recommended strategy for Microsoft email accounts ?

- Collapse -

Wow. 125 folders?

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Dec 17, 2006 1:15AM PST

You're the first person to reveal they did that. Maybe you don't need an email program but some database program for all that?

Here I toss email over a year old. No need to keep it.

Bob

- Collapse -

125 +

by JmsEmBer-2134831014221219 Dec 17, 2006 2:37AM PST

I combined some into a miscellaneous folder to make room. I told you I was new at this. Seriously, I appreciate any response from you. This looks like I really need to come up with plan B. When I sign up or register something, I save the registration confirmation in its own folder along with shipping confirmations and invoices. Some simple system would be an improvement. This also evolved when I was using a public computer.
I had previously asked you in the computer help forum if you could recommend a simple way to choose email accounts. Any suggestion would be appreciated. Thank You.

- Collapse -

Each to its own folder. Your choice but here...

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Dec 17, 2006 4:03AM PST

I just have one folder to hold all that. Since I can use a search tool/button I don't bother to make a folder for each item.

All this is your choice but I can see where you could push the bounderies of Outlook. Here I have all of 5 folders and never heard of anyone going past 100.

I can't make any suggestions other than to consolidate and note there are hard limits to most email programs. If someone were to use a database behind the email then some limits go away but complexity increases.

-> Let's be clear here. I don't see any magic bullet to fix this. One has to either live with the limitations or maybe write their own software (something I've done.)

Bob

- Collapse -

I have to say I don't really understand what the question is

by MarkFlax Forum moderator Dec 18, 2006 6:00AM PST

No offense meant, but I'm not sure what the problem is.

I agree with Bob that 125+ folders would seem a little excessive. I don't see a need for all that. But then, each to his own I guess.

But what do you mean by a strategy? Many people have multiple email accounts, although I am not sure that quite so many use different email clients to set up their separate accounts. I would imagine that most people either use web mail in their browsers, or use one email client, eg Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc, for all of their email usage.

I have 4 email accounts, all set up in Thunderbird, although one I can access through web mail, and apart from the default Inbox, Drafts, Templates, Sent, Junk, and Trash folders, (2 of which I never use), for each account, I have only set up, on my main account, other additional folders for Friends&Relatives, Work, Shopping. In a couple of those folders I have set up some sub-folders, eg different relatives/friends. Nowhere near 100 folders.

I rarely keep emails longer than a few weeks. They have to have some special content to get past me for longer than that.

So your post confuses me a little.

Mark

- Collapse -

Thank you for your help

by JmsEmBer-2134831014221219 Dec 18, 2006 7:59AM PST

I apologize for the ambiguity. I am trying to learn what to do. I let this get out of hand by getting email accounts that I did not plan for. If I had asked you sooner, or if I had asked someone else who is knowledgeable, I would have avoided the confusion.

I started with a web-based account. I really thought that was all there was. I still do not understand what other choice I might have.

I do understand that I need a plan. The reason I started making folders for email in the first place was because of a tutorial encouraging users to set up multiple folders. I was following instructions for lack of a better way.

You may not appreciate how much it has helped me to be able to ask a question on this forum and then to try to learn from your responses. I do not want to be a compulsive saver of emails.

Thank you for explaining your email habits.

Jim

- Collapse -

No problem

by MarkFlax Forum moderator Dec 18, 2006 7:19PM PST

I'm sure we can cure you of your obsessive compulsion,

Can you now tell us how many email accounts you have, and how you receive and send to/from each account. For example, I would list mine like this;

1] Email account through my ISP (NTLworld.com) - I use Thunderbird to receive/read/send.

2] Email account through a backup ISP (Boltblue -free dialup) - I use Thunderbird to receive/read/send.

3] Hotmail account - emails received/sent through my browser.

etc.

That will help us with the picture.

