Easy Email Ezine

I've received a few emails regarding Outlook Express 7. This is presumably because Internet explorer version 7 is in Beta and outlook express was previous shipped with Internet explorer.

The next release of Outlook Express will be with Windows Vista and not with Internet Explorer and as mentioned last month this will not now be until January 2007.

There will in fact not be a version 7 as outlook express is being renamed to Windows mail.

After Several months of slipping, Spam is once again on the increase according to a recent report. So this month we will be taking a look at Spam, Phishing and how you can best combat it.

Featured Articles -

Spam Spim Splogs SPIT

Before we go on to talk about avoiding spam you should also be aware that you may even be a source of spam.  Over 70% of current spam comes from proxies (PCs infected with viruses/trojans) (spamhaus.org).

These PCs are called zombie computers and are used by spammers as spam proxies.

Email has long been the main victim of spam but has people have moved to new technology - Instant messaging, Blogs and even VOIP. Then spammers have followed.

So if you're an instant messenger user then you will no doubt be getting Spim

If you're a blogger then be on the lookout for Splogs.

For anyone using VOIP (Voice over IP) you may soon be getting SPIT ( they could probably change the acronym).

Spam isn't the only name. It is also widely known as junk mail, Unsolicited Email, Unsolicited commercial email, Unsolicited bulk email. But how do spammers get you address and why do they spam- see A Guide to Spam-Junk Mail-Unsolicited Email.

Email Maintenance

How many of you do regular backups? Despite many people knowing about backups, not many actually do them. Over the last few weeks I've received lots of emails relating to emails disappearing from the inbox in IncrediMail.

I'm not sure of the cause, but I did come across a similar problem with Outlook Express, and it related to virus checking software problem. However; that aside, it was apparent that no one had a copy of their email, and so it was lost.

Therefore if you're not already doing them, and your email is important to you, then please make regular backups. The less technical you are then the more reason to think of investing is backup software as it makes the job much easier.

Many people think that backing up the entire operating system solves the problem ( see system and email backups). It does, but do you want to restore the entire operating system to get back a few emails? Yes you can restore the Outlook express mailbox stores separately, but again you must really understand what you are doing.

As a very quick backup and one that does solve the problem of mail disappearing from the inbox, is to periodically move or copy the mail from the inbox into separate folders. This means that you can quickly recover from a corrupt inbox store.

See also

• Quick and Easy Outlook Express Backup
• Archive Outlook Express Email
• IncrediMail backup

Email Tools -

Did you know that you can automatically build you hotmail address book by using the quick build tool. Just open your hotmail mailbox and click on the contacts tab. In the left hand pane at the bottom you will see the  build contacts link under tools.

Click the link and the following search dialogue will be presented:

Just select the criteria you want and click next. A list of addresses appears where you can deselect/edit the matching contact details before clicking finish to add them to you contacts list.

Outlook Express and IncrediMail Quick Tips

Outlook Express Quick Tips

Changing font Size

If you're having difficulty reading a message because the font is too small then simply click view>text size and increase it as shown below: