E-mail Newsletter

  FamilySmart – Pelican Coast – Pyramid 3 - ACTLink

August 15, 2004                                                                                                                 Volume 1, Number 1

In This Issue

·    Sending and receiving pictures via e-mail

·    How to deal with spyware

·    Featured web-site customer

·    Dear Tech Guys
(Q & A)

Links

·    Link to how to adjust your privacy settings (click here)
 

Contact Us

http://www.actinternet.net

Text Box: Ask the Tech Guys:   Dear Tech Guys,   You guys kick me off-line every time I get my e-mail, what gives? Anonymous, Cary, IL   Dear Anonymous,   It’s nothing personal, honest! I suspect that there is a setting wrong in your e-mail program.  If you’re using Outlook Express, click on the Tools pull-down menu and select OPTIONS. When the OPTIONS window opens, select the CONNECTIONS tab.  On the resulting page, there is a checkbox entitled “Hang up after sending and receiving”.  This should NOT be checked.  If it is, your Internet connection will hang-up whenever it checks for e-mail.  If it’s checked, click on the box to uncheck it.  Your problem should be fixed.   Thanks,       The Tech Guys   Got a question? Send it to: TheTechGuys@actinternet.net    

 

www.clwineandhomebrew.com

Text Box: Featured Web-Site Customer:   Crystal Lake Wine and Home Brew   Owners: Dave Childress & Dave O’Malley   Location:  Crystal Lake, IL   Everything you need for brewing beer and making wine at home is available on-line. These guys put a lot of thought and effort into making this a great web site.  Dave and Dave have carefully hand-selected high-quality products and informative books for your selection and can ship your order quickly direct to your door.              www.clwineandhomebrew.com e-mail address:

Text Box: Surf the web 4 – 5 times faster ! ! !   The new release of our TurboNet accelerator is now available.   Includes upgraded Anti-Spyware , Pop-up Blockers, e-mail Acceleration and Parental Control features.   If you haven’t got yours yet,  call support at 800-290-3130

 newsletter@actinternet.net

 

Welcome To Our First Edition

Hi, we’re introducing a new feature for our members.  This is the first of a series of monthly newsletters.  We hope to provide you with the latest information about the Internet and how to get the greatest benefit from it and our services.  In this edition, and those in the future, we’ll bring you interesting information that we hope will enlighten and entertain you.  If you would like to make suggestions on articles you’d like to see in future editions or make comments about something we’ve covered, we’d like to hear from you.  You can send comments and suggestions to newsletter@actinternet.net.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sending and receiving pictures via e-mail
 

One of the most frequent problems that members call us about is e-mails that take forever to send and receive.  Some members give up after waiting for what seems like forever while e-mails are downloading and shut down the e-mail program in frustration.

With the increasing popularity of digital cameras, everyone is getting into the act of sending pictures to friends and relatives.  The problem comes in when they try to send unmodified pictures without reducing the size of the image or stuff too many pictures into a single e-mail. 

Most digital cameras produce very large picture images with sizes that can exceed 1 or 2 megabytes in size.  What’s that mean?  Well, let’s do a little simple math here.  Let’s say that your daughter wants to send you a picture that measures 2 megabytes. Remember a megabyte is a million characters. So, now we know that the computer has to transport or receive 2 million bytes of data for that single picture.  The average dial-up connection relative download speed is about 5,000 characters per second.  If you divide that 5,000 into the 2 million for that picture the time it will take to transfer will be at least 400 seconds or just short of 7 minutes per picture.  If little Suzie decides to send 10 or 20 pictures in a single e-mail, I’m sure you can see what’s going to happen when you try to download that e-mail.

How do I make e-mails with pictures more manageable?

First, don’t stuff so many pictures into one e-mail.  Send only 1 or 2 pictures in an e-mail and just send more e-mails.

Second, pictures that are downloaded from a camera can be made smaller.  Try turning that 8x10 picture into a 5x6 or smaller.  Changing the resolution of the picture can also make a big difference.  High picture resolutions greatly increase the size of the  file used to store the picture.  These steps can reduce the size of the picture file by as much as 80-90% without ruining its quality.

Third, you can use our web e-mail interface to preview e-mails prior to downloading them.  If you see an e-mail on our server that has several attachments that appear to be pictures, you can allow sufficient time to download (and maybe brew a pot of coffee so that the wait won’t seem so bad).

Finally, the new release of our TurboNet accelerator has a built-in e-mail accelerator to speed things along on the e-mail front so give it a try.


Spyware – What is it and how do I deal with it ?


Spyware is an ever growing problem with computers in both business and at home.  It’s a loosely defined category of programs that get imbedded in your computer through two major avenues – web browsing and e-mail.  Most spyware comes from the world wide web itself.  When you visit a web site, it may be downloaded onto your computer without your knowledge.  Unchecked, spyware can sometimes make your computer appear to run slower. Some types simply track where you go on the web and report your viewing habits to marketing companies.  Others are responsible for those annoying pop-up ads that appear on your screen and some are much more treacherous and participate in attacks on other computers.

How do you protect your computer from spyware?

First, you can change your browser settings to stop cookies from being downloaded or maybe just warn you when one is going to down load.  Remember, not all cookies are spyware and some serve very useful purposes so don’t over-react and shut down all cookies.

Try one of the popular anti-spyware programs that can be downloaded from the web.  The two that we recommend are Adaware 6.0 from Lavasoft and Spybot Search and Destroy by PepiMK Software.  Each program is free for non-commercial use and can be downloaded from www.download.com.

Anti-virus programs, historically, have not addressed spyware.  Spyware and viruses are treated as two different creatures by the industry although some new releases of A/V software do try to stop spyware.  Older versions do not.

Our TurboNet web acceleration program has built-in spyware protection to keep your computer from being infected.

Here’s a word of caution – just like Anti-Virus programs, Anti-Spyware software must be kept up to date by downloading updates from the vendor frequently. 

 

A printable copy of this newsletter is available on the home page of each of our web sites.

 

Send your suggestions for features you’d like to see to newsletter@actinternet.net.

Back to News Page