In the end, you may decide that you only need one or two email accounts, for example one from your ISP, (Internet Service Provider), and perhaps a Hotmail account. It all depends on what you use for your regular emails for relatives/friends, business etc, and whether you want an email account as a spare.

Mark

- Collapse -

Here's the list!

by JmsEmBer-2134831014221219 Dec 19, 2006 11:08AM PST

Thanks again. Making this list was a learning experience as well.

Hotmail account - title bar on screen reads Windows Live Mail Beta
Emails are usually received/sent through my browser
Sometimes - I use Outlook to receive/read/send (larger viewing area)
Sometimes - I use Windows Live Mail desktop beta to receive/read/send (also larger viewing area)
I got in the habit of switching around to compare performance.
mailbox usage 1% of 2 GB

Microsoft Office Live Mail account - title bar on screen reads Windows Live Mail Beta
I use Outlook to receive/read/send
Emails are rarely received/sent through my browser
usage 1% of 2 GB

Email account through my ISP
Cox High Speed Internet WebMail - I use Thunderbird to receive/read/send
You are using 0% of 1 GB

Lycos Mail - emails received/sent through my browser
Used 2K, Total 3.0G

Web-Based Email from GoDaddy.com - I use Thunderbird to receive/read/send
Storage usage 1%

Gmail beta - emails received/sent through my browser
You are currently using 1 MB (0%) of your 2795 MB.

Yahoo! Mail Beta - emails received/sent through my browser
You are using 0% of 1 GB

I did not intend to get these two; I was trying to sign up for Xdrive.
AIM Mail
Storage usage 0 of 2 GB
I do not use this. I tried to cancel it, but I can?t since it is a free account.

AOL Mail
I do not use this. I tried to cancel it, but I can?t since it is a free account.

This is why I am trying to learn about what is practical.

- Collapse -

Wow!

by MarkFlax Forum moderator Dec 19, 2006 7:59PM PST

I counted 9 email accounts. Blimey!

The first thing I noticed was the two accounts at the bottom, AIM and AOL that you say you don't use, and tried to cancel. It may surprise people to know that it is surprisingly difficult to cancel email accounts, even free ones. It seems that, once they have their little claws in you, they don't want to let go. Below are two articles I found on Google about canceling AIM and AOL accounts. It isn't pretty!

How to cancel your AIM Email account

How to cancel an AOL account. This article is about how to cancel a subscription to AOL, but it may work for a free email account.

At the end of the day I suspect your best bet is simply to remove all information/software from your computer about these accounts, delete any emails you have stored in them, and then just "forget about them". Eventually their Inboxes will build up, the email admins will try to email you about them, get no response, and then they will delete the accounts for you.

So, that leaves 7 email accounts.

The thing is, you need to choose whether you want 7 email accounts or not, and if you do, how you want to receive/read/send them. We can't really tell you what is best.

But this is what I would consider;

1] I would not use Outlook, (or Outlook Express). Being Microsoft products they hard wired into the Windows Operating System, (OS), and so they are more vulnerable to attacks from malware than non-Microsoft software. Microsoft have come a long way over the last couple of years with protecting their software and issuing patches, but Windows is still the OS of choice for virus and other malware writers.

2] Do I really need 7 email accounts? How often do I receive emails from relatives, friends, business colleagues, etc on all of these accounts? Can I refer these relatives/friends to just one safe email account, and business colleagues etc to another safe email account? Safe means that the email address isn't simple, (eg John.Smith), and so isn't easy for spammers to guess, and the email address is also from an ISP that helps to protect its customers from viruses and spammers.

3] If I want other email accounts, what use would I put them to? If I have chosen to limit relatives/friends to one email account, and business use, etc to another, what would I use the others for? I would choose just one, (or maybe two), for "throw away" accounts. These I would use if and whenever I visit a web site where I need to post an email address, but I am not sure how safe it is. For example, leaving a message, or posting in a forum where the email address is clearly visible. Then I would use one of the throw away accounts where if it gets spammed, I can just delete the account and forget about it.

