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Set Up An Email Address With Gmail
You may think that there are not many folks out there who have not set up email address yet, but there are still those who have resisted the temptation of this online communication tool. This article is for those who have not yet succumbed to email and also to those who have yet been exposed to the wonders of Gmail.
There are many free email services available now, so choosing which one to set up an email address with can be confusing. I am a recent convert to Gmail myself (June 2008), but I have joined many others including professional bloggers who use Gmail with great success and much happiness.
What Do The Experts Say?
Leo Babauta is the author of the popular lifestyle blog, Zen Habits. Babauta wrote all the way back in January 2007 about how using Gmail allowed him to keep his in box empty and in control of a number of different email addresses.
Bernard Lunn who writes for ReadWriteWeb has just set up a Gmail address this August, after he has “lived in Outlook” for years. ReadWriteWeb is ranked the 9th most popular blog by Technorati and provides Web Technology news, reviews and analysis.
For Lunn, his great satisfaction with Gmail is the excellent spam filter; it reduces the spam arriving in his in box to almost zero and the fact that he can access his email anywhere that he has internet access, gives him immense flexibility.
Problogger, or Darren Rowse, as is his real name converted to Gmail in April 2008 and in doing so managed to tame his out of control in box from 10,000 emails to zero. Rowse used techniques including the label, filter and archive functions in Gmail to achieve this amazing feat.
What Is The Gmail Offer?
Gmail offers a completely free email service to anyone who wishes to set up email address with them. Once signed up for your email address, you have also set up a Google account which will allow you to easily access their extended range of free on line services.
With your Gmail address you get:
7000MB storage space. Storage on Gmail is continually increasing, so you are incredibly unlikely to ever run out of space. Sophisticated spam filters. Moving from my old account over to Gmail, saw spam almost disappear. Intelligent search function. Being a Google product you would expect this function in your email to be good and it is excellent. You will always be able to track down emails, whether you only remember the first name of the person who sent it or a key word from the email text. Comprehensive Label and Filtering Systems. You can set up filters so particular emails can bypass your in box altogether if you wish. A Central In Box For All Your Email Addresses. Using the mail fetcher feature in Google, you can have all email from any of your other email addresses arrive in the one in box. This means that you can use Gmail without having to even change your email address!
Have I convinced you yet? If you have not set up email address yet, go ahead and set up a free email address with Google. If you have an existing email address, go ahead take the plunge and set up email address with Gmail and start managing your email more efficiently.
Is Gmail Hacker Proof?
Just when you thought your Gmail was safe, hackers have found a way to hijack your email accounts. This was revealed some months ago when Gmail customer support started getting concerned letters about the amount of spam received in their Gmail accounts.
This phenomenon is caused by hackers hijacking your Gmail account using a technique called Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF), Techniques requires that you click a link on a dummy hacker site, spam mail or a pop up ad while logged into your Gmail account. This action can transplant a digital spy in the form of a cookie or java script code into your PC. When your Gmail account is open, this digital spy tricks your web browser into sending an invisible request to Gmail servers.
This request could be to download your account data, your contact list, or your emails. As long as you kept your Gmail account open the digital spy could download info uninterrupted until you logged out of your account. This technique could also load spam and other hacker scripts into your Gmail account. The stolen information would be used to pilfer other account information. Or hackers can profit by selling the Gmail account info to spammers for the highest price.
Google was able to respond to the Gmail flaw quickly by tightening up their security structure. But, the CSRF attack can work also with your Google Toolbar and other websites, not only Gmail. If hackers are able to hijack your Gmail accounts, this technology could be used to request financial information when you’re a doing online transactions. There have been reports that CSRF attacks were able to initiate the transfer money by embedding a java script code in the web browsers during online banking activity.
A CSRF technique relies primarily on the users’ ignorance and trust they have for major websites. There are techniques that would reduce this kind of attack from happening. Here is a simple strategy to stop hackers from stealing your online information.
1. Never instruct your browser to remember your login information. This allows hackers to easily enter your trusted sites using a hijacked web browser.
2. Set your browser to block cookies or a least require notification before being loaded. Also perform a “secure delete” of cookie history after logging off the net. Visit www.delete-computer-history.com/delete-cookie-history for instructions.
3. Use a third party firewall with settings at high security to monitor incoming and outgoing net traffic.
4. Use Firefox as your primary web browser. Firefox’s active development allows the web browser to immediately respond to security threats. For example, downloading the No Script Firefox add-on will guard you against this kind of attack.
5. Always logout of your websites when activity is finished. And log off from the net when your online activity is completed.
If you following these simple techniques you are already many steps ahead of most PC users. This action also provides a decent amount of online security against these kinds of attacks. However, online security flaws are not necessarily the fault of the internet users. Security flaws in a trusted website is the major avenue used for an attack. Trust in major sites is the weapon CSRF attackers use to steal information. For this reason Gmail and other web mail providers are the best places for hackers to launch an attack.
All in all, having a constant broadband connection to the net comes with a high price. The price is your security. If you don’t protect yourself the door to your online personal information is open. And leaving the door open for anyone to enter your home or in this case your computer.
Steps to Stop Spam
Internet marketing is the only option for the entrepreneurs who want to make quick money. Here, marketing is very easy as you can reach a customer who is staying abroad. While internet marketing is doing well on one side, there are some spammers who collect the details of many users and send frequent spam emails. Here in this article you will learn about spam and the steps to prevent it.
What are spam mails?
You could have received mails from unknown person for marketing products or you could have got the mail from an unknown person from Nigeria that he wants to deposit money in your account. All these are spam emails and according to the cyber law the person who sends all these spam mails is punishable. Clicking the spam emails is dangerous, as it may steal your personal details including social security number, license number etc. Clicking these unknown mails sometime forcibly download malicious software in your computer. So, all your activities are tracked through this spam mail.
How to stop spam mails?
* Do not open the spam or junk mail. The intelligent way to get rid of spam mails is ignoring and deleting it.
* If you are using internet for various purposes, then you should use different mail ids. For example, you can use one email id for online shopping and a different one for your business use. Whenever you transact money through internet, leave message that your e-mail id should not be sold.
* You can use spam filters to get rid of these junk mails. Most of the service providers have this facility; hence automatically the spam mails will be filtered and marked. Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail offers spam filters.
* You can easily figure out the junk mails by looking at the time sent. Most of the spam mails are received between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m. So, when you come across such mails, just delete it without clicking it.
* Do not post your e-mail address in any of the public forum sites. It is believed that 95% of the personal details theft takes place in these sites.
* You can get rid of frequently disturbing pop up messages by installing anti-spam software in your server.
* Scan your system weekly once for spyware and adware. These are the agents that sell your e-mail id to other parties.
It is very tough to stop the spam mail falling into your account. The best way to stop spam mails is using two mail ids for personal and business purposes.