When Normal Becomes Frustrating
12/20/2011 15 Comments
It’s amazing the things people live with because they think “it’s just the way it works.” Becoming frustrated with email, Internet connections, and applications is accepted as normal because users believe these shortcomings are built into their systems, so there’s no way to get around them.
I’m here to tell you that in 99% of cases — this is completely untrue.
A frustrating experience with technology usually comes from 3 sources:
- Inappropriate use
- Improper configuration
- Trying to adapt outdated products to do modern tasks
The top product people seem to have issues with is email, so today I’m going to focus on making email-life easier. Follow these simple tips to keep your blood pressure down and your messages sending.
Downsize Your Message Flow
Receiving so much junk mail you can’t find the messages you actually want to see? Spam filtering is essential for mailboxes, otherwise email would be a useless form of communication. Many have accepted the fact that opening your email means you have to download 70 messages you don’t want and 2 that you do want.
After all, spam is normal, right?
Absolutely not! It is actually illegal for a business to send you email without your consent. The way they get around this is through mailing lists: if you sign up for a contest, fill out a rebate form, give your email address to a store during checkout, or even shop online, there may be a stipulation in the transaction saying “I agree to let a list of vendors contact me.” The next thing you know your inbox is full of “20%-off Sales” and “One-Time-Only Events”. Once a month, I like to go through my inbox and unsubscribe to these messages. Email that comes from a legitimate mailing list will always have an unsubscribe link on the bottom of the message. Sometimes the unsubscribe request takes a few days to go through, so be patient. It makes a big difference in cutting down inbox volume.
Illegitimate messages are of the “buy pharmaceuticals” or “send me money and you’ll get a lot more in return” variety. You won’t find unsubscribe links of the bottom of these messages, and it’s important that you don’t reply to them. If your email provider is for some reason not able to filter these messages out, you’ll want to use the spam blocking tools available to you in your email application. TOAST.net email users have tools in webmail that allow you to mark messages as spam on the server level. This allows the system to learn the patterns of new undesired messages and filter them in the future.
If you run your own mail server, spam is a difficult problem to handle. I’ve even heard some IT people give up and say “eh…spam happens…deal with it.” This attitude of acceptance not only makes the IT person’s job more difficult, it causes productivity loss and can even be dangerous. It only takes one person to respond to a fake “Your password needs to be changed” message to expose your network to hackers. The easy solution to this is a mail protection service. Mail protection puts another layer in front of your mail server to cleanse your mail before it hits the mail server. The idea is essentially the same as the guy with the clipboard that lets people in at nightclubs: if an email wanting to get in looks shady, it’s not allowed in.
Email Clients
I like to prepare for the future instead of trying to relive the past. Email clients fall in this category. Fewer and fewer people are actually installing software on their computers. High speed Internet and web applications are doing away with the need for local software. I know there are still people out there where we’ll have to pry Outlook from their cold, dead hands, but the very thing they love so much is also causing a lot of problems.
Ever have an error message saying “mail server can not be found?” How about “This program as performed an illegal operation.” Did you ever lose your email because of a damaged .PST file? Having trouble installing service packs? Information not syncing correctly?
…these problems plague all Outlook users, and they have nothing to do with your email system directly. It’s why I push people to use web mail as much as possible. Using a web interface gives you a pure email experience — you’re working directly on the mail server so nothing has to synchronize, you see the same information from any computer, and often you have more tools and options available. On top of this, it just works. There’s no mail server settings to set up, no software to install, and no updates to worry about. If you insist on using an email client, it’s like you’re saying “I like to make things more complicated.” TOAST.net features some of the most advanced web mail systems available; if you’re using our email, head over to the Start page and give it a try.
Doing It The Wrong Way
Attachments are a hairy issue. Everyone loves sharing pictures, and everyone knows how to use email, so logically people try to email pictures to others. The problem with that is today’s cameras are a little too good to do this. Ten years ago, a 1 megapixel digital camera would make a 100K photo, so emailing them was not really an issue. Today’s 10+ megapixel cameras take high-resolution pictures that be as much as 5-10MB each! TOAST.net’s mail systems usually allow around 20MB attachments, but many others are limited to 2MB.
It’s not a good idea to send something that large anyway. Sending large attachments is considered rude in the Internet world…especially if the recipient has a slow Internet connection (it ranks right behind typing IN ALL CAPS). Upload the file to a 3rd party service and you’ll make all parties involved much happier. Photo sharing sites like Picassa, video sites like YouTube, or file sharing sites like Dropbox allow you to put your files on the Internet, then send a link to the files. This way you can email anything you like without worrying about size limits, and the recipient can decide when it’s convenient to download it.
So, normal is NOT supposed to be frustrating. If something about email is driving you crazy, there’s probably a reason for it. Hopefully these tips will save some hair follicles from being ripped out.
I’d be interested to know what drives you crazy about your email? Drop me a line and I’ll see if I can get you set straight.
