The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave

The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave is an online “book” (in this case, in sort of wiki form) about Google Wave and how to use it.

Bounce Bully – Bounce Spam Back to Spammmers

Here’s a nicely vengeful idea.

Bounce Bully lets you “Bounce Spam mail Back to Spammmers in Outlook and Outlook Express”.

“Make them think your email address is invalid. BounceBully sends a spammer a message that’s the equivalent of “Return to Sender. Address Unknown.” Spammers who receive these bounced messages may be encouraged to remove you from their spam lists because they think your email address is not active. Punish spammers by sending a “hit” to there website that does not produce money for them. Find out where in the world your latest spam message came from.”

Freeware. Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003

MailStore: Email Archive and Backup free

MailStore is the Email Archive and Backup for a variety of email programs.

It handles:
* Microsoft Outlook 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007
* Microsoft Outlook Express and Windows Mail
* Microsoft Exchange Server Mailboxes
* Mozilla Thunderbird and SeaMonkey
* POP3 and IMAP (including webmail services such as Gmail and Yahoo)
* .eml and other files

Freeware. Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista.

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector lets you “use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages, contacts and calendars for free!”

Xoopit for Gmail and Firefox

Xoopit is a Firefox plugin for Gmail users.

1.	Browse photos & videos from Browse all your email and web photos and videos in one spot. Photo and YouTube links sent to you are automatically collected, saving you the hassle of going to these sites.
2.	Easily find and access your files Never misplace an attachment again.
3.	Quick share to friends, Facebook or your blog Stay connected with your friends, comment on their photos, or pass them along.
4.	Search your stuff, not your messages Filter around people or keyword and find the photos and files sent to you.

Send A Fax From A Computer For Free

[updated 2009.2.8.a]

MakeUseOf has an article on sending faxes for free using TPC.

Method One: One way is using a browser. You just need to fill in the recipient name, destination fax, your valid email address and the body of the fax. The site maintains a dynamic coverage list. You can enter the fax number to ensure that it is reachable before you actually send the fax.

Method Two: using regular email from your PC. In that case, any email software can be used to fax from computer. To send a fax via email, you just need to start your mail software and compose a new email message.

Features:

• Free online fax sending service.
• Send faxes world wide (see current coverage list).
• Option to quickly check and verify if the fax number is covered by TCP.
• Send fax using browser or email client software.
• Desktop client is also supported.
• Similar websites: FaxZero, K7 and  Scanr.

Other sites offering free fax service is FaxZero which sends in .doc or .pdf format, eFax, and freeFAX.  FreeFAX, for example, adds advertising: “The fax recipient will receive a cover sheet which contains a third of a page advertisement along with sender and recipient information. Again, this ad helps to support the free fax service” — which should be expected with any free service online.

Be aware that privacy may not be guaranteed with such services.

KLS Backup to backup your email

KLS Backup 2008 is an easy backup program for Windows Mail/Outlook Express/Thunderbird and even Firefox profiles and email.

Freeware.  Windows 2000/XP/Vista.

HideText: Convert Text or Email To Image

MakeUseOf has a post on HideText: Convert Text or Email To Image which “lets you convert text to image online. You can convert sentences and email addresses to the GIF format which can then be used at places like your blog or website, especially when you want to prevent spam bots from copying your content. The images are only human readable and hence spam bots won’t be able to capture the text embedded in that image.”

HideText is a beta online service.

Five Best URL Shrinkers

Lifehacker’s Five Best URL Shrinkers has the most popular ones for shrinking those loooonnnnggg Web addresses down to something that can fit in a much smaller space.

Makes emailing them a lot easier when they fit on just one line.

Copy your Outlook Express email files to a backup folder

Internet Fixes has instructions on how to Copy Outlook Express Mail Files to a Backup Folder.

Email programs tend to bury files in odd places, so here’s how to track them down if you’re using Microsoft Outlook Express.

Is Your Email Being Hacked?

Check if Your Gmail is Hacked with Activity Monitor

MakeUseOf has instructions on using a new GMail feature to check on the last time somebody used your account.

If it wasn’t you — take action to protect yourself.

For other kinds of email, try another MakeUseOf article called Are You Sure your email isn’t being hacked?

Gmail security using SSL

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer keeps your web use a little more secure.  You’re using it when the URL begins “https://” because that “s” refers to secure.

ZDNet has instructions on the quick way to turn on SSL for your Gmail.

GSpace for Firefox – store your files in GMail

If you have a Google GMail account, you might be able to use all that space they give you for something other than email.

GSpace is an extension for the Firefox browser that helps you to store files, even large ones, in your GMail space.

