by Dave Moore, 9-2-18
Next to surfing websites, email still remains the second most popular Internet function. While it may soon be eclipsed by social networking forums offering instant messaging, people still love their email. All that’s left is for folks to understand how email actually works.
Where exactly is your email? Do you know? How do you find out? The answers to these questions can determine your enjoyment of the email experience, as well as how much control you have over your own private information.
The first thing to understand is your username and password. Please don’t tell me you don’t have an email password; if you do email, then you have a password. Whether or not you’ve forgotten your email password is a different subject.
When you first, way back when, setup your email account with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or a third party like Yahoo, you established a username and password. Your username and password are the keys to your email life. Figure out what they are and test them on your email provider’s website, either Cox, AT&T, Yahoo, or whoever it may be. You may not need to know them today to get your email, as things may be set to run sort of “automatically,” but, believe me, someday you will.
You must be able to access (login to) your account on your email provider’s website in order to control your email. If you don’t know your password, you will need to contact your provider and request a password reset.
Next, you must understand how you access your email. Do you use a dedicated email program like Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Outlook or Windows Live Mail, or do you use Webmail? This is the part that confuses people the most, but it’s actually quite simple; you just have to think logically about the question. Do you use an email program, or do you use a Web browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer to access your email on your provider’s website (AKA, “Webmail”)?
All computer programs tell you their name at the top of the screen while you are using them. While you are doing your email, look at the top of the screen. If it says somewhere “Outlook” or “Thunderbird,” then you are using a dedicated email program. If it says “Mozilla Firefox” or “Internet Explorer” (Web browsers) and you see an address bar that says something like “att.my.yahoo.com” or “cox.net/webmail” (website addresses), then you are using Webmail.
So, what’s the big deal between using Webmail, or using a dedicated email program? Knowing which one you use answers the question, ”Where’s my email?”
If you use an email program, then, depending on how your program is configured, your email may actually be stored on your computer’s hard drive. You have that option with a dedicated email program and many individuals, as well as businesses and government agencies, prefer it that way. On the other hand, if you use Webmail, then your email does not actually “live” in your computer. Instead, your email resides in the computers of your email provider. For most folks, that would be either Cox, AT&T/Yahoo or alternate providers like Gmail.
These differences in email storage also come in to play when dealing with the subject of backing up your files. If you use an email program and need to keep copies of old emails, and would be bummed out if your computer crashed and you lost all that email, then you need to be backing up your email files. If you use Webmail, then you don’t need to be concerned about backing up your email anyway, since it’s not really “in” your computer in the first place.
I say you don’t need to be concerned about backing up Webmail, but that only holds true as far as you trust AT&T, Cox or Google’s computers to not crash and lose all of your stuff; it’s been known to happen. Fortunately, most Webmail providers offer free tools, such as GMail-Backup, to backup your web-based email and save copies to your hard drive or other storage media. Better safe than sorry.
Dave Moore has been performing computer consulting, repairs, security and networking in Oklahoma since 1984. He also teaches computer safety workshops for public and private organizations. He can be reached at 405-919-9901 or www.davemoorecomputers.com