As you might know, Email is short
for "electronic mail" just like in
the good old days when people still
wrote each other courteous letters.
Only Email is faster and cheaper by
a very long shot. So it's the same -
but different.
All it takes is for you to click
your mouse button a few times, dash
off your latest news to your friend
in Australia and within minutes, you
may have a reply back in your
virtual postbox - your Inbox.
As with snail mail, you need an
address if your mail is ever going
to reach you. In almost all cases
the first part of your Email address
is the same as your Screen Name.
It's usually split into three
sections:
your username
lets say "nickname"
the @ sign
the name of your Internet Service
Provider namely "brbsales"
This is then followed by an
extension such as ".co.za", ".com",
or ".org", or ".net" - so Email
addresses end up looking something
like this: nickname@brbsales.com
If you have Windows XP installed on
your computer, the Outlook Express
Email package should be there too,
and its icon should automatically
appear on your desktop (screen). It
looks like a plain old snail mail
envelope, with two blue arrows
around it.
But this is not the end of the
story. You now have to tell your
computer that, in future, you're
going to be using Outlook Express to
send and receive Email. To do this:
Open Outlook Express by
double-clicking on the icon
Now click on Tools on the menu bar
In the dropdown menu, select
Accounts
In the new window select the Mail
tab
Click on the server you're using
so that it is highlighted
Click on the Properties button
In the new window, select the
Server tab and change your mail
servers to: Outgoing Mail (SMTP): smtp.brbsales.com Incoming Mail (POP3):
pop3.brbsales.com
Enter your username and password
Click on OK till you're back in
your mail program.
But, if this is all getting too
complicated for you, call the BRBSales
Technical Support guys and let them
talk you through the process.
They're pretty used to people
getting stuck when setting up their
mailbox.
Most Email programmes make use of a
folder system to file your Email
messages - much like a filing
cabinet with different drawers for
different files.
In Outlook Express, the folders
you'll use most often are:
The Inbox Folder, where all the
messages you receive from other
people are kept, and
The Outbox Folder, where all your
outgoing messages lie waiting to be
sent once you go online.
Other folders are:
The Contacts Folder, which is your
address book and which stores all
the Email addresses you want to
keep.
The Sent Items Folder, which
stores all the messages you've sent
to other people.
The Deleted Items Folder, which
stores all the messages you've
deleted until you decide to delete
them permanently. You can also set
your computer to delete these items
every time you exit the program.
The Drafts Folder, which stores
the messages you're in the process
of writing and haven't sent yet.
Checking for new Email
At the risk of stating the obvious,
in order to check for new mail, you
need to be online, so establish your
internet connection and
open Outlook Express by
double-clicking on the icon.
Then click on the
Send/Receive button on the
menu bar at the top. And
that's it. The program will
now check for new mail and
download it into your Inbox.
Mail-checking tips
If you don't want to read a
message, simply erase it by pressing
the "Delete" button on your
keyboard. So, if you can see that
you've been spammed (been sent junk
mail), or if a message looks
suspicious, just trash it.
You can set Outlook Express to
show the size (in kilobytes) of each
Email you receive. Click on View on
the menu bar, then on Columns and
click on the tick box next to Size.
Saving a received attachment An attachment is a file that has
been digitally "glued" to an Email
message. It could be a picture (such
as a funny cartoon) or a document
containing text (often created in MS
Word).
If one or more files have been
attached to a message and you want
to store these files on your
computer, do the following:
Double-click on the message you've
received. The message will now open.
Double-click on the attached file
in the little window where it says
"Attach".
Provided you have the program in
which the attached file has been
saved by the person who had sent it,
it will now open and you can save it
on your hard drive.
Writing a new message
Ready to send an Email message of
your own? Here goes:
In Outlook Express, click on New
Mail on the menu bar.
Type the Email address of the
person you're writing to in the "To"
box.
To insert Email addresses
directly from your Address Book,
click on Tools, then on Select
Recipients. Your list of contacts
will now open. Click on the address
you want, then on "To" in the
right-hand column and then on "OK".
Type the topic of your message in
the "Subject" box.
Now type in your message.
If you want, you can pretty up
your message using the formatting
toolbar - like a word-processor, it
lets you change colours, add
pictures, change text alignment, and
more.
When you're finished, click the
Send button and off it will go.
If you want to make sure
then you can
click on the "Send/Recv"
button.
Mail Writing Tips
You don't have to keep typing in
the same Email address if you use it
often - that's what your Address
Book is for. Store the address in it
and the next time you want to send a
message to this person, simply
insert it directly from your Address
Book.
If you receive a message you want
to send on to someone else, forward
it - no retyping required.
You can also CC (carbon copy) your
message to another person at the
same time you send it to the main
recipient. Just click in the CC
space and insert an Email address.
If you want to get sneaky, you can
BCC (blind carbon copy) it to
another person if you don't want the
main recipient to know who else
you're sending it to. In Outlook
Express, you'll need to do this from
your address book. Click on Tools,
then Select Recipients, and then
click the BCC button to insert the
Email address.
Remember - you don't need to be
online to write a new Email but don't forget
to go online if you want people to
receive your Email i.e. send it
first.
Email programs such as
Outlook Express is an efficient and
easy way to manage your Email. But
the day will come that you need to
check your Email and you can't get
to your computer.
BRBSales' Webmail is a web-based Email
service that allows you to read your
Email and send messages using a Web
browser instead of a normal Email
program.
How to do it
On the
top left of the BRBSales homepage navigation bar
you will find the
webmail access called
"Email Login".
Complete the email
address and
password fields for example:
Email address:
nickname@brbsales.com Password: password
Click on the button labelled
"Login". This will take you to your
Inbox, where you can read, write,
reply to and forward messages as you
would with your Email program. You
can also delete messages you don't
need any longer especially if
they're too large and
causing download
problems.
Be nervous . be very nervous. Think
more than twice before opening an
Email message from an unknown
source. Email is how most viruses
are spread. And once you've been
unlucky enough to have a virus
camping out on your computer, you'll
understand exactly the horror of
which I speak.
You're likely to hear many sad tales
about how viruses have wiped out
people's data. Usually just as
they're about to finish a piece of
work that took hours to do. So, be
warned. Picking up a virus on your
computer can cause a chain reaction
that can go way beyond just losing a
bit of information. These stories
can fill volumes.
Here's the good news: BRBSales'
virus-filtering system scans all
incoming Email before you download
it. See this as a safety net that
can save you from disaster. But if
you value your computer data, you'd
be wise not to rely on that alone -
installing a good virus scanner and
keeping it up to date will give you
extra protection and peace of mind.
It will also prevent viruses on your
own computer from being spread to
others.
Bear in mind that you can also get a
virus on your computer from infected
Compact Discs, Camera/Cellular phone
internal memory or flash
memory disks. Once
you've taken the wise precaution of
installing a virus scanner on your
computer, you should update it
regularly - new viruses are
developed almost daily, and the
virus scanner needs to be updated in
order to catch them.
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