InBox

Frank's problem of hoax emails was addressed in the Inbox section last week. He received false emails purporting to be from the BNZ and was told that Xtra does not land incorrectly addressed mail in a default box. He was advised to contact Xtra's helpdesk. But on closer inspection it was revealed that it was not Xtra's fault at all.

The days of incorrect mail reaching the wrong box has ended. Most internet service providers reconfigured their mail servers to respond with a message headed Mailer Daemon that informed the sender the destination was not reached. Xtra suggests the CC Carbon Copy or BCC Blind Carbon Copy lists have appeared in the email header. When these unscrupulous senders target addresses, they send them out in bulk, so similar addresses are likely to show in those sections.

This brings up a common complaint. Ignore any email which has a Mail Daemon message delivery error. These messages are often incorrectly bounced to people because their name was used as the sender to cloak the true offender's identity. It is not because of a virus, as many people assume, but another irritation to deal with, like spam.

David uses Igrins Squirrel Mail and it never saves the password, forcing him to log in each time he wants to check his mail.

This is common with internet service provider-hosted, web-based mail clients. They do not provide a Save Password box for security reasons. In most cases people use this system for use in an emergency when normal mail software fails, or a person is away from their normal machine. Instructions for setting up Eudora or Outlook Express on Igrin, can be found at: igrin.co.nz.

Vincent is using McAfee Spamkiller on his Outlook Express but is having problems. Whenever he restarts his computer, the server address defaults to 127.0.0.1, which blocks his email. Xtra have pointed the blame to McAfee, but McAfee say 127.0.0.1 is correct. He is confused and beginning to regret buying McAfee.

The problem should be easily solved. Open Spamkiller and in the account settings put in Xtra username, password and pop3.xtra.co.nz as the server.