The Webmail Blog

Email Client Documentation

We've been working hard on our documentation lately.  The first priority has been to make new email client setup and user guides.  Everything now on the Setup email client page is new and improved.

Resellers should like this because the PDF's can be edited with Adobe's PDF software or even with 3rd party PDF editors.  So minor rebranding should be very easy to accomplish: swap a logo out, change a Webmail reference, etc.  These are released under a Creative Commons license that allows reproduction and changes so long as we get attribution and there isn't a charge for the documentation (because we don't charge for it).

These are short, clean, and simple guides to set up and use email clients with our service.  Here is the list of docs on the site right now:

Outlook (2003, 2002/XP, 2000, 98)
Outlook Express
Mac Mail
Netscape Mail
Mozilla Thunderbird
Eudora
Snappermail

We're working on more docs right now; Versamail comes to mind.  Our service runs fine on Versamail (I'm using it on my Verizon Treo 650) and nearly all mobile email clients.  As long as the program supports POP or IMAP and can do SMTP Authentication with our servers it should work.

-Kirk

Managing Email

My post today was my first in about a month-- sorry about that.  It's been a busy time for the company and my family as well.

I've been meaning to write about managing the large volumes of email many of us receive.  When I was thinking of this subject a few weeks ago I did some googling around to see what others had to say.  There are a lot of different approaches out there!

Here is what I've been trying to do:

1) Delete email I really don't need.  Like the ones where someone says "thanks".  When will I ever need that email?  I used to keep every email (and piles of useless stuff at home, too).  I've taken to deleting everything that isn't pretty obvious that I'll need again.  No "whoops!" experiences, yet.

2) Keep my Inbox clean.  I use folders in my webmail and move messages to folders-- mostly categories of who sent me the message.  I use the Inbox like a short task list now.

3) Make my subject lines summaries of the content.  My consistency could improve here, but I like the idea and I have had some small success.  Instead of something like, "FW: Some customer name" I say, "FW: This customer needs help with a private label website".  I do rewrite FW: and RE: subject lines.  I think it saves people time on the receiving side.  This is probably my favorite new email almost-habit.

Let me know if you have any good ideas for managing a lot of email!

-Kirk

Ransom-Ware Viruses & Predictions

There is a new article up at IOL: Computers / IT about a new type of virus labeled "Ransom-Ware".  The virus-writer wants $200 to remove the virus and not harm the computer & data.

I'm guessing that Internet banking isn't quite anonymous enough to make this commonplace-- too easy for the virus writers to be located.

Radicati Predicts More Viruses

In an unrelated article, the Radicati Group estimates that the 900 million viruses expected to be emailed this year will reach 4.2 billion / yr in 2009.  The article goes into much more detail and is worth a read if you like scary numbers.

I'm not sure that I agree that the figure will quadruple over the next 4 years.  I'm sure they've looked at trend data.  I just don't think that it's possible to know what anti-spam and anti-virus measures will be developed and used.

If 90% of ISP's simply blocked the SMTP port 25 and then used a little connection throttling on their own legitimate SMTP servers, spam and virus traffic would drop tremendously.  As the volume of spam increases over the next year or two, I think it's highly likely that ISP's will start to take notice.  If nothing else, new revisions of their firewalls and mail transfer software will be smarter by default and make an impact.  Just my 2 cents.

-Kirk