“This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (4.1 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system. The interface will make your Gmail account look like a FTP host.
After the installation, you’ll get an option called “Gspace” in your “Tools” menu, which opens the GSpace window.
It’s great for storing/sharing files with your friends. Also very good to backup photos and music files (as you can view/listen to them from Gspace).
If you have any problems with the extension, please look at the FAQ page (http://getgspace.com/faq.html). If your question is not listed or the solution doesn’t apply to your specific question, please email the current developer (Fon Labs).
* DISCLOSURE: Gspace uses statcounter.com service to track the usage of the extension”

Note: this is NOT an official Google GMail function, so use at your own risk.

ToldACuccot sends up to 1GB

MakeUseOf has a review of ToldACuccot, which is a free service that lets you send up to 1GB (gigabyte) of data when it’s too much for your email system.  Select the file/s you want to send, enter recipients’ email IDs and wait until files are uploaded. Once finished, ToldACuccot will email each recipient a link to download the files.

ToldACuccot features:

• Send up to 3 files (or archives) at the same time. Total size should be less than 1 GB.
• Send fiels to a maximum of 5 recipients.
• Password-potect transferred files (optional).
• Receive confirmation email when recepient starts downloading the file.
• Files are stored for 7 days (or 10 downloads) and permanently deleted afterwards .

Spamprimer for fighting spam and phishing

Randy Cassingham (of This Is True, a great e-letter) has Spamprimer to advise on how to handle and maybe even reduce spam and phishing attempts.

Handling an email newsletter and web sites, he’s had some experience in dealing with this stuff.  He has some practical advice on what to do, what not to do, what works, and what may not work.

Over 150 tips and shortcuts for Gmail

[updated 2008/7/14]

Dumb Little Man is not so dumb — this useful and interesting site has links to several lists with tips and shortcuts for your Google email account.

GMail: Beyond the Basics gives tips on how to use GMail more effectively.

MailStore – back up your emails from everywhere

So, you’ve got a Gmail account, a LionsLink, some stuff in Outlook…

How do you make sure you don’t lose any of those vital emails?

MakeUseOf has a post on MailStore Home freeware:

• Keep all your emails (from multiple email accounts) and attachments in one archive.
• Backup emails from: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Microsoft Exchange Server Mailboxes, AVM KEN! Mailboxes, Thunderbird, Mozilla SeaMonkey, Webmailer, any POP3 and IMAP accounts, from Imported Archive files.
• Saves space by compressing email archives.
• Super-Fast Search: Search all your e-mail within fractions of a second (incl. the contents of attached documents).
• Remove duplicate attachments: MailStore keeps only one copy of each attachment, even if it dozens of emails.
• One-Click Backup: Integrated CD/DVD burning utility to backup your archives with just one click.
• Message Preview: Preview archived messages directly in MailStore. You can even reopen them in your local email client (i.e. Microsoft Outlook).
• What’s missing: Option to setup and schedule automatic backups.

ReachBy puts a form between you and spam

Sometimes you just need to put your email address out there so people can contact you.

If you’re doing it on a web page, you can still put a buffer between you and spam.

MakeUseOf has a post on using ReachBy, a free service that requires people to fill out a form to send to you, instead of posting your email address so spammers can find it.

“ReachBy.com takes a series of defensive measures to protect your contact page from spam. One of them is captcha which is a human-readable image with text not easily recognizable to robots.
In addition, you have a choice to harden your privacy settings by requiring from your visitors to confirm their email address if they want to send you a message. You are also given full control over challenging question in the contact form. Ask something simple with an obvious answer to minimize chances of robot spam. Or even more, ask for a secret code that you share by some other means.
At any time you can make your contact page inaccessible online, which will stop all communication to your email address via this service.”

GSpace add-on for Firefox stores in Gmail

Got a Google GMail account? Okay, then are you using all the space they give you? Not yet?

Then consider this Firefox browser add-on called GSpace which lets you FTP through Firefox and store files in there.

“Gspace is the FON friendly site that provides FREE Online Storage to access your files everywhere. Gspace turns the 2GB of your Gmail account into free online storage. With Gspace you can manage unlimited Gmail accounts to store all type of files within its simple, user friendly interface. Listen your favourite stored music directly from your Gspace, view your collections of pictures and manage your Gdrive files as well. Download Gspace now and transfer files between your computer and Gspace at anytime, from everywhere!”

Recommended by PC Magazine, April 2008.

GMX – free email, not a sports car

GMX offers a free email service, which appears comparable to Google’s GMail.

• Unprecedented Spam Protection
• Maximum Virus Protection
• 5 GB E-Mail Storage Space

In addition, GMX Mail supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP protocols, as well as mobile device integration.  GMX respects our customers’ privacy and does not transfer any data to third party companies.

They also offer online file storage.

For an objective opinion, try the About.com review.