How To Set An Automatic Webmail ‘I’m Away’ Response

You have probably seen one of these: you send someone an e-mail, and later, in your Inbox you see their reply. So you open it and it says, “I’m on vacation. Quit bugging me!”

Okay. Maybe not those words. Exactly. But you know what I am describing. Right? It’s an e-mail feature called ‘vacation responder‘ (aka “I’m out of the office”).

If you go on vacation (or otherwise won’t have Internet access for a while) and you have a vacation responder turned on, an automatic reply – with a message you’ve pre-typed (you do not have to say “Quit bugging me!”) – will be sent automatically to the Sender letting them know you will get back to them, just not right away. When you get back online again, you simply turn it off again.

Find the Webmail you use from the list below.

* Gmail
Here’s how to let people know you can’t respond right away:

1. Sign in to Gmail.
2. Click Settings along the top of any Gmail page.
3. From the General tab, select Vacation responder on in the Vacation responder: section.
4. Enter the subject and body of your message in the Subject: and Message: fields.
   • If you’ve enabled a personalized signature in your settings, Gmail will automatically append it to the bottom of your vacation response.
5. Check the box next to Only send a response to people in my Contacts if you don’t want everyone who emails you to know that you’re away from your mail.
6. Click Save Changes.

* Hotmail
To make Windows Live Hotmail reply to incoming emails in your absence:

• Select Options | More options… from the Windows Live Hotmail toolbar.
• Follow the Sending automated vacation replies link under Managing your account.
• Make sure Send vacation replies to people who email me is selected.
• Type your desired out-of-office message under Enter the message you’d like to send while you’re away:.
  • Possibly include approximate info on when you will be able to reply personally.
  • Who to contact in the meantime or an alternative way of reaching you might also be appropriate.
  • In general, keep the message simple. Something like “I’m currently unable to read my mail, sorry! Come February, I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, you can…” shall do.
  • The subject Windows Live Hotmail uses for automatic replies is “Vacation reply”, by the way.
• If you frequently get mail from people not yet in your Windows Live Hotmail address book, make sure Only reply to your contacts is not checked.
• Click Save.

* Yahoo! Mail/Earthlink/Mindspring
To set a vacation response:

1. Click Options in the upper-right corner of your Mail page. Then select Mail Options…
2. From the list on the left, click Vacation Response.
3. Check the box that says Enable auto-response during your vacation.
4. Select start and end dates for your trip.
5. Enter the day your vacation will start in the “”Auto-respond from”” field and the day it will end in the “”up until (and including)”” field.
6. Enter a Generic Response. It can be up to ten lines.
7. When you are finished writing your Generic Response, click Save Changes located near the upper-left corner of the page.

* AOL
AOL WebMail allows you to setup an away message, that will auto-reply with a custom message or a pre-set message that you choose, when you are away. This is extremely useful if you are on vacation and need to reply to someone who might email you.

1. Click the Settings link, located at the upper right of your AOL WebMail inbox.
2. Click the General link, located in the left panel.
3. In the Mail Away Message section, click the drop-down menu and select an appropriate away message. If you select Custom type your own personal away message in the text box provided.
4. Click Save.

[Note: if your webmail service is not listed here, don’t worry. The method is the same. Look for a “settings”, “options”, or “preferences” menu (those are all the same things, btw.).]

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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Troubleshooting Web Mail: JavaScript "Not Installed".

JavaScript Makes The Web Go ‘Round

I received a call for help with an e-mail problem. My client was getting errors when trying to access their webmail (online e-mail, such as Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail). Which had them quite upset, naturally, but was really no problem at all, and was quite easily fixed with a few clicks of the mouse.

My caller’s errors all referred to JavaScript – which is (short version) a programming language used extensively on the Internet; mostly to make Web pages dynamic and interactive with the viewer. Many websites rely on JavaScript to function, and Gmail and Hotmail do too.

My caller’s computer was suddenly saying that JavaScript was “not installed”, but in reality, all that had happened was it had been somehow inadvertently “disabled” (aka “turned off”), and needed to be switched on again.

Tip of the day: To fix this type of error, enable (or, re-enable) JavaScript in your Web browser.
1) Open Internet Explorer and in the upper right find the gray gear icon “Tools” menu. Click it, and then click on “Internet Options“

2) Now a new window will open. Click on the “Security” tab (top), as shown below.

3) Click the “Custom level…” button.

4) Use the slider to scroll down the list of options until you come to “Active scripting“, as shown below.

5) Click on the “Enable” (or “Prompt“, if you want to be able to choose when to allow JavaScript, and have the ability to deny it) ‘radio’ button, and then click on OK, twice.