About TOAST.net Internet Service
I have a question! I have a @toast.net email account. I would like to have a copy of my emails to that account sent to my account @mylink.net (a sub-account), while keeping the email on the server of the @toast.net account.
Is that possible ?
Rick,
Yes, this is possible:
-Click the gear icon at the top of the email page and choose “Mail settings.”
-Click the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
-From the first drop-down menu in the “Forwarding” section, select ‘Add new email address.’
-Enter the email address to which you’d like your messages forwarded.
-For your security, we’ll send a verification to that email address. It can take up to 15 minutes to be received.
-Open your forwarding email account, and find the confirmation message from the Gmail team.
-Click the verification link in that email.
-Back in your Gmail account, select the ‘Forward a copy of incoming mail to…’ option and select your forwarding address from the drop-down menu.
-Select the action you’d like your messages to take from the drop-down menu. You can choose to keep a copy of the message in your inbox, or you can send it automatically to All Mail or Trash.
-Click Save Changes.
Thank you, Doug! That worked just fine. I knew there was a forwarding option of some kind, I just wanted to make sure I could keep a copy at the @toast.net inbox.
Thanks again!
I must differ about webmail. Really. I’ve had very little trouble with the email clients that I use, and see much that’s inconvenient about webmail. I wrote about some common causes of email troubles here:
http://kitchenmudge.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/one-more-communication-rant/
a while back.
OK, so what happens when you get a new computer? How about if you want to check your mail from another location? What if you had to set up an office of 50 computers with email?
These are the reasons people are fleeing email clients. Also, if you use a browser like Chrome or Firefox, you can even drag and drop messages and attachments just like a local client. You are now even able to use Google mail products offline. I maintain that using an email program is a thing of the past.
When you get a new computer, you install the email client and copy over the address book and mailbox files.
You can still use webmail to check incoming stuff when you’re on the road. An email client at home doesn’t preclude that.
I personallly have never had to worry about the needs of 50 employees at an office, but many people have their own laptops, which they might prefer to use at the office. The email client can be set up to download from several accounts, if the company doesn’t mind business stuff getting on the employee’s personal laptop. Control considerations for the company could come into play there, of course, and that could work either way for whether webmail is better or worse. My rant cited above mentions some other downsides to webmail.
kitchenmudge,
OK, that’s fine, now consider that the vast majority of the computer using population has absolutely no idea what a POP3 or IMAP server is, what port numbers are, or how to import an address book. Like their TV’s, iPods, and microwave ovens, they expect to be able to plug a computer in and have it work.
Mail clients do still have their uses, but for the vast majority, webmail is where all the development is going. I took a look at your blog and most if not all of the objections you listed have been overcome. The only thing it does not handle well at this point is multiple accounts, and Google has actually made a lot of advanced in that area to date (multiple sign-in and linking accounts is now available, as is multiple “From” sending options.)
There’s a reason Windows 7 didn’t have a client included by default. You might want to take another look at it.
I didn’t have any great trouble setting up a riseup account by their instructions when I was a raw noob setting up a riseup account. (Example: https://help.riseup.net/en/thunderbird This is what an email provider gives you if it believes in customer service at all. Riseup is all-volunteer.)
You’re saying that development has somehow overcome that need to be connected to the web to work with your email files? That no one ever puts system-hogging ads on web mail pages any more? The reason that Windows 7 didn’t include a client by default is probably that they want to sell you Outlook. (Thunderbird is free.)
Yes, Gmail can open .eml files now. Web ads only show up in free versions of email (corporate users do not get ads).
Windows 7 did not come with an email client because they want you to use either Hotmail, or you can download Windows Live (which includes a bloated update to Windows Mail from Vista). Thunderbird is free and very good, but it still requires some knowledge to configure.
Ok, I’m confused by “Gmail can open .eml files now.” Are you saying that there’s some Gmail software that you can use without being connected to the web? That would mean that you have downloaded an email client to your machine. You are using and email client, not webmail, by definition.
If you use the Google Talk email extension, open email links, and there are add-ons for .eml files (which are really rarely seen anymore.)
What about bandwith & usage? If I check email 2-3 times daily from a client program like Outlook Express am I conserving usage versus openning my internet browser home page, then the toast start page, then my account, then mail? Many days I don’t open the internet browser at all.
I did just get a cell phone with a browser, but haven’t progressed to accessing email on it yet as I don’t travel much.
nearly a kurmudgeon
The difference between the two methods is negligible. Mail pulled into a mail client is not “compressible”, where mail pulled up through a web browser is, so the overall usage will be in the same ballpark.
If you need help getting your phone set up for email (and contacts/calendars as well), be sure to check out our email setup wizard: http://www.toast.net/support/emailsettingwizard.asp
The main difference is that with web mail, you must maintain a nice solid internet connection to do anything at all with it: every character you type, every little “delete” or “look at this folder” command.
With a local client, you only need to connect to actively send and receive, and can work offline most of the time.
This blog is nice and amazing. I love your post! It’s also nice to see someone who does a lot of research and has a great knack for ting, which is pretty rare from bloggers these days.
Thanks!
Blood pressure