Limax PC Services
Email Advice
This advice is provided to help keep email simple, safe and readable for everyone. Remember that not everyone will be using the same email software as you and many people pay by the minute for their Internet connection. It helps if you use standards compliant email software and plain text for your messages.
HTML
HTML is the markup language used to format web pages. Unfortunately HTML formatting was added to some email programs as a marketing ploy during the "web browser wars" of the mid 90s.
There is no agreed standard on the use of HTML in email and not all email programs can display them properly. They are considerably larger than plain text, due to the HTML formatting codes and the duplication of normally including a plain text version as well. Larger emails will consume more disk space, for both sender and receiver, and more bandwidth as they traverse the Internet. If you pay for your Internet connection by the minute then HTML emails will cost more to send and receive.
Here is a very simple example to show the overhead of using HTML in email. Note that some email programs will actually display everything, as seen in the second example.
Plain text email
Hi Fred, Are you coming on Saturday?
Multi-part message: plain text and HTML
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_000A_01C1F043.CDC995E0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi Fred, Are you coming on Saturday? ------=_NextPart_000_000A_01C1F043.CDC995E0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content=3D"text/html; charset=3Dwindows-1252" = http-equiv=3DContent-Type> <META content=3D"MSHTML 5.00.2314.1000" name=3DGENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=3D2>Hi Fred,</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=3D2>Are you coming on = Saturday?</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_000A_01C1F043.CDC995E0--
Which would you prefer to send or receive?. If you're not convinced, consider that HTML email is more likely to transmit viruses and most junk email uses HTML, so some people filter out all HTML emails and consequently would never see your messages. We advise everyone to use plain text.
Unfortunately some email programs default to using HTML, including Outlook Express. Most people are not even aware that they are sending HTML email. Follow these instructions to stop Outlook Express sending HTML. Similar options should exist in other email programs.
If you use newsgroups, plain text is just as important for news. In fact many newsgroups forbid HTML in their charters.
Blind carbon copies
When sending an email to many people, who may not know one another, consider using blind carbon copies (bcc).
Instead of putting all the email addresses in the To box or the Cc box, use the Bcc box. This will stop recipients from seeing all the other email addresses. Many people do not want their email addresses broadcast.
If you use Outlook Express and cannot see the Bcc box you may need to select the View menu and then select All Headers.
Attachments
Any files may be sent with email as attachments (documents, pictures, programs, etc.), but you should exercise caution. People paying by the minute for their Internet connection will not be happy to receive huge attachments unexpectedly. It is best to check that the intended recipient is happy to receive an attachment before you send it. Many people will delete all attachments unopened, suspecting that they might contain viruses.
You also need to confirm that the recipient is able to read the file. Don't assume just because your system can read a certain file format that anyone else can as well. Documents produced by different word processors, or even different versions of the same word processor, will often be incompatible. You may be able to convert your word processor documents to RTF (Rich Text Format), which preserves formatting but is more widely understood.
Junk email
Junk email is often referred to as spam but is more correctly called Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE) or Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE). It is a major problem which wastes network resources and everyone's time. If you pay by the minute for your Internet connection, then it costs you to receive the junk. Most people sending junk email will forge the headers making it difficult to detect where it actually came from. We can advise on the best ways to deal with what is becoming an increasing problem, but don't expect any easy answers or complete solutions.
Junk email often provides a "remove" option, either via an email address or a web site. Do not use these, they will usually just confirm that, not only is your email address valid, but that you actually read their junk. This will likely result in even more junk email being sent to you.
Junk emailers exploit open mail relays and open proxy servers. This is covered on our security page.
