Please beware of web sites that do not securely save user passwords. As a web developer myself I am surprised at how often user login information is not securely managed and is sent by email over the Internet in plain text.

One such web site is the new Ontario Electronic Stewardship – Steward Registration web site (www.ontarioelectronicstewardship.ca). Make sure that if you register on such a web site that you do not use a password that you can afford to lose. When I registered, they sent me an email “for my records” and in plain text it contained my account number, my email address and the password that I had registered with. I immediately fired off a notice to them – suggesting they review their policies – but I am shocked that an agency that will be collect fees have LITTLE regard for PRIVACY!

If you are a web developer or if you are hiring a web developer PLEASE make sure that your registered subscribers information is securely maintained and protected.

Web sites to beware of (as of date):
boldstreet.com (August 2008)
ontarioelectronicstewardship.ca (March 2008)
http://rth-mh.com – Roy Thompson Hall/Massey Hall
spamarrest.com

Q. Using Microsoft Outlook I send email to everyone in my “Office” with a list. I start typing the name of the list and Outlook automatically fills it in. However I cannot edit the “Office” list after we upgraded my Outlook to add or remove addresses. I also cannot find the original list in my Contacts.

A. One of the things that email clients like Microsoft Outlook, Entourage and Apple’s Mail do is cache your email addresses. They store your addresses this way s that you can quickly address a message. The cache stores addresses of people and list that you send to and address from messages you have received. You can add addresses to your Address Book or Contacts by right-clicking on the addresses. However you cannot easily edit the cached addresses.

After you upgraded your Outlook your application migrated the cache file (called “Outlook.NK2” on Windows) so that your ability to quickly access addresses is maintained. The only way to regain the ability to edit the list is to recreate it. In Microsoft Outlook, click on Contacts and choose “New Distribution List” from the File menu. Give it a name like “Office 2” and add the addresses you need in the list. Your Contacts will maintain your list for future additions and deletions.

You can select and auto completed email and press the Down Arrow and Delete where it appears. The more extreme method is to delete the Outlook.NK2 file but you will lose all the cached addresses. With Apple’s Mail you can edit “Previous Recipients” under the Window menu.

Q. When we have guests on our network they have trouble of sending mail. We are with Rogers and the messages go out but they don’t get delivered. What could be wrong?

A. A few years ago Rogers and Yahoo joined forces so they could manage mail services together using Yahoo’s mail servers. While this benefits the services involved in managing e-mail and spam filtering, it resulted in some new rules and restrictions.

Early in the days of the Internet users were much more friendly and could be trusted on wide scale basis. Since most users on Internet could be trusted security on the systems was much looser and most mail servers could accept and relay e-mail to other users. As the Internet grew more and more nefarious types started to take advantage of this trust. Spammers soon found out this loose policy could be taken advantage of. A server that would accept mail from any e-mail address became known as an open relay.

It is estimated that 90% of all e-mail traffic is actually Spam. These days most mail servers block e-mail from domain names that are not registered among their users. So when a strange e-mail lands on the mail server it is often checked against lists of known spammers or simply refused out right. The latter is becoming the more often chosen protocol and users are now finding that their e-mail is not reaching the intended recipient. Some mail administrators maintain white lists of valid e-mail addresses but this is proved to be a huge task to manage.

If you’re trying to send e-mail via a Rogers/Yahoo you must be using a Rogers e-mail account otherwise you have to add the outgoing e-mail address to your accepted users list. Go to http://mail.yahoo.com and login with your Rogers e-mail account and password. Once you’re logged in click on the ‘Mail’ link in the top right corner. Next click on the “Options” link. You should see a place where you can add an e-mail account. Enter your guest’s or other non-Rogers e-mail address and press the “Add” button, you can skip the next screen and at the bottom you’ll find a validation code. At the same time Rogers/Jack who will send an e-mail to that address. However you can copy the code and simply paste it into the dialog screen and press validate.

When complete you will see the outgoing e-mail address listed and you will be able to send outgoing e-mail from within the Rogers network. It is annoying extra set of steps but you can’t blame Rogers for wanting to protect its clients from the barrage of unwanted mail.

More added June 16, 2009

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Dear Customer,

This is an important reminder about upcoming security enhancements that will require you to make some adjustments to your e-mail settings in your Rogers Yahoo! Mail (Webmail) options.

According to our records you use an alternate e-mail address in the “From” line of your messages. As a result of upcoming security enhancements starting on April 3rd, you will need to make a change to your e-mail settings so you can continue to send messages from this alternate e-mail address.

If you have already updated your e-mail settings in your Rogers Yahoo! Mail (Webmail) options, there’s no need to take further action.

If you have not completed the steps below, it is very important that you update your e-mail settings prior to April 3rd so you can continue to send messages from your alternate e-mail address.

This change should take under 5 minutes to complete. You simply need to:
Sign-in to your Rogers Yahoo! Mail (Webmail) account
Add the e-mail address(es) that you typically use in the “From” field of your e-mail messages to your “Mail Profile”
To get detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to make this quick change, visit:
http://www.rogershelp.com/verify-email.

We are pleased to continually deliver a safe and reliable Internet experience to you.

Sincerely,
Rogers Hi-Speed Internet Technical Support

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