Gmail accounts - are they safe?

Hi People

This is a bit concerning, when many people have a Gmail or Googlemail email account (me included). So watch carefully on how to avoid the same fate.




I guess the person concerned was a little unlucky, but make sure you either do not use the secondary email option or as the presenter suggests, make sure it is current.

What most people don't realise is, that if they do not use an email account (webmail - e.g. free hotmail, yahoo mail etc) then after a set period of time, the account is 'tombstoned' or marked for deletion and a while after that it is deleted. Once it is 'tombstoned' it is as good as lost anyway (non recoverable), so check your webmail once a month at least, just to be on the safe side. There is also a set period of time before the email address becomes available again.
So people, either use it or lose it.

Secret questions, yes the presenter has a point here, so rather than put in some random letters and numbers, choose something, personal to you and replace a couple of the characters with numbers.
i.e. Foxtrot could become F0xtr0t or Neddy could become N3ddy.

Now those are only suggestions, but you get the point.

Another thing to point out, is that many passwords now require a minimum of 8 characters, so fill out the remaining characters with your favourite number or even (if the password program allows a special character such as '*' or '!' or even '€') To get the '€' symbol use the 'AltGr' button - held down and the number 4 on the top row of the keyboard on a UK keyboard, set to UK use.

That's all for now
See you next time




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Pre-empting software screwups

If you have had your PC get screwed up by a virus / driver / operating system / hardware fault, then you will no doubt be well aware of the situation of "What about all my data, the pictures from our holiday and the kids growing up" scenario.

No I am not going to say anything about backups, my point here is that it is usually the operating system / driver that screws up. Now for many of you, a single large (250GB or bigger) hard drive is usually what you have had the good fortune to have had put into your system when you purchased / made you PC. Right, now if you have to re-install windows or replace the hard drive for any reason, and then re-install windows, for heavens sake, reduce the size of the Windows partition to approx 80-120GB (80000MB - 120000MB) i.e less than 50% of the suggested value of MB that the installation process offers. This will leave you an unformatted partition which you can use to put your data (and emails) on (if you dont know how to do this or need help, again mail me at service@gds888.com).

Once you have finished putting the Windows on, your programs again can be put on the Windows partition. Now using computer management, create the second partition for DATA only (no program installations here, again if you don't know how to do this email me at service@gds888.com). When you have done this, the 'My computer' will reveal two hard drives present. One is used for Windows and program installations, the other will be used for 'My documents' and emails. WARNING DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN THIS PARTITION / DRIVE UNTIL YOU HAVE MOVED YOUR MY DOCUMENTS FOLDER.

To move the 'My documents' folder to the new partition ('hard drive' in My computer)in XP, simply click on 'start', locate 'My documents', right click on this and select 'properties' from the menu. Click on the 'Move' button under the 'Target folder location' section.
This opens a 'Select a destination' window, locate the second drive (without windows on it) and click 'Apply' then wait. Click 'OK' when finished and now your 'My documents' folder is on the second drive/partition. I go into much more detail in my forthcoming book on Windows installs.

So that being done, now for the emails (Outlook Express/Outlook). If you are putting your email back after backing up /recovering it from a previous install. Make sure that you are not connected to the internet/accessing emails (the idea is here you want to avoid setting up your email account, then finding that some recent emails have come down before you have had a chance to put the backed up / recovered email data in place and set up the storage folder).

Outlook versions allow you to import files of various types, and if you have used this option the usual format is as a .pst file. Simply use the import option to put the emails/folders back.

Outlook Express versions do not have an Outlook Express to Outlook Express transfer only an 'upgrade' option to Outlook. To get the folders for the previous Outlook Express installaton, you require access to copy the 'Local Settings'/ 'Application Data' / 'Identities' folder. When you have this it can be placed back in the same place on the new installation OR you could be super smart and put it on the DATA partition and point Outlook Express to that partition (Please remember not to connect to your email before doing this as you will possibly overwrite the folder containing the newer emails or have two folders and have to switch between the two)

That's all for now people
Back soon


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How to open your Yahoo or Gmail email client from your Firefox web browser

Hi Again

Note that the above is only for Firefox, but on the plus side it is a more secure (than Internet Explorer), more versatile (it has lots of addons and reasonably quick.

If you are looking for a browser that is fast light (on resources) then check out Firefox, Google Chrome and or Opera.

It is possible to have all four installed on your PC, with obviously only one as the default browser, but you can launch and use the others at the click (or double click) of an icon.

The advantage here is that you can see what webpages look like, how quick they load relative to the other browsers, see what facilities these browsers have and make an informed decision on what browser would be best for your needs.

Word of warning though, use the bookmark/favorites option in the default browser only as the bookmarks are overwritten when importing from another browser (unless you know how to save before the importation and add them after the process is complete)

That's all for now

Thank You and happy emailing


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