Outlook Express Help | outlook express problems

How do you stop spam email ? Studies show unsolicited or what is more commonly known as junk spam email is now called “spam”. Spam accounts for about half of all e-mail messages received. Once it was just a little bit of a nuisance, but the prevalence of spam has increased to the rate that many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail. Spam is now attributed to one of the main causes and the spread of computer viruses.

To try and stop spam email, in 2003, President Bush signed the “Can Spam” bill, this became the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail. The bill, approved by the Senate by a vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate such mailers. In addition, it prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and requires that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also makes it illegal for senders to harvest addresses off Web sites.

Violators can be subject to up to one year in jail.

Unfortunately this can only be acted upon to violators from the United States. Spam is now coming from other countries in greater and greater numbers. To stop spam emails from these countries is difficult. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country’s laws and regulations. Because the Internet opens borders and thinks globally, these laws are fine and good, but do not stop the problem.

So what can you do to stop spam emails ?

Here are the top 5 rules to do to protect from spam:

Number 1: Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net.

There are things called “spam spiders” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on Google and enter “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back. There is a site called WebPoison.org an open source project geared to fight Internet “spambots” and “spam spiders”, by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses. These spammers can even use your e-mail address as the sending address when they send out their spam e-mails.

Number 2: Get a good spam blocking software.

There are many programs out there for this, specially an outlook express spam filter if you are using it. Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help. You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email.

Number 3: Use the multiple email address approach.

There are a lot of free email addresses to be had. If you must subscribe to newsletters, then have a “back-up” email address. It would be like giving your cell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else.

Number 4: Reading attachments from people you don’t know is a no no.

A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Corporations often have filters that don’t let such things pass to you. Personal email is far more “open country” for spammers. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well.

Number 5: Email services now have “bulk-mail” baskets.

If what you use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new vendor. The concept is simple. If you know someone, they can send you emails. If you don’t know them, put them in the bulk email pile and then “choose” to allow them into your circle. Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into.

Make sure you have anti virus software that checks coming mail for viruses and Trojans. These programs don’t stop spam email but sure do prevent viruses from entering your system.

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Now most ISP’s allow you to have more than one e-mail account. Most give up to 5. Great everyone in your family can have one.

You may have already configured your “Outlook Express” for you first account I will now in this, my Outlook Express Help blog help you to configure outlook express so that all your family can get their mail down to your PC. Just simply follow these instructions.

1. Start outlook express

2. Left click on “File” move pointer down to “Identities” and then left click on “add new Identity”

3. In the “new Identity Box” type the name you want for this identity. Click “OK” This can be anything you want it does not have to be your name.

4. A box will come up saying, “Do you want to switch to xxxx now”? Click on “Yes”. A box labeled “Internet Connection Wizard” will appear. Type in the actual name you would like to appear in your outgoing mail message.

5. Type in your e-mail address for this identity. Left click on “next”

6. Type in your incoming and outgoing e-mail server names. This will be in the format mail.yourdomain. e.g. mail.microsoft.com. Click “next”.

7. Type in your mail logon information. Ensure “remember password is set. Click “Next”.

8. On the next window just click “Finish” You should now be in your new e-mail identity in Outlook express.

9. Left click on “Tools” and select “Accounts”. A box called “Internet accounts” should be showing. Select the “Mail” Tab.

10. Click on the “properties” button on the right side of the box.

11. Select the “Servers” tab and tick the box labelled “My server requires authentication” Then click OK and then “Close”

12. Click on the “Send/Recv” icon at the top. You should then receive any e-mail that may be on your ISP’s server.

13. If there isn’t any mail for you click on “Create mail” and send a message to yourself. This will check that e-mail sending and receiving is working OK.

14. If it is OK then your mail will get sent. Click on the “Send/Recv” icon at again the top. You should then receive back the e-mail you have just sent.

Repeat to above for every new account you want. Technically there is no limit in Outlook on how many you can have.

It should be noted that you can only view one account at a time. In order to view another account you will need to “switch to that account. Just perform the following to view each account.

At the top left of the Outlook Express window click on “File” then click on “Switch Identities”. A box will open listing all your e-mail accounts or identities as they call them. Just double click on the one you wish to switch to

I hope you have found this Outlook Express help blog article useful.

Author:

Wilf Gerrard-Staton

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Before I go into how to install Outlook Express I must first explain one thing. Microsoft supplies two systems “Microsoft Outlook” and “Outlook Express” “Microsoft Outlook” is part of the Microsoft Management Suite of which Outlook Express is embedded. “Outlook Express” itself is an e-mail “client” that is provided with the windows operating system.“Outlook” connects to your ISP clients POP3 server to extract your e-mails that are being held by it.

When you first sign up with an ISP (Internet Service Provider) you are usually provided with an e-mail account and are given an e-mail address. This is in the for of “xxxx@yourdomain.yyy. an example would be joeblogs@microsoft.com. The “joeblogs” part is what you usually provide the ISP when you sign up.

You give this to your friends and acquaintances and they start sending you mail. This mail sits on your ISP’s server. How do you get at it?

Well one way is by logging onto your ISP’s webmail which most supply. Wouldn’t it be better if you can have it delivered to your PC? Yes of course you would, this is where Outlook Express comes in.

Your ISP should provide you with all the all the information that is required to configure outlook express. This should be your email address, the pop3 server addresses and maybe some port numbers. All this will become clearer as we go through the configuration process.

