My co-worker has been using her e-mail as an effective filing system. Is there a way that she can both a) download the emails to her hard drive and b) maintain an interface that allows her to organize the e-mails by date, subject, sender, etc.? I know how to download e-mail and folders from outlook and view them offline -- but is there a way to stop the folders from syncing up with the folders on the server? That is, is there a way to download folders that are purely offline folders and view them within Outlook?

I'm open to any solution that involves both freeing up space on the e-mail server and allowing this co-worker to maintain access to a pleasing user interface and organization system. I'd prefer not to download additional software, but would be open to it. Thanks!

Attachment Included

mattdidthat — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:06:37 -0800

What is the etiquette and current wisdom regarding the practice of attaching your company logo to your emails? In correspondence with clients, associates, and vendors, I've noticed more people seem to be attaching their company's logo to their email signature, and I'm considering doing the same.

Is this standard practice, an annoying trend, or a frequently/easily-ignored option? Does it make you appear professional, inexperienced, or pretentious?

Is it an expected hallmark of a certain type of user e.g. graphic designers? What are the pros, cons, and no-no's of adding your logo to your email signature?

Keeping things aggregated

Aanidaani — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:00:26 -0800

Is there a website that will allow me to aggregate all my different email accounts and access them from one place? I know that Gmail can import mail from other accounts, but I'd like to have all my accounts separate and use some kind of web service that will interface with all of them. So far I've been using Thunderbird on my desktop at home to do this, but I travel frequently and instead I want to remotely access one site that links all my accounts.

I tried Zenbe but they've since started charging for it and it doesn't even support IMAP. What other options are there?

Batch Printing from Gmail

Raichle — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:15:22 -0800

Does anyone know of a way to batch print multiple emails from Gmail? Looking to print 30+ emails and don't want to have to open and print each one. Thanks!

Tool for automatic email header extraction for Outlook?

Jackie_Treehorn — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:31:12 -0800

Is there an easier way to select a group of emails in Outlook and extract their header information to a file or to the clipboard - together, all at once? An Outlook plugin perhaps? Outlook's method sucks because you can only get one header at a time via right-click and view options. I've got a load of spam that I need to send to my host for investigation.

Help me use GMail Better

arniec — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:25:14 -0800

My company recently switched from a standard POP mail server to having GMail as our MX server and hosting all our business accounts. Overall the benefits are quite positive, but I'm having some usage issues that bug me. Can you help me use gmail better? Specific questions inside. Part 1: I love the benefit of the IMAP mail system, allowing my inbox to be anywhere I am, rather than centralized around a specific computer. Previously I had my POP work account for 3 years and amassed thousands of emails coming in at about 4GB, all of which I must keep for reference of correspondence, e-mail addresses, etc. I had my mail sorted into folders, about 30-40 different folders depending on correspondence type. All of that mail was in Outlook until I recently became a Mac convert. Now it's all in Thunderbird.

So I can have ALL my mail available where I can get to it from anywhere, I'd like to migrate it all to GMail. I read that using IMAP I can just drag these old e-mails into my Inbox folder in Thunderbird, but given that I have about 40 folders, I'm not sure how to get them to GMail without just having a very large Inbox with a conglomeration of e-mails in it. I am guessing I could drag one folder to the Inbox, then organize that on Gmail, drag another folder, etc. but that leads me to problem #2:

Part 2: I know GMail uses labels...are there no folders? Would I need to drag in the e-mails, then label them all to use GMail's label system instead of my current folder-based system? And is that the most efficient way to do this?

Part 3: I am really NOT a fam of the "message threading" that GMail does. Often I will send solicitations to business partners and each subject line will be identical, the messages nearly so. However because the subject lines are the same, GMail takes e-mails from different business partners and puts them all in one thread, filling me with paranoia of sending the wrong e-mail to the wrong person or, worse, sending an entire e-mail chain from one business partner to another business partner which may contain confidential data. Is there any way to alter the functionality or, perhaps ideally, turn OFF this "feature" in GMail?

Part 4: As I'm still new to GMail, any "Power User" tips for me?

Final Notes: I still plan on using Thunderbird as my client of choice when at my work PC. I just want the ability to have ALL my mail accessible from ANY location as I feel it will enable me to work more efficiently, rather than having to hold some e-mails until I get back to my primary PC.

