4 replies to this topic

[Peter1]

Hello I was told not to use web base programs to do business. I have Comcast as my ISP who uses a low end program called Smartzone. Can I assume because I can retrieve my mail from another pc that this is web based. I also have other accounts such as Hotmail but again I cab access my mail from another pc.. My Pc was a gift and came with Outlook Express not Outlook. I have read Outlook Express is not very secure. I am aware of Windows Live Mail which is a program you install in your computer. From what you hear; 1-is best to use non web based programs to do business? and, if so 2-Would Windows Live Mail be such a non web based program exceeding Outlook express for security? I am looking for a reasonable way to do business securely; business being bill pay etc. Thank you for helping with a bit of a complex question.

[8210GUY]

As I don't know the service you have I can't say what that can do for you, but I can certainly get you started with things that will make all this a lot clearer for you, for starters WLM (Windows Live Mail) is simply Hotmail, possibly the least secure out there, or one of them at least, so business wise thats a bad choice, and it's only recently they allowed you to use it from your PC, I have an account from way back when you could use them in OE (Outlook Express) and the like, but then some years back they stopped that so everyone from then on had to use web mail, so hopefully thats cleared up that part of this for you.

Now OE is no worse\insecure than most other options, I explained it to someone on this site the other week as think of an aeroplane crash, then think of a car crash, a plane crash sounds far worse due to the sheer numbers involved, but yet your more likely to have a car accident more than a plane accident, it's simply a case because so many use it you hear more about it when things go bad, safe practises and good security with keeping the updates etc current and you should be fine, only thing I'd suggest is making your email ask permission EVERY time it wants to go online, this way if you get a request and you didn't tell it to then it's time to deny and start scanning.

There are obviously a few types of email available, web based which are often free, great for using on web sites etc, so worst case you can drop the address and get another if it gets on the spam circuit or something.
Then there is the one you can get from your isp, usually comes as part of your connection, but I have seen a couple of services charge extra for that, and that leaves paid for options, if you have your own web site\domain name the you can have whatever address @yourdomain you want, but you need to check if they allow using from your email client on your system as opposed to web mail, otherwise these are the options you have really.

What I do suggest is to use an email interface to pre-check your email before downloading it, I use a fantastic program called Mailwasher, you launch it and thats it, let it run all the time your online and it auto checks your mail every 10 minutes by default, you can change that period if you want, then what it does is download a preview in a text only format, any images are displayed as it's address, so it can quickly highlight if they are something nasty by seeing the address\domain etc.

This program also has a spam data base, and if you get mail from someone in that it pre-marks it as such, it can sometimes pick up if it's a virus as well and warn you, then the 1st time you get a mail from someone you can add it to a friends list, or blacklist it if it's from a bad source you don;t want, after you do this every future mail from that person is pre-marked so you never have to waste time looking at it again, takes a short while before you add your people to the appropriate list, but once done the program remembers and marks all future mails from them as such.

You can also sign up for a further spam database, it does exactly the same thing for you, just expands the database available to you, it also allows you to report spam to them for investigation\inclusion in future lists, but up to this point no mail has touched your system, so it's 100% safe, then once you mark each mail for keeping or deleting, you process the mail, it will then delete anything you selected BEFORE downloading the rest of the mail you do want to your email client on your PC.

Another useful feature is if a mail coming in requires a quick 1 line response then you can reply from the program, this then launches you're mail client as though you clicked on reply in your proper email, very handy not having to load the full mail client just for a quick response, so as you can tell by now, I really like this program lol, but it is the perfect interface to use with your proper email client, because nothing touches your system until you process the mail, it means you can get rid of unwanted stuff with it never touching your system, it's as safe as you can get IMO, hope this gets you started anyway.

Edited by 8210GUY, 03 August 2009 - 05:51 PM.

[Peter1]

Hi 8210 I am going to give mailwasher a look as soon as I finish here. Yes, you did enlighten me about this web based etc business. I notice you can, with extra effort, enhace your security with OutlookExpress. Perhaps I'll do some homework there too. I guess everyone who banks online for example is web based correct? Even though they use the isp as a link in the chain they do have to sign in at a web based site. Correct me if I am wrong. It therefore seems that the degree of security lies at both your end and the banks end. Talk again.

[8210GUY]

Not sure if your mixing up email with secure sites, or if I have missed the main point ? So to cover both (they are different issues) here goes, online banking, or making payments online should ALWAYS be done via a secure server, any reputable company will have this, and it's signified by a padlock icon, I think it shows above the task bar in xp (or used to at least in older versions of ie), and by the site address in ie8 (maybe 7, can't recall), on top of that most if not all card company's offer online guarantees should the worst happen, certainly in the UK at least, so check with your bank as to what they offer in the way of protecting you using your card(s) online. Obviously with anything along these lines there is no choice but to do it online, and is probably the most secure way to make payments these days with the banks sureties, emailing a payment is very insecure and should NOT be done, there is 1 situation when in a secure site you may face, and thats when it goes to the next page, it will warn of secure, and insecure items, it will ask do you want to view the insecure items, if your in the process of making a payment or dealing with sensitive info always block the insecure content, the page will then load normally but only allowing the secure content to be available. Email\web-mail is a totally different ball game, it is purely an electronic way to send a letter in the most basic of terms, and in it's own right it's not secure, at least not in the way making a payment online is, but if you want to correspond with specific people securely, there is always the option of encrypting the mail, you can get 3rd party encryption tools, install them on all systems to be involved, then you can send encrypted mail, and they can un-encrypt it to read it, whereas anyone else would need to crack the encryption, as you can see there are numerous options, but if you could give an example of what you want to do, and whats to be secure, we can then advise on something more specific to your needs, because ATM we don't know exactly what you want to achieve.

[Peter1]

Hi 8210 Your first sentence said it all; 1-email is for insecure chatter etc. and, 2-online banking is done at the secure padlocked site with a secure computer. There are so many programs out there these days that reading can easily lead to misunderstanding. Thank you for your comprehensive reply. Now I'm off to respond to you in the the other thread re: startup.