| E-mail has become a staple diet for
Internet users and many have an E-mail server that will deliver the mail to your computer
rather than just let you see it as a web page. This form of service is known as POP3
and provides for many advantages, a few risks, and some settings that need to be made on
you receiving software. If you are like many, you are using Outlook Express (OLE)
which is already installed as a part of your Internet Explorer browser software.
Configuring this OLE software is usually done by following your ISP instructions or using
their installation and setup software. Some customizing may be done by you to suit
your needs and to create some safety and efficiency features. Here are a few of
these that your may want to try. I am using
Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4807.1700. There may be some menu differences in the
version that you are using. You can download the latest version FREE from Microsoft
at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.htm
and clicking on "Product Updates". Please be patient while it customizes
the catalog for your needs. I do not advise downloading IE 6 or any other Windows XP
upgrades unless you already have Windows XP installed. The file sizes are only
practical with broadband connections.
- By default MS likes to set everything to HTML.
Cute at first, this proves to be dangerous, redundant, and annoying. I prefer
PLAIN TEXT only for E-mail and leave the animations and backgrounds for web sites that I
can avoid. I would like to just READ the message - a novel idea. Most MS OLE
mail is sent in BOTH text and HTML, the later being more verbose and redundant.
To change your mail format to PLAIN TEXT only ---
- Click on "Tools" / "Options" and
the "Compose" tab - take all check marks OFF - you can also set your Compose
Font to something comfortable.
- Click on the "Send" tab and set
"Plain Text" for the Mail Sending Format. Check to see that your
"Plain Text Settings" are - MIME and "Quoted Printable" for Encoding
(other settings have no effect). The difference between MIME text encoding using
"None", "Quoted Printable", and "Base 64" are beyond the
scope of this discussion. "None" with 80 characters would be a second
choice. "Base 64" should NEVER be set.
- Click on the "Read" tab and set your
favorite Font again for incoming (hopefully TEXT) mail.
With this you have reduced the E-mail traffic by
50% without an act of Congress or special skills. You can still change your mind
instantly when composing mail by clicking on Format / Rich Text(HTML) and annoy someone
without changing your default settings.
- Look at the "message source" for
suspicious mail to check for binary or coded content without exposing your system to virus
risk.
To check mail without opening ---
- (Highlight / File) or just (Right Click mail
header) / Properties / Details / Message Source.
- The entire message is displayed in text form and can
be safely reviewed for content.
- Binary content (characters that are not in
word/sentence format) may indicate an executable file (a program that could do damage to
your system) or a picture/graphic file.
- HTML content (has tags that look like
"<html>" and "<body>" etc. could contain system changing
JavaScript (HTML programming)
- For general setup of OLE "look and feel",
please see the Outlook Set-Up page and for Earthlink
account set-up see the Earthlink Outlook page.
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