6) Close Internet Explorer and then re-launch (aka “Open”) it again.

Now JavaScript (should be) is enabled and functioning and you can surf the Web and access Webmail as you had before. Problem solved!

[note: if you found that JavaScript was already enabled, please see Internet Explorer Runtime Error!!*. I have several other how to’s on repairing your browser as well, should you need further guidance. Enter “error”, or “repair” in my Search box.]

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*** A Chance To Win A Valuable Prize! ***

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The folks at SYNCING.NET have generously donated six Professional Edition licenses to me, to award to my readers. SYNCING.NET is a Business Class program which enables users to sync their Microsoft Outlook data on multiple computers.

To enter the drawing, please see: Software License Giveaway: SYNCING.NET
Enter my current giveaway and (possibly) win a license!

Today’s free download: Trillian Astra
More than three years in the making, Trillian is back with a slight name change and a slew of new features. The chat client now supports Google, MySpace IM, Skype, and Facebook, as well as AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC. It  has both POP3 and IMAP e-mail checking.
Trillian now has deep hooks into Facebook and Twitter. It will automatically shorten URLs in your tweets, as well as allow direct messages, re-tweets, and replies. Twitter Trends can show up in your contact list, and you can get tweets to appear in Tooltip form. Facebook features include news feed integration, Facebook Inbox checking, and synchronized message updating in addition to Facebook IM.

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Reader Question | How did they get my e-mail?*

Disable the Preview Pane For Safer Computing & Less Spam

A recent article on spam (e-mail) prompted a reader to send in this good question,

Q: “Hi Paul –
You wrote “don’t even open e-mail from unknown sources.. doing so can/will mark your e-mail address as a “live” person, …”.
How do we delete without opening a specific email message?   Even while deleting in bulk the first email in the highlighted selections opens.  I’m using Outlook Express.  Thanks for your help!

* What is being referred to is the feature common to e-mail clients called the “Preview Pane”.”

A: Dear Reader–
You’re correct that most webmail settings, and e-mail clients, (by default) have what is called a “preview pane”, which opens the first (topmost/most recent) e-mail in your Inbox, and shows you the first few lines of the e-mail. Yes.. this will trigger whatever the spammers/hackers are using to verify receipt (such as downloading an invisible jpeg). Because of this, I always turn the Preview Pane off.
To do this in OE, click on the View menu and select Layout.
Then in the Preview Pane Properties, uncheck the “Show preview pane” checkbox.

BTW– by exploring Properties/Options/Settings/Preferences (different names for the same thing), you can disable the preview pane in every e-mail viewer.. (i.e., Thunderbird), and webmail (i.e., Hotmail, Gmail, etc).

Tip of the day: While many people find the preview window a convenient way to skim their incoming mail, using it automatically opens your machine up to security risks — especially if you are allowing HTML, and/or images, as the OE pictured above does — and tells anyone who’s interested that yes, your.name@isp.com is a valid address: suitable for spamming.
The spammers (and advertisers) collect lists of these validated addresses and sell them to each other.

I advise disabling the feature, and doing without the ’speed enhancement’ of previewing. Doing so will reduce the amount of spam you receive, improve your privacy, and close the door on one of the methods hackers can use to infect your machine.

Today’s free download: Open Office 3.0 A new version of very popular free office suite is now available. Support for Office 2007 formatting and improved PDF creation in Writer highlight the big additions for business users. A new Start Center provides a launching pad and makes it easier to switch between tools.

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Phishing Lessons, Hotmail Style

If you watch the news, read the papers, and/or peruse tech Web sites, you will be aware of a recent “news item” that thousands of people’s Hotmail login credentials had been stolen in a “phishing scam” and posted on the Internet. Just shy of 10,000 of them…

You may also be aware that Hotmail was not the only target of this scam (see Yahoo, Gmail passwords also phished in far-reaching scam).

But you might not be aware of the analysis that security researchers have done in the aftermath of this “incident”, and some of the conclusions they have come to. That is what I found interested, and followed up on.

Lesson 1:
The research found that the most common password used was “123456”.

All I can say is, I am not surprised. What I really want to say is not fit to print.

The next most popular user password was, “123456789”.

People — this is not good. Passwords are the primary means to prevent unauthorized access. Put a simpler way, a password keeps Joe Criminal from reading your e-mail (and sending a letter to your boss telling said boss to go fly a kite).. or transferring your saving account balance into his.

123456 is the world’s worst password (“password” is no good either), and if you did not know that, please read A Word About Words — Passwords, That Is and find out what you need to know about passwords. Pretty please with sugar on top?

