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Where Is That Email Hiding?

Sometimes finding a specific email within months or years of accumulated messages can be a little challenging. We'll show you how this can be an easy task if you remember who the message is from, when it was sent or what the subject line was. These techniques work in all email programs.

Sorting mail by Sender:
Usually, the 'From' colum in your email program is the farthest left column you see when looking at your email message list. There may be a few very narrow columns before it which you can ignore for now. Clicking on the column header (where it says 'From') will sort your messages alphabetically by the first letter of the sender. Clicking the header again will re-sort them in reverse alphabetic order. Clicking on this header simply toggles the sorting back and forth between the two.

Sorting mail by Subject:
The Subject column is usually just the the right of the From column in your email program. Clicking on the column header (where it says 'Subject') will sort your messages alphabetically by the first letter of the email subject. Clicking it again will re-sort your messages in reverse alphabetical order.

Sorting mail by Date Received:
By default, most email programs sort your messages by date received. Clicking on the header of the Date Received (or it may be labeled only 'Received') column sorts your messages in reverse date order with the oldest messages at the top. Click the header again to re-sort with the newest messages at the top.

A number of our customers have inquired recently as to how they can see all of their email messages when they use our online webmail. For example; let's say your home computer is set up to check your personal email using Outlook Express, but you'd also like to be able to check your email throughout the day at work through webmail. When you log into webmail you're not seeing any messages, or you're only seeing the newest ones. This is because, by default, your email program is automatically deleting the messages from the mail server as soon as it downloads them to your computer. Changing this is very easy! Here are instructions for changing this setting in Outlook Express and Windows Mail, other email programs are very similar.

1. In Outlook Express, click on the Tools menu and select the Accounts option.

2. In the window that pops open, click once to highlight your email account under the Accounts column.

3. Click the Properties button on the right.

4. In the window that pops open, click on the Advanced tab.

5. Check the check box near the bottom labeled "Leave a copy of messages on server".

6. Check the check box below that labeled "Delete from server after 10 days". (Change the number of days to whatever works best for you).

7. Click the OK button to close that window and then click the Close button on the underlying window and you're done.

By telling your email program to leave a copy of your messages on the server for a certain number of days, you will have access to your messages in more than one location. Keep in mind that your mailbox can only hold so much email (100MB), so you'll want to make sure that you are not holding messages so long that your mailbox becomes full and new messages are not able to be accepted. Generally speaking, five days should not present a problem for most people.

Why Am I Receiving Junk Email from My Own Address?

Most of us have received junk email that looks like it came from our own email address. If you've never had this happen, it's likely just a matter of time before you do.

'From-spoofing' is one of the ways that spammers get their junk mail into our Inboxes. Nearly all junk email we receive has a spoofed From address, it's just that it's usually someone else's address that is spoofed. Spammers have extensive lists of email addresses that they send to, and they use those same lists to select a From address for their messages. This way, any undeliverable messages get bounced to the actual person who owns the From address they used, and the spammer doesn't have to deal with the returned emails.

The hard truth is that there is really nothing anyone can do to prevent From-spoofing. The good news is that a spammer doesn't linger for long in one place and they will quickly move on to someone else's email to spoof and leave yours alone.

In the meantime, here's an encouraging article about how some of the worst spammers on the Internet are actually being caught and paying the price for their actions. Hopefully the day is coming when we will be able to say "Do you remember back in the day when we used to get junk mail?"