General Points about MCSD Email

By Tony Mitchell – February 2005

The difference between Webmail and Outlook Express

• Demo the two
• Demo my webmail access
• Demo OE access
• Compare and contrast the two methods
• Outlook Express (OE):
• Downloads to your computer
• No longer on server taking up space
• Can keep, delete, store, whatever
• WebMail:
• Much like Hotmail or Yahoo
• Stays on server unless you manually delete
• Options: leave on server or delete or put in other folders
• Problem: taking up space
• Work (school) method verses Home method
• OE at work
• Webmail at home
• Some Questions and Answers regarding Outlook Express and Webmail
• I used OE at school, then looked on webmail at home and the message was gone. Why? (Because once your school OE account accessed the email, it downloaded it from the server to your computer, so when you tried to view it from home, it was not longer on the server, but on your computer at school.)
• I looked at my email using Webmail at home, but when I got to work it was still on the server and then downloaded to my computer at work. I thought when I looked at it, it was downloaded to my computer. What happened? (The system worked properly. When you view your email via Webmail, it is not downloaded anywhere. It is only downloaded from the server to your computer when you use Outlook Express at school.)
• I looked at the message at home, and then on OE at school, and then when I wanted to look at it again at home, it was not there. Why? (Once you used Outlook Express to check your email at school, your email was downloaded from the server onto your computer, so when you tried to view it from home, it was not longer on the server.)

Viruses

• To avoid viruses and general damage to your computer, do not open an attachment from a person you do not know
• Fortunately for Mac users, Macs seldom get viruses

Passwords

• You can password the Outlook Express program such that no one can access it to look at any of your email, old or new. To do this, go to http://www.knology.net/~tmcbus/MyTrainingClasses and follow the Setting your Outlook Express program/software password link
• You can also set OE to open without a password, and only require a password when you choose to download (send and receive) email from the server. To do this follow these steps

1. Launch OE
2. Go to the Tools menu and choose Accounts
3. Click on the Mail tab
4. Select your account and click the Properties button
5. Click the Servers tab
6. Remove the check from the “Remember password” box

• MCSD strongly recommends that you password your account and do NOT set it to automatically remember your password for sending and receiving email from the server
• Remember to make any program password the same as your email password to avoid confusion