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Add A Signature To Your E-mails

Due to my schedule, I must repost for today’s article. This is one of my early (circa 2007) How To’s…

Tip of the day: A quick and easy tip today: personalize your email with a pre-configured signature, and cut down on your repetitive typing. Every email client, and online email account, allows you to create a “signature” which is automatically added to the bottom of every email you send.
I use mine to invite people to visit my websites and it includes clickable links. You may want to provide a phone number or other contact information. Some accounts may allow you to include a (v. small) logo or graphic. Or you can simply enter your name, and save yourself having to type it all the time.

I will demonstrate the steps of creating a signature in Hotmail, and the same methods can be used for other online mailboxes like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and the one that comes from your Internet provider (Cox, Comcast, Earthlink, etc.) — and in Outlook and Thunderbird. I will start with Hotmail:

The place to start, always, is under the Options menu (sometimes “options” is called “Preferences” or “Settings” –  those are interchangeable words in the world of computing menus). This is found in the upper right.
In Hotmail, the choice you want is under “Customize your mail” and is named “Personal e-mail signature”. Other mailbox providers may simply label this “Signature”. Click on this choice, whatever it’s named.

The image below shows what I have entered as my Hotmail signature. As you can see, you enter your text here much the same as you do elsewhere in Hotmail, and you have the same toolbar for text options. To make any link you include “clickable” (should you wish), be sure to include the “http://&#8221;.

When you have your signature the way you like it, hit the “Save” button. While it is true that your signature will be largely ignored by your recipients, it is advisable to keep it short, simple, and professional.

In Outlook, the place to look is under the Tools menu. Click “Options”, and then click on the Mail Format tab, as shown below.

Click on the “Signatures” button, which is down towards the very bottom.

Because this tool is ‘plain text’, and doesn’t have font controls and such, I create my signature in Word, and Copy>Paste it into this window. (I used this same trick in Thunderbird.)

The method to attach a signature in Thunderbird is a little different. Again you start on the Tools menu, but instead of going straight to Options, select the choice right above that; Account Settings.

Although this appears to be a very small and “featureless” window, you can in fact create a signature as complex as the one shown in the Hotmail image.

Signatures save you time, can advertise your business, and take only a minute to set up (or, change/update).

Today’s free download: I cannot, right at the moment, recall if I have already posted the free email client Thunderbird as a link.. I think I have but, just in case, here it is again– it’s good enough (especially at spam filtering) for a double posting.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Webmail Link Protection | Survey Results

One of the greatest dangers on the Internet today is links sent in e-mail — called “embedded links”. A click on a link sent by a cyber-criminal can infect your machine, direct you to a bogus website which infects your machine and/or asks you to enter your private information (ID Theft) in a scheme known as “phishing”.
It is reported that cyber-criminals duped 9 million Americans last year (we’re so trusting and.. naive.).

I have advised my readers, never click the link. But .. people still do. So, I advise enabling a phishing filter. Currently, it is my humble opinion that the free tool from Web Of Trust (WOT) is the simplest to understand and easiest to use.

Today, the good folks at WOT alerted me that they are now integrated with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail– better protection for us. Here’s a short video showing how it works.

And if video is not your thing, Fellow blogger Bill Mullins has an excellent write up on the new WOT, here.

Change of subject dept: (aka Survey Results!)
Earlier this week I posted a six question survey. I regret to confess that there were “trick” questions in there where more than one answer was ‘right’… and nobody (I don’t think) picked it up.

For just one example, I asked “What does 11101 equate to?” and the answers 29, eleven thousand one hundred and one, and Zip code were ‘correct’. (Albany, NY.) Yes. All three answers.
This being a “tech” site, I’m glad to report that 29 was by far and away the most popular answer. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_numeral_system)

I also asked two questions about Microsoft Word, and I must say the answers I got fit pretty well with my preconceived notions and inherent prejudices.
Only one person though Office 2007 brought “much needed improvements”; the majority said Word was required for work/school (and they would stick w/Word 2003); and that in today’s day and age, Word is largely irrelevant.. I think it is the younger set that is picking up on this fact, and the older you are, the more likely you were to reply “must have”. I could be wrong, of course. But I think it is the way we were ‘trained’. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloatware)

I won’t go through the reader responses line for line, but I will say that the general tone showed much more tech-savvy than it would have ten years ago. And it was clear that (my readers, anyway) people are spending a lot of time online.. and making an effort to stay “hip” (to use some California lingo).

That makes sense. Broadband and mobile devices have made the Internet pretty much available to everyone, everywhere, any time. And so I would like to remind you that the Internet is a dangerous place, and not some well-policed Disneyland.

Be alert. Be wary. Be protected. And get WOT.

(Hey, pretty good how I tied that together, eh?)

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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