4] For the email accounts I wish to keep, I would then set up my email software, (in your case Thunderbird), with all of the account details. If any of the accounts cannot be set up in Thunderbird I would consider getting rid of it. Then, within Thunderbird, the different accounts would automatically be set up with an Inbox, Draft, Sent, Templates, Junk, and Trash folders. For my relative/friends and business emaila accounts, I would set up folders for Friends/Relatives, Work, Shopping, Misc, etc, and create sub-folders as necessary. But I would not set up any other folders in the throw away accounts, just using the Inbox, Trash and Junk folders, and leave nothing in the Inbox. If I have an email confirmation from a forum, for example that gives login details, I would copy this to a text file and store it somewhere.

5] Most email accounts can now be viewed in a browser. Although this may be useful sometimes, I would not "mix and match" using web mail with Thunderbird. I would either use one or the other for each email account. It doesn't matter if I use, as an example, one account solely in Thunderbird and the others solely in a browser, but I would try an avoid using a browser then Thunderbird, then a browser, and so on, for any individual account.

6] The other email accounts that I have decided I don't use/don't need/don't want, I would delete them, ignore them, whatever is needed to get rid.

I hope that helps.

I can email you this if you want!!

Mark

- Collapse -

That?s outstanding!

by JmsEmBer-2134831014221219 Dec 21, 2006 8:52AM PST

Thank you for your comprehensive instructions. That is valuable information.

I do have an important question about Thunderbird, to make sure I am getting this right.
You are recommending that I uncheck the ?Use global Inbox (store mail in Local Folders)?. Then I will be able to store mail for an account in its own directory and that will make it appear as a top-level account. If I missed that, the global inbox would result.

One of the free accounts requires upgrading to a paid account to be able to use pop3/smtp access. I will not be keeping that one since I can?t use it in Thunderbird. It also states that it will be cancelled if you don?t log in for thirty days. That?s one resolved.

The safe email account is definitely something I want to have. Should a safe email address be expected to conform to any particular convention? One such as John.Smith, as you pointed out, is not recommended. Is it better (or even possible) to change an email address like John.Smith, or would it be necessary to abandon it and get another account to replace it?

One website would not accept any email address with any non-alpha or non-numeric characters. I got one of my extra accounts just so I could use that site. I was later told that is not a normal practice and that underscore characters in particular are very common in email addresses. If spaces are not allowed, an address that is underlined on the screen must be using an underscore where there appears to be a space. Are underscores a bad idea?

This is such good information. I have not been able to find a book that deals with practical email issues. Is there one (that you think is worthwhile) that would give a decent understanding of the basics and hopefully be current enough to be useful?

You could email if you like.

Thanks for your help.

Jim

- Collapse -

More questions???

by MarkFlax Forum moderator Dec 21, 2006 8:39PM PST

I could write a book!

But I jest..........

1] About setting up accounts in Thunderbird:

Yes I think it would be preferable to remove the tick in the "Use global box" option to store emails in the "Local Folders" list. Giving each email account it's own set of folders, (called directories by Thunderbird, but that is now an outdated term in Windows), is the general practice I believe, and that's certainly what I do.

This is what happens with me and Thunderbird with my email accounts. When I open Thunderbird it automatically connects to my broadband ISP and downloads any email messages from my main account. The other accounts I have set up in Thunderbird do not automatically download emails. Only when I click the small down arrow next to "Get Messages" in the toolbar, and select "Get all messages", do the other emails arrive. They are distributed into the separate Inboxes for each account.

If you have already set up these email accounts in Thunderbird to deliver to the global folder, that's not the end of the world. You could set up new sub-folders, (perhaps call them Inbox-{2nd account name}, Sent-{2nd account name}, Trash-{2nd account name}, Inbox-{3rd email name}, Trash-{3rd email name}), etc, then set up "Message Filters" in Tools > Message Filters to divert emails from other accounts to your new sub-folders. Or, if having a global Inbox works for you, then that is fine.

