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BOOT CAMP 342 (07/09/04)
Time for a change, part 2
Last week we showed how
changing your browser program can help to make your PC safer and turn web
surfing a more enjoyable, productive and secure experience. In part two of this
short series we’re going to show you how to switch to a different email program
or ‘client’.
Microsoft Outlook
Express has become the world’s most popular email program for three simple
reasons: it is easy to use, it works very well and it is free. Unfortunately its
popularity is its Achilles’ heel and it has become a conduit for most of the
viruses, worms and ‘spam’ emails currently swamping the
Internet.
Whilst it is possible to
make OE reasonably safe by altering settings, downloading the latest security
patches and fixes and being vigilant about opening unsolicited attachments it’s
a never-ending battle as new ways to exploit loopholes in the program are
exposed. I don’t see the situation changing anytime soon and the only long-term
solution is to change to another email program.
There has never been any
shortage of alternatives but for many long-term users that have grown up with
OE, changing the email client can be a bit of a wrench and not something to be
undertaken lightly. Until recently most OE replacements have involved some sort
of compromise involving a loss of functionality or they have been difficult to
use or worse still, you’ve had to pay for them but that’s no longer an excuse.
The email client we’re about to suggest makes the transition almost effortless,
there are no new tricks to learn and it is completely
free.
Mozilla Thunderbird, as
the name suggests, is from the same stable as the Mozilla and Firefox browsers
featured in last week’s Boot Camp. In common with those browsers it is ‘Open
Source’ and in a state of continual development by a large community of users
with new features being added all the time. The basic program does everything
that OE does, sending and receiving email from single or multiple accounts and
accessing newsgroups. Like OE it also has a built in spellchecker, it uses
powerful encryption so it is very safe, you can add signatures to your emails,
choose a mail notification sound and there’s a similar set of message ‘Rules’ to
direct mail to specific mailboxes or delete unwanted emails, but it goes much
further.
Since most email viruses
and worms are targeted at OE the chances of your PC catching an infection by
accident or carelessness are greatly reduced. It has an effective ‘intelligent’
Junk Mail filter built in, it is highly customisable, it is easy to move your
messages and settings to a new PC (see Tip of the Week) and as an added bonus
Thunderbird can also be configured as an AOL email client. Additionally there
are a growing number of free ‘extensions’ that add new and useful features such
as the facility to zoom in on images, add a stock market ticker or a calendar
utility.
Best of all you don’t
have to start from scratch. Once Thunderbird is installed on your PC you can
import all of your OE account settings, email folders, messages and newsgroups
with just a few mouse clicks and if for any reason you don’t get on with it you
can instantly revert back to OE.
You’ll find the
Thunderbird download for Windows at: www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/; you will also find
links to versions for Linux and Mac OS systems. The Windows file is around
5.9Mb; it is also available on CD for a modest fee. There are no catches, it
doesn’t contain any adware or spyware but if you like it and continue to use it
you may want to make a small donation to help the developers, details are on the
download page.
Once installed your
first job should be to go to Import on the Tools menu and copy across your OE
Address Book, Mail messages and Settings. You will be asked to re-enter your
email passwords but apart from that the whole process is fully automated. You
will find that most things work in exactly the same way as OE, such as sorting
email messages by name, date and time etc., by clicking on the relevant column
headings in your mailboxes. Messages can be moved around by dragging and
dropping, there’s a similar set of options for replying to, forwarding,
deleting, marking and copying emails by right-clicking on messages and the
toolbar icons should all have a familiar look and feel to them. In short it’s a
home from home for OE users.
The Spam filter is
programmed with a basic set of rules for identifying unwanted messages but it
will also ‘learn’ how to deal with new ones as and when they arrive by
monitoring your actions -- right click on unwanted messages and mark them as
‘Junk’. The Junk Mail controls are on the Tools menu and you have the option to
automatically move flagged messages to a folder for later scrutiny or simply
delete them straight away.
The only significant OE
feature not supported by Thunderbird is the is the ability to read webmail,
including of course MS Hotmail but this is a very small price to pay. Who knows,
if enough people make the move it could have an impact on the volume of viruses
and spam we all have to deal with, unless of course it becomes a big enough
target for hackers so get in quick, while it still works so well!
Next week – Shareware and freeware
JARGON FILTER
RULES
A
set of conditions, set by the user that decides how email messages are
processed. For example emails from a particular person or address might be
routed to a separate folder, deleted or 'flagged' with an on-screen
indicator
TICKER
Displays current stockmarket prices in a horizontal window or
bar
WEBMAIL
Email
messages sent to and from web sites, bypassing the need for special email client
software
TIP OF THE WEEK
Thunderbird uses a plain text format to store messages so
they can be read using any text editor or word processor. This also means it is
easier to move your emails to another PC, import them into another email
program, or back into OE. Thunderbird email folders and settings are kept in a
single folder, called a Profile. In Windows 9x (98/SE/ME) they are stored in:
C:\Windows\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\
In Windows XP they can be found in:
C:\Documents and
Settings\<yourname>\ApplicationData\
Thunderbird\Profiles\
If you want to know more about Thunderbird or have any
unanswered questions there are two excellent FAQs at:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/
index.phtml?title=Thunderbird_:_FAQs
and
http://texturizer.net/thunderbird/faq.html#q2.10
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