Feb 27

Outlook 2016 Deletes POP Mail

Outlook 2016 Deletes POP Mail

There have been reports lately that Outlook 2016 deletes pop mail from POP3 servers, despite the “Leave a copy of messages on the server” option being checked. Microsoft is apparently aware of this bug, and working on a fix. The only fix is to remove recent Microsoft Outlook updates, or to switch to IMAP, where no such bug exists as it doesn’t use the POP3 protocol.

The behavior goes like this: You’ve got “Leave a copy of messages on the server” checked under Tools > Accounts> Advanced, and “Remove from server after <x> days” is enabled. The solution is to uncheck the “Remove from server after <x> days” option altogether.

Solutions

From Microsoft’s own KB Article:

Outlook 2016 Deletes POP Mail

“Leave a copy of messages on the server” may be checked, but Outlook deletes mail anyway.

If you have the option Remove from server after <x> days enabled, you may experience the issue of email messages being deleted from the server.

If you have the option Remove from server after <x> days disabled, you may experience the issue of email messages being duplicated in Outlook.

Well, isn’t that encouraging? Fortunately, the link above shows how to revert to an earlier version of Outlook 2016, as only the latest version of Outlook 2016 Deletes POP mail. I highly recommend doing that, as it should solve the problem most painlessly. A better option would be to stop using Outlook! Mozilla Thunderbird is quite good and they aren’t obsessed with updating it needlessly. Granted, some folks really need Outlook, and I get that.

Outlook 2016 Deletes POP Mail – Prevention

This also brings up another point: Lets hope you have backups! If Outlook deleted all your mail from your server, and you had years of mail on there- where is your mail now? If you have a backup, it’s a restoration away. If you don’t… well, I can’t think of a better time to sign up for a Cloud Backup program, or at least get some local backups going. Also, make sure that your mail host is maintaining backups. They might not- the onus is on you to make sure your data is safe. Never put all your eggs in once basket!

I hope this helps you! Special thanks to Josh.com for the excellent writeup on their blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feb 18

Clipboard Manager for Windows: Tech Tool Tidbit

Tool TipHave you ever wished that your clipboard could hold more than one thing at a time? Most Linux desktop window managers have such a thing built in, but this functionality is missing from Windows and always has been. Today I want to share with you a clipboard manager that I’ve found that works well. But, why would you need a clipboard manager to begin with? Let’s take a look at a common use case that I have run into personally.

 

The Problem

I regularly find myself copying data from one Chrome tab to another as part of the work that I do. When multiple fields must be copied, this means I must drag the tab to another screen and so I can copy/paste without having to change tabs, or use a scratch pad (a blank tab in Notepad++ for example) on another screen to copy things back and forth. This is clumsy and overall not a lot of fun, and it slows me down overall.

A Solution: Ditto Clipboard Manager

This is where a clipboard manager comes in. A clipboard manager will allow you to copy multiple items to your clipboard, and then select which one you’d like to paste either by using different hot keys, or via a menu (or both). Using a clipboard manager, you can copy all of the items from one source, and then paste them as needed into their destination without having to switch back and forth.

Ditto Clipboard Manager

Ditto Clipboard Manager

What’s more, you can keep things in the clipboard forever! I find this very handy for keeping snippets of code (such as bash one-liners) and other text snippets close by.

I’ve found Ditto Clipboard Manager to do all of these things, and it probably has more functionality than I’ve even used. It’s not limited to text- you can copy images and other items that can be stored in the Windows clipboard.

Once it is installed, you’ll see its icon in your notification area. It may be hidden, and you have to click the arrow and drag it into sight. Right Clicking on it will give you the Options link, which allows you to change the Keyboard Shortcut. The default is “Control + `” (the tilde ~ key) but I prefer to use the Alt key instead. Here’s where you can also configure it to load on system startup, and a myriad of other nice features including network sharing, if you dare put your clipboard on a network (I do not, even though it’s encrypted).

Do you use a clipboard manager that works for you? Tell us about it below!

