Transcript Hints for Organizing Emails for Genealogy 1 October 2013 Manatee Genealogical Society- Computer Special Interest Group Currie Colket Slides at: http://www.colket.org/genealogy/MGS/

Hints for
Organizing
Emails for
Genealogy
1 October 2013
Manatee Genealogical Society- Computer Special Interest Group
Currie Colket
Slides at: http://www.colket.org/genealogy/MGS/
Overview
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email versus Traditional Postal Mail
Typical email Functions
History of emails
POP (Post Office Protocol)
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
Free email Accounts
Internet Service Provider (ISP) Email Accounts
Hosted Email Accounts
Example Email Services
– Yahoo.com
– Gmail.com
– Hosted (Network Solutions => [email protected])
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Emails Versus
Traditional Postal Mail
• email message - Instead of using a pen to write a letter on
paper, you use your keyboard to type an email message in an
email program on your computer.
• Sending the email - When the email is finished and has been
addressed to the recipient's email address, press the Send
button in the email program. A stamp is not needed.
• email transport - Like postal services transport letters and
parcel, email servers transmit email messages from sender to
recipient. Usually, emails are not delivered to the recipient
directly, though, but waiting at the "nearest" mail server to be
picked up by their Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Fetching new mail - If you've got new snail mail in your mailbox,
you go and fetch it. Similarly, your email program can check for
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new email messages at your email server and download them for
you to read.
Typical Email Functions
• Populate inbox with new messages
• Functions to Save, Download, Delete, Reply, Reply All, or
Forward email
• Functions to attach documents for outgoing email
• Functions to download/save attachments for incoming mail
• Functions to manage email folders (directories)
• Functions to manage email addresses (contacts)
Many More Specialized Functions,
especially for Social Networking &
Skype type of video communications
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History of Emails - 1
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In early 1960’s computers were “standalone” with
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Intergalactic Computer Network concept by J.C.R Lickider of Bolt, Beranek,
and Newman (BBN) in August 1962
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Different operating systems for different computers
Different commands to perform similar functions (e.g., login, search)
No communication between computers
Concept contained almost everything the Internet is today.
DOD Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) adopted research
concepts as ARPAnet as a means to share defense information between
labs during the cold war.
Contract awarded to BBN on 7 April 1969.
Allowed communication between users of computers via packets of
information.
First demonstration message sent on 29 October 1969 from a computer at
UCLA to a computer at Stanford.
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- The message was received correctly, but caused the Stanford computer to
crash
Man on Moon 20 July 1969
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History of the Internet - 2
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By September 1971, 23 nodes at DOD research centers and universities.
In 1971, the first network-to-network email was sent
By 1973, 75% of ARPAnet traffic was email
By 1973, the file transfer protocol (ftp) was developed to allow file transfers over the
ARPAnet
My first email address in 1979 was colket at OSU while working on Masters
It was local and could only send and receive email from that OSU computer.
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By 1981, there were 213 hosts with a new host added every 20 days
My first internet address in 1982 was [email protected]
The extra nadc.navy.mil is called the Domain Name; each
host had a unique Domain Name
Typically use an email protocol: 2 Most Popular
• POP (Post Office Protocol)
• IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
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POP
(Post Office Protocol)
email sent =>
• It usually cannot be delivered directly to your computer
• Message has to be stored somewhere by your ISP which is online
24 hours on 7 days of the week
• As your ISP's mail server receives email from the internet it will look
at each message and store it in your inbox
• ISP receives the message for you and keeps it until you download it.
• This folder is where the message is kept until either you retrieve it or
one of your ISP's administrators finds your account has been filled
and decides to delete all the mail in it
Things that can be done via POP include:
• Retrieve mail from an ISP and delete it on the server.
• Retrieve mail from an ISP but not delete it on the server.
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Problems With POP
Multiple Computers & Offline
• In a typical POP session, you will download all (new)
messages and delete them from the server immediately. This
procedure works perfectly fine as long as you access your
email from only one computer (and only one email program).
• As soon as you try to work on your email from more than one
machine (a desktop at work and a laptop at home, for
example), things get clumsy and complicated. Soon enough,
you'll start forwarding and redirecting messages to yourself or
set up two independent email accounts that forward to each
other.
• At the root of your problem lies POP's concept of offline email
access. Email messages are delivered to the server. Your
email program downloads them to your computer and deletes
all messages from the server immediately. This means they 8
are all local to that computer, where you operate on them.
IMAP - 1
(Internet Message Access Protocol)
IMAP attempts to help remedy this unfortunate situation
• Basically, you operate on the mailbox that resides on the
server as if it were local to your computer. Messages are
not downloaded and deleted immediately, but reside on
the server. There, they can be marked with several flags,
for example "seen", "deleted", "answered", "flagged", or
other, user-defined flags.
