geeksnet - E-Mail

E-Mail

Email allows you to send and receive messages to anyone else in the world with email access, transferring information reliably and quickly. You can also transfer documents and participate in mailing list discussions.

Email Software
Software Settings
Setting up Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express
Using E-mail with the Web Interface
Email Attachments
How do I check to see if a message I sent was received?
What is Spam?

Email Software

To access email, you need an email client. There are several different email clients available. We recommend using Outlook Express, freely available from geeksnet or included with Windows 98.

Netscape also handles sending and receiving email.

Software Settings

There are some general settings common to all email clients. Other settings vary from client to client, so specifics are left up to the documentation for whichever client you choose to use.

Mail/POP Server
mail.geeksnet.com
geeksnet.com's POP (Post Office Protocol) mail server allows you to receive your email from our network using an email client.

Mail/SMTP Server
mail.geeksnet.com
geeksnet.com's SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) mail server allows you to send email through our network using an email client. To use geeksnet.com's SMTP server, you must be dialed up or directly connected to our network. We do not relay email for other networks.

POP Account
username@geeksnet.com

Email Address, Reply-to Address
username@geeksnet.com

Setting Up Microsoft Outlook Express to receive your E-mail:
You can view your geeksnet e-mail with Outlook Express.

Open Outlook Express and click on the "Tools" button.
Go to "Accounts"
Click the "Mail" tab
Click the "Add" button, then "mail"
Enter your Name in the box, Click "Next"
Click the radio button beside "I already have..."
Type your geeksnet e-mail address in the space, Click "Next"
The incoming mail server should have "POP3" selected
The "Incoming mail server" is mail.geeksnet.com
The "Outgoing mail server" is mail.geeksnet.com, Click "Next"
Type in your e-mail account name and password, Click "Next"
Click "Finish"

Setting Up Microsoft Outlook to receive your E-mail:
You can view your geeksnet e-mail with Outlook.

Open Outlook and click on the "Tools" button
Go to "Services"
From the "Services" Tab click the "Add" button
With "Internet E-mail" highlighted click the "OK" button
From the "General" Tab type your name in the "Mail Account" box
Under the "User Information" Fill in your name.
Type in your geeksnet e-mail address in the "E-mail Address" and "Reply Address" boxes
Click the "Servers" tab
The "Server Information" is mail.geeksnet.com for both "Incoming Mail" and "Outgoing Mail"
Type in your geeksnet "User Name" and "Password" under "Incoming Mail Server"
Click the "Connection" tab
Set you connection based on how you currently receive your mail (dial-up or over a network)
Click the "OK" button

Using the Web Interface
You can view your geeksnet e-mail from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection.

Go to http://mail.geeksnet.com:8383
Type in your User ID and Password
Follow the instructions on the page

Email Attachments

Some email clients support email attachments, which is a way of encoding a document or file and attaching it to an email message in such a way that the recipient can process it and extract the file.

Sending

Procedures vary from client to client, so specifics are left up to the documentation for whichever client you choose to use.

Email attachments are useful for sending small documents, typically up to a hundred kilobytes of information or so. Since the documents are encoded, the amount of data actually sent is approximately one and a quarter (1.25) times the original size of the document. Sending multi-megabyte attachments is strongly discouraged. Many email gateways are incapable of handling such large messages, they quickly fill mail server hard drives, and downloading and processing them isn't much fun either. FTP is a much better way to transfer large files.

Receiving

Since different email clients support different sets of encoding methods, it's not too unlikely that you'll eventually receive an attachment which your mail client can't process automatically. In order to process the attachment yourself, you'll need to recognize how the attachment is encoded, and use the appropriate decoding software.

How do I check to see if a message I sent was received?

Usually, you can't. Internet email provides no common standard of return receipts or tracking systems to verify that a message you sent was received successfully.

However, you will be notified if the mail server cannot deliver your message. When you send an email message, it is first transferred from your email program to geeksnet.com's mail server (assuming your mail or SMTP server is properly set to mail.geeksnet.com. geeksnet.com's mail server looks up the mail server for the recipient address, and attempts to transfer it there.

If geeksnet.com's mail server cannot find a mail server for the address or encounters any other error which absolutely prohibits delivery, then it returns the message to your incoming mailbox marked undeliverable. If geeksnet.com's mail server cannot connect to the remote mail server or encounters any other error which is possibly temporary, then it puts the message into a mail queue. You will be notified that the mail cannot be delivered immediately, and geeksnet.com's mail server will continue to try to deliver the message for several days. If geeksnet.com's mail server still cannot deliver the message after several days, it returns the message to your incoming mailbox marked undeliverable.

Once the message has been delivered to the remote mail server, final delivery to the recipient is up to that system.

What is Spam?

Spam is, simply, the same thing lots and lots of times. Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE, junk mail) and massive Usenet cross-posts and multiple-posts are the most common examples of spam. Spam is an abuse of resources at worst, an annoying waste of time at best.

geeksnet.com does not allow spamming from its servers or network, without exception. Sending spam from a geeksnet.com account is grounds for account suspension or termination.

I don't like spam, what can I do about it?

The easiest way to deal with spam is to ignore or filter it. NEVER respond to it. geeksnet.com actively filters out most spam for you, but some slips through. As long as there's freedom of speech, there will be spam.

Table of Contents