In Tools > Account settings > and the Server Settings for each account, I would set the following settings;

"Check for new messages at startup", (of Thunderbird). This tells you immediately how many emails you have ready for each account.

For your main account, "Download emails automatically", but not for the others. This lets you delay downloading other emails until you're ready.

Leave the options to leave messages on the server blank for all accounts. If messages are left on the server, they tend to get forgotten about, build up, and then the account admins get concerned.

"Empty Trash on exit". Empties your trash for you.

The option to check for new messages every ? minutes is up to you.

A word about using one ISP to check for emails from other accounts. There is a gentlemen's agreement between account administrators that one ISP can get the emails from other account POP servers. But sometimes the agreement doesn't exist. If you come across that, all you can do is connect to the other ISP and then start Thunderbird to download those emails. For example, I have 3 ISP's. My main is a broadband account but I also have 2 dialup backups for whenever my broadband goes down. I can download emails for all three accounts using any of the ISP's, but if I couldn't, I would have to logon to one to get those emails. This is generally not a problem with web based email accounts.

2] Safe email accounts.

This is tricky actually, because there is no real way to keep email accounts safe from all spammers. Some always get through. Also, there are two aspects to consider. Anti-spam and Anti-virus. For anti-virus your anti-virus scanner should be capable of scanning emails as they come in, and you should never open attachments without first saving them to the hard disk, (the Desktop is a good temporary area), and scanning them with the anti-virus before opening them. I don't trust any attachments, especially from relatives and friends. My friends and relatives tend to be less aware of malware problems than I am, and a few have virus and spyware riddled computers, despite my help and advice.

But back to anti-spam. ISPs block a lot of spam before it even gets to our POP servers. Some ISPs are better than others. I think we would be surprised how many they block. When I talk about ISP's, I mean ISP's that give us internet access, (and also one, or more than one email account), and web based email account providers.

Your ISP probably allows you to have more than one email account, and generally you can use any name you wish. You're right that email names are limited to alpha/numeric characters with the only exceptions the full stop and underscores, eg mark.flax@ isp.com or mark_flax@ isp.com. They are both common, and in fact some ISP's require a full stop. It's very difficult to think of an email name that is both recognisable to those people you want it to be recognisable to, and yet a jumble that will fool spammers. Indeed, spammers will use computer programs to create all different variations of names to send emails to. Most may be bounced back because the name doesn't exist, but that's just an expected thing with them. It's the ones that don't bounce back that they are looking for, and there is little we can do about that. The important thing for spammers is the ISP part of an address, eg @hotmail.com. The computer programs will send out anything to @hotmail.com, (eg fhskwow.dhdgs@hotmail.com as a jumble of letters), and if it bounces, so be it, but if it does not, then they have a valid email address. Spammers also like us to read their emails. There are tricks they can use that if an email is opened, they get to know, so they find out valid addresses.

If you want to see if your ISP allows more than one email address, visit their web site and search around for "Setting up email accounts", or similar.

We can help ourselves. If we have to give out email addresses, either use a throwaway address, or if we have to leave an address in a forum such as this, use the format mark.flax AT isp.com. Notice the AT instead of @ and the uses of spaces. Genuine readers will understand and make the necessary adjustment to mark.flax@isp.com, (not my real address), but forum robots that trawl forums for email address don't recognise the address.

Also, we can set up message filters in both email software and in web based email settings. These allow the emails to be downloaded, but they go straight to the Trash folder which is then emptied without being read, which prevents the spammers from knowing that the email arrived.

3] More resources:

Your best bet is to Google "Email tutorials", (without the quotes). You will get a whole load of email links where you can pick and choose. but you know, after a very short while, you won't need any tutorial or training. You will pick this all up as you go along.

Good luck and Happy Christmas.

Let me know if you have any more questions/problems.

Mark

CNET Forums

Other Forums

Forum Info