• What else do you do with messages in your email client?
You would file them in different folders, and you would
search the folders for specific messages. You can set up
mail folders and file messages there, and you can tell the
server to search its repository as you wish
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IMAP – 2
(Internet Message Access Protocol)
• IMAP also allows access to shared mailboxes. This is an
easy means of sharing information, or to make sure an
email inquiry (to a support mailbox, for example), is dealt
with. All support staff can access the IMAP mailbox, and
they will instantly see which messages have been
answered and which are still pending.
• IMAP was designed for online email access. You
operate on the mailbox on the server as if it was on your
computer. This allows for using multiple computers to
access the same email account easily.
I really like IMAP and highly recommend it
POP is better for off-line library research
Where access to emails is required.
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POP versus IMAP
• Most email services support POP and/or IMAP access
• This means you can download your messages to any
email program (such as Windows Live Mail, Outlook,
Mozilla Thunderbird, Mac OS X Mail or iOS Mail).
POP Notes:
• Mail is always downloaded to computer and hence
available whether on-line or off-line
• Possible to process emails while on travel
• Possible to reference emails while in library
IMAP Notes:
• Only access to email when online
• Can access email and folders anywhere in the world with
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internet access
Overview
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email versus Traditional Postal Mail
Typical email Functions
History of emails
POP (Post Office Protocol)
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
Free email Accounts
Internet Service Provider (ISP) Email Accounts
Hosted Email Accounts
Example Email Services
– Yahoo.com
– Gmail.com
– Hosted (Network Solutions => [email protected])
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Free Email Accounts
http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm
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Top 8 Free Email Services (as of Jan 2013) – Ranked by preference
[email protected] – Google’s approach to email & chat; almost unlimited message
storage; simple, but very smart interface; Supports POP and IMAP.
Zoho is a solid email service with ample storage, POP and IMAP access, some
integration with instant messaging and online office suites. Aimed at professional users
[email protected] – America On-Line (AOL)'s shines with unlimited online storage,
very good spam protection and a rich, easy to use interface.
yourname@iCloud – free email service from Apple with ample storage, IMAP access
and an elegantly functional web application. Limited productivity tools. No POP Interface
[email protected] – serves free email with practically unlimited storage
accessible on the web with a rich and helpful interface for using POP; no IMAP
yourname@hotmail – Windows Live Hotmail is a free email servicyahoo.com - e that
gives you unlimited storage, fast search, solid security, POP access - no IMAP access.
[email protected] – Yahoo Mail is your ubiquitous email program on the web,
Windows 8 and mobile devices with unlimited storage, Supported by most systems.
yourname@mail,com - Mail.com and GMX Mail are reliable email services filtered well
of spam and viruses whose unlimited online storage you can use with a rich web
interface and mobile apps. POP and iMAP access are available as a paid add-on.
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Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Email Accounts
Email account comes free from ISP
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]
Most have good features.
I have a hosted account on verizon.net
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Hosted Sites
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Overview
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email versus Traditional Postal Mail
Typical email Functions
History of emails
POP (Post Office Protocol)
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
Free email Accounts
Internet Service Provider (ISP) Email Accounts
Hosted Email Accounts
Example Email Services
– Yahoo.com
– Gmail.com
– Hosted (Network Solutions => [email protected])
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Example of Yahoo – 1
inbox
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Example of Yahoo - 2
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Example of Yahoo – 3
Directory
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Example of Yahoo – 4
Contacts
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Gmail – 1
inbox
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Gmail – 2
Social Networks
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Gmail – 3
Categories / Google +
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[email protected] - 1
Inbox
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[email protected] - 2
Folders
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[email protected] - 3
Genealogy
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[email protected] - 4
Contacts
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Questions
Please Ask Questions if you do not Understand Anything
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Future Plans
Suggestions for Future
MGS Computer SIGs:
 Transitioning To Windows 8 & Touchscreen – March 2013
 Hints for Organizing Emails for Genealogy – October 2013
 Genealogy, Using Facebook to Help!" (Vickie Hall) – November 2013
 Sharing Research On-Line with Drop Box/Icloud Technology – December 2013
 Posting Genealogical Files to Your Home Page (Don Campbell)
 Getting Pictures into Family History (Gay Schoenknecht 941-778-8689)
 Exploring New York Times Archive
 Exploring First Search
 Posting Stuff to WWW
 Explore Infoweb
 Exploring MyHeritage.com (not to be confused with Heritage Quest)
 Exploring Ancestry.com
 Beginning Computer Stuff ???
 Using Iphone for Genealogy (Jim???)
 Ten Useful Internet Tips for Genealogical Research
 Other Useful Programs
What else would you like to have addressed at future Computer SIG Meetings?????
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