If you follow these instructions you can configure your “Outlook Express”. To do just that:

1. Left click on the “Start” button at the bottom left of your screen. (or maybe top left if for some reason you have managed to get your bar at the top of the screen) Left click on programs and find “Outlook Express” (Make sure it is “Outlook Express not “Microsoft Outlook”. Click on it.

2. Because Outlook has not been configured before it will automatically start a wizard. The first thing that comes up is box asking you what name you want to give this account. It can be anything, your name or something else. Click on next.

3. A box labeled “Internet Connection Wizard” will appear. Type in the actual name you would like to appear in your outgoing mail message. This is usually your actual name.

4. Type in your e-mail address for this identity. Left click on “next” (you should have this from your ISP)

5. Type in your incoming and outgoing e-mail server names. This will be in the format mail.yourispdomain. e.g. mail.microsoft.com. (These should have been provided by your ISP) Click next.

6. Type in your mail login information. (Again this should have been provided by your ISP) Ensure “remember password” is set. Click “Next”.

7. On the next window just click “Finish” You should end up in your new e-mail account in Outlook express.

8. Left click on “Tools” at the top of the Outlook Express window and select “Accounts”.

9. A box called “Internet accounts” should come up.

10. Select the “Mail” Tab and click on the “properties” button on the right side of the box.

11. Select the “Servers” tab and tick the box labeled “My server requires authentication” Then click OK and then “Close”

12. Click on the “Send/Recv” icon at the top. You should then receive any e-mail that may be on your ISP’s server.

13. If there isn’t any mail for you click on “Create mail” and send a message to yourself. This will check that e-mail sending and receiving is working OK.

14. If it is OK then your mail will get sent. Click on the “Send/Recv” icon at again the top. You should then receive back the e-mail you have just sent.

And that’s it. You can now get all your e-mail sent down to your PC and held on it forever. Later on I will be discussing how to configure the options of Outlook express in order to make it easier to manage your mail. I hope you found this Outlook Express Help article useful.

About the Author:

Wilf Gerrard-Staton is an old timer in the computer business going back before PC’s were even thought of. As well as this Outlook Express Help blog he has a Windows XP Slow Startup blog where he gives advice on fixing this problem. you can also find additional Outlook Express reading here

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I hope from my explanation of IMAP in a previous post that you have an understanding of why you want to configure outlook express with the IMAP Mailbox protocol. These instructions will be geared towards those who have teir own web hosting but most of the instructions will also be applicable to those who have an ISP mail account whose ISP allows the IMAP protocol to be configured. There are some ISP’s that will allow IMAP and will provide extra storage for a modest charge.

If you haven’t already got a e-mail address you should log onto your web hosts cpanel click on the “mail” icon and add a e-mail account. Zero out the storage quota box. This will allow unlimited storage. Take note of the e-mail address. For those using an ISP you should already have an e-mail address given to you.

If you follow these instructions you can configure your “Outlook Express” using the IMAP protocol:

1. If You do not have an outlook express icon on your desktop left click on the “Start” button at the bottom left of your screen. (or maybe top left if for some reason you have managed to get your bar at the top of the screen) Left click on programs and find “Outlook Express” (Make sure it is “Outlook Express not “Microsoft Outlook”. Click on it.

2. It is assumed that you already have one POP3 account configured so outlook express will open in your main account (identity)

3. Left click on the “tools” menu then “accounts” then “add” then “mail. A box will appear where you can enter a name you would like for this new account. Click “next”

4. In the next box type in the e-mail address for this identity. (The one you created in “cpanel” Left click on “next”wilf

5. Type in your incoming and outgoing e-mail server names. This will be in the format mail.yourwebhostdomain. (e.g. mail.microsoft.com.)

6. Click on the dropdown box marked “My incoming mail serve is a” and select “IMAP” . Click “next”.

7. Type in your mail login information. This should be your e-mail address and the password you gave it when you created it in “cpanel” Ensure “remember password” is set. Click “Next” .

8. On the next window just click “Finish” You should end up in your new e-mail account in Outlook express But we are not quite finished yet.

9. In the box that you end up with select the e-mail account just created then “properties”

10. Select the “General” tab and enter a name under “mail Account” overwriting what is there. I suggest you put the same as in the “name” field.

11. Select the “Servers” tab and tick the box labelled “My server requires authentication”

12. Select the “Advanced” tab. In the box marked “Outgoing Mail (SMTP”) there should be the number 25 which is the default port for sending e-mail. In some cases the ISP or web host provider uses 26. I suggest you try 25 first. If this does not work you can come back to the “Advanced” tab and change it to 26. If that does not work you will have to obtain the correct port number from your ISP.nfiguring-a-imap-mailboxnfiguring-a-imap-mailbox

13. Select the “IMAP” tab. In the box marked “root folder tab” you may have to enter “Inbox.” This should have upper case i and a period at the end (dot). If you get errors later on you may have to take this out. This depends how up to date the web host provider has kept his system.
Click on “OK”

14. When the next window appears just click “close”

15. You will then get a box saying “would you like to download folders? Click “yes”

16. All your folders should then be created. You should end up with an “inbox, a “sent items folder” and a “drafts folder”

17. Click on the “Send/Recv” icon at the top. You should then receive any e-mail that may be on your ISP’s server.

18. If there isn’t any mail for you, click on “Create mail” and send a message to yourself. This will check that e-mail sending is working OK.

19. If it is OK then your mail will get sent. If not check the port number per instruction 12. Click on the “Send/Recv” icon at the top. You should then receive back the e-mail you have just sent.

You have now set up your first IMAP mailbox. To add another IMAP mailbox make sure you are switched to the first one you created then repeat this procedure.

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