Nov 17

How Autoresponders and Email Forwarding make you an Accidental Spammer.

Spam is bad. It ruins the internet experience and is a major reason people hate email as much as most people do. Google has become very good at filtering spam, but it’s not perfect. But did you know, that by enabling certain features in your email, you can become a spammer without ever realizing it? Let’s look at a couple of common ways this can happen.

Before we get started though, a disclaimer: most of the problems outlined can be resolved with a proper configuration of the mail servers involved. We’re taking a look at some worst case scenarios that we have seen happen. YMMV.

Autoresponders

“This is Bob’s email. He’s not here because he’s off in Hawaii soaking up the sun. He’ll be back in a week.”

Ah yes, the Answering Machine of email. Autoresponders are used for everything from vacation notices to verification of mail reciption, i.e. “Thanks for your mail, someone will get back to you in 24 hours”. How does the use of such features turn one into a spammer? Well, it’s quite simple.

Many autoresponders have the habit of including the sent email in the response. So, if a spammer hits “bob@example.com” with a piece of spam, and the from: address is forged (they’re always forged) with something like “innocentuser@example.com”. Then, bob@example.com responds with his typical “This is Bob’s email…” message, and right there below it, is the spam message for pharmaceuticals or hot russian babes or whatever. Where does this response get sent? It gets sent to innocentuser@example.com.

The result is that a spammer sent email to bob@example.com, which forwarded the spam to innocentuser@example.com. Even if you don’t include the content of the original mail in the autoresponse, innocentuser@example.com STILL gets Bob’s automated response. Now Bob is sending unsolicted mail, whether it contain a spammy message or not. Bob, you spamming jerk.

But wait, there’s more. What if bob@example.com get’s an email from Jane@example.com, and they both have an autoresponder set up. Yep, you guessed it- email wars! Both of their mailboxes fill up until they break, and now they don’t get email from anybody. Granted, many mail servers have protections for things like this, but many simply don’t.

The solution? Simple. Talk to your mail admin about it and make sure that the above problems can’t happen. If you’re not sure, then don’t use autoresponders. They’re a great idea that can turn out badly.

Email Forwarding

What about forwarding your email? It seems like a great solution: You have your own domain name, but you use Gmail or Outlook.com or some other mail provider, and don’t want to complicate your life by having to check yet another email address. And right there in cPanel is the Email Forwarder. Oh, it’s so simple- just send all email from bob@example.com to bobsuruncle@somemail.provider

And now, Bob, you’re a spammer. Why? Simple. When bob@example.com gets a piece of spam, what’s the first thing he does with it? He forwards it. He SENDS the spam to bobsuruncle@… and now @example.com has a reputation for sending junk mail, and it gets blocked. Now the mail forwarding stops working because everyone knows that Bob’s a spammer and so they block him.

The solution: Don’t Forward Emails. Ever. Instead, most online mail services have a POP or IMAP retrieval option. So, you create bob@example.com as a POP account, and have gmail or whatever check that email periodically. If that isn’t fast enough for you, then you’re stuck checking two email boxes. Live with it. Because forwarding mail, especially for business critical mail accounts, is just begging for trouble.

“But I’ve been forwarding email for years!” Well, I hate to break it to you, but you’ve been lucky. Your luck will run out.

Fluffy123

A great way to be a spammer is to let a spammer use your email account to send spam. All you have to do is use a password that they already know. They have giant lists of known passwords, and they know how to use them. They’ll try to login to your email address enough times and get in, and then start sending spam. If “Fluffy123” is your email password, and you’ve been using it for years, by all means, change it. Get yourself a good password (and no, Fluffy1234 does not count). If you’re using cPanel, make sure your cPanel main account password is good too, because it can be used to authenticate any email address on the account.

There’s other ways you can become a spammer. Having a website that contains vulnerabilities (old versions of WordPress for example) is a great way to get your website hacked, and be used for spam. But that’s another article.

Questions? Comments? Leave them below 🙂