Thanks for any suggestions!

moving old emails from outlook express to gmail

conrad101 — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:01:07 -0800

What is the simplest way of transferring old outlook express mails to gmail? I've set it up so that new mails received are forwarded automatically to gmail but moving old mails is proving more difficult

Am I a sucker?

LiveToEat — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:26:32 -0800

Am I a sucker or will this actually make me some money? I work an entry level, boring, cubicle-confined job. I was looking at Craigslist to see if there's anything interesting I can do to make some extra pocket money and I found these sites:
http://www.dealsncash.com/
http://hits4pay.com/

I've seen a lot of these kinds of ads on CL and I can't help but be curious. Are they scams? How do they work? I figure if I can make some money while sitting around at my desk or in my free time, it might be worth it. I wouldn't do anything that required a credit card number, obviously. Has anyone else done this?

Why is Gmail (through Mac Mail) not sending some email messages?

airguitar2 — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:34:29 -0800

Help! Why is my Gmail, accessed through my Macbook's Mail application, occasionally not sending emails, even though they're listed as "sent"? I recently learned that a prospective employer never received an important email I sent using Gmail through Mac's Mail-- I chalked it up as a fluke. Now I've learned that another person never received an email. I know that most of my emails have gone through without a problem. Three questions:

a) What is going on? All my messages are listed as "sent" in the Gmail "sent" folder-- but apparently some never *actually* got sent/received?

b) Is there any way to know which messages have/ have not been sent? I'm paranoid that many other emails have never been sent/received, but I have no way of knowing which ones.

c) Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening in the future? Should I email everyone I've tried to email recently and ask if they've received my messages?

Thanks.

Registrar w/ bulletproof mail redirect?

skywhite — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:18:24 -0800

Registrar w/ bulletproof mail redirect? For several years I have been content with service on my dozen domain registrations with my old registrar, but no longer. I recently registered a .com domain and created one email redirect and one webmail account but neither work. I had to hunt on the registrar's site for the contact-form and never received an automated email with a ticket number. (UPDATE: finally got an automated email this very minute.)

I'm looking for a registrar which offers superlative mail forwarding. I don't really need webmail or hosting or spam protection -- just rock solid redirect from a registrar who isn't going away and has a good reputation. I'm currently paying US $15/year per domain (a mix of European and American domains) -- offering 5 webmail accounts and 1,000 redirects per domain, and I would be willing to continue to pay in that range.

Are email signatures legally meaningful?

merlinmann — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:39:32 -0800

Do automated email sigs mean anything in court? It's common for law firms, medical professionals, investment companies, and other organizations to automatically attach an email signature for all their employees' outgoing messages. These signatures frequently include onerous warnings and disclaimers that sound very official and imply all kinds of legal standing. But, what's the real deal?

Have there been many tests of what an automated signature does to alter the legal status of an email's contents in the eyes of the law? In particular, can you oblige "confidentiality" from the recipient of an unsolicited message — one in which (as Judge Wapner used to say) there has been no "meeting of the minds?"

Looking for "email to a friend" script

TheLastPsychiatrist — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:14:44 -0800

I'm looking for a script (javascript?) that will place an "email this post" button after posts on my blog. Something similar to the way you can email news stories from Yahoo!, etc. For the love of God, help me. If possible, I'd like to get one with a captcha or some such security device, but not absolutely necessary. Link to my site is available through my name, above, if that helps. I should also point out that I am not a coder, I barely know the difference between Javascript and printing.

Free (or cheap) Hosting Services (including email)

jonjacobmoon — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:52:23 -0800

I am looking for a free hosting service as a mirror for my site. It should also have reliable email (pop and smtp access). Any suggestions?

My phone wants to play with the other phones on the Internet!

By The Grace of God — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 15:11:37 -0800

How do I get my storied, adventuresome k750i on the internet and sending drunk pix of my elbow to the world? I have a Sony Ericsson k750i. I bought it from Carphone Warehouse as a t-mobile phone, went to the local unlocker and had it unlocked (but not debranded) and popped in my Vodafone card. Vodafone will let me text, top up and call, but no MMSing and no Web and no Email.

I'm on Vodafone Pay as you Talk, in the UK.

I've called Vodafone for settings (they say they'll send me an Install-o-Text for the settings, never has worked; I've gone to the Sony Ericsson website for Install-o-text, have gotten the texts but no internet. I've gone to Esato and many other websites, and have not yet found the particular perfect bits of set-up for me.

