Using email

Email is the one of the main reasons for many people for buying a computer and for getting Internet access. There are various ways of getting access to email, the principle ones being using an Oulook Express account and your ISP, using a web-based service such as Yahoo, and using a specialist mail tool to access the account provided by your ISP.

Web based mail services are very popular amongst people who need to be able to access their email from any Internet computer. There is an attraction about being able to pop into a cybercafe in a farflung destination and pick up your email. I know of students connecting to their university course email systems from all over the world. The big drawback in web based email is that you have to be on-line to use it. If you are mainly accessing the Internet from home, do not have an unlimited access account and are a fairly slow typist, a web based account can prove an expensive proposition.

Using Outlook Express (installed on your computer alongside Internet Explorer when you obtain the computer) is a popular tool for accessing email. It is relatively simple to use, and normally an email account is set up on Outlook Express when you set up your Internet Service Provider, though there may be a period of up to 24 hours required before the account is actually activated.

These notes take you through some of the questions people ask about Outlook Express:

• setting up a new email account
• making a folder for keeping email (and directing mail to that folder)
• making an address book

Before looking at these areas, a couple of reminders.

Do make sure your virus protection software is up-to-date. Virus protection is always important, but it is especially so if you are sending and receiving emails. Many viruses circulate using email and it is important to protect yourself. If you make a lot of use of email and the Internet, you should be updating your virus protection at least weekly.

Do make sure you have downloaded all the relevant security patches from Microsoft. A number of patches - small programs which fix problems in your existing application - have been made available to fix holes in Outlook Express and Outlook. You can download these from the Windows update site (there is a button of the Start menu to take you there). It is worth noting that most virus attacks are focused on vulnerabilities in Microsoft products, and users of Netscape and alternative email software avoid many of these attacks.

Do set your email tool not to show a preview of the message. A nice feature of Outlook Express is being able to preview messages. Unfortunately this is one of the weaknesses exploited by virus writers. To turn off the preview pane in Outlook Express, go to the View menu and Layout... When you click on Layout, a new window will open - remove the tick from the box Show Preview Pane in the lower half of the window.