What is it I need to do? Do I need to debrand the phone? Do I need to debrand and rebrand to Vodafone? If debranding is called for, can I do it using the existing data cable? Is there a set of configurations somewhere that actually works for us PAYT customers?

note; in the hour or so before i unlocked it and put my vodafone card in, it did go to websites using the browser. No clue what the settings were..

I assume it's GPRS I want, and I want POPmail or a sync with an email account, and web-surfing and the ability to send MMS and email pictures to my flickr account.

thank you!!

Email Lock-out!

MasonDixon — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:44:20 -0800

Forgot my Yahoo password and login help is useless. How can I get back into my email? I received an email from ebay stating that someone had been accessing my (seldom used) ebay account, and that it was suspended. Their email seemed to imply that my ebay account as being accessed through my Yahoo email.

So I changed my password. I thought I remembered what I changed it to: "GenericPassword01," but apparently that's not it or there has been some other kind of snafu. I have tried various permutations of "GenericPassword01" with no success.

As it began as an anonymous "throwaway" email account, I didn't correctly fill in my address/birthday etc so I can't use that to get the password back. The throwaway account has become my public account for paypal, ebay, amazon, etc. and isn't quite so disposable any more.

Any suggestions?

How many people in the USA have email addresses?

worker_bee — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:06:38 -0800

Is there any way to find out what percentage of the population of the USA has an e-mail address? I need this to convince a work colleague that having a field on a form requesting an e-mail address needs to be mandatory. He steadfastly maintains that a sizable portion of the total population of the USA does not have an email address, but of course neither of us has figures to back up our assertion.

Email forwarding

qwerty155 — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:06:10 -0800

Looking for an online email forwarding service that can deal with forwarding to multiple addresses. I do some work volunteer work for an organisation that has over 100 members, and we need to be able to send out emails to peoples personal addresses.
We have our own domain name and the registrar provides email forwarding but only to one or two addresses at a time. What I really need is an online forwarding package that I can use to forward management@ourdomain.com onto a dozen or so private addresses, membership@ourdomain.com onto >100 addresses etc, etc (Would move to another registrar if you know of one that would do this).

I did almost consider the idea of installing small business server because of the number of email distribution groups required, but it seems a little like overkill as we have no need for a network or domain, nor do I particularly want to host an exchange server. Would want to avoid things like yahoo groups if possible - apart from all the annoying ads on the emails, because of the number of lists required, I'm not sure those basic mailing lists would do the job.

Free would be great, but not essential as I would want to be sure that the email don't end up on someone's spam list somewhere.

If anyone has any ideas that would be great. Many thanks!

Are your tubes clogged, too?

popechunk — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 10:16:14 -0800

Mail Administrators: are you seeing a huge increase in the amount of e-mail? I track lots of things on my small mail server, and one of them is the
number of times my mail server accepts a connection on TCP/25 from a
remote server. This number has steadily risen from around 9,000 times
per week (several years ago) to about 14,000 times per week (this summer).

Recently, however, I've seen an explosion in the number of machines that
are connecting to me. Like double. Also, I am getting an astounding
amount of spam. I've done some analysis of my logs using perl, but
can't find anything obvious. Buddies that also run their own mail servers
are seeing similar jumps in volume. What's going on?

Someone's stolen my email address!

serialcomma — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:33:32 -0800

Someone's signing up for internet accounts using my Yahoo email address. Help! Yesterday, I received an email from MySpace asking me to activate my account. The problem? I never signed up for a MySpace account using that address. And though I obviously didn't activate the account, there is now a MySpace Music page linked to my email address.

Then, today, I received an email from a particular actor's message board, asking me to click the link in the message to activate the account. And, you guessed it, I didn't sign up for an account there either.

The address being used is myfirstnamemylastname@yahoo.com. So is there a particularly inept person trying to impersonate me? (It doesn't make sense to fake being me when the confirmation emails come to my address, right?) Is someone screwing with me? Or is this a scam of some sort?

Also, in what may merely be a weird coincidence, my last name is the same as the actor whose message board I am now apparently a member of.

I've written to MySpace and have not yet gotten a response; I can't find a contact email for the message board. I've changed the password on my Yahoo account and directed all potentially sensitive emails to another address.

Anything else I can/should do? How worried should I be about this?