Tag Archives: gmail

10000 sent emails in 8 years

Computer Aid Posted on by

Its amazing looking at the long-term email stats, particularly with a gmail account.

I haven’t been using gmail for 8 years, but I did transfer all my emails when I switched to gmail.

I just happened to go into my sent emails folder, and noticed the total emails in that folder was 10,752

The earliest email was dated 4/5/2005

That means 8 years and 3 months of emails (ie from about the time I started Computer Aid)

That means I have sent approx:

  • 1300 emails per year
  • 108 emails per month
  • 3.6 emails per day

I never thought I wrote so many emails!

Setup Thunderbird email to use gmail imap

Computer Aid Posted on by

Having moved from the world of pop3 to imap (some of you will say: about time!), I’ve found that I tend to want to setup thunderbird (and gmail) in a way that suits the way I work.

This means setting up Thunderbird slightly differently from the way google recommends you do it.

The obvious first step is to install thunderbird and to make sure your gmail account is set to imap (settings -> pop/imap -> enable imap).

Follow googles configuration instructions for thunderbird imap (gmail thunderbird imap configuration). Its slightly outdated, but its good enough to get most parameters correct.. Just remember that where they say: “select server settings from the folder list below your new account” they ACTUALLY mean: right click on the new account name, select “properties”, then select  server settings. Also follow the recommended client settings.

At this point, I change a few settings.

  1. I create my own signature file (usually just a text file), and then I go tools -> account settings, tick “attach this signature”, and choose the signature file I just created.
  2. Account Settings -> Copies & folders: don’t tick “Other” for Drafts and templates
  3. Account Settings -> Composition & Addressing: Then, start my reply above the quote and place my signature below my reply (above the quote)
  4. Check your emails… making sure you can receive emails, then: Account Settings -> Offline & Disc Space: tick both “offline” options (and use select button to select all folders). This works to “backup” your emails, plus lets you read emails if you get disconnected from the internet.
  5. Account settings -> Junk Settings: I tick enable adaptive junk… but if you use this account on many PCs/iphones/etc, then enable this setting on only 1 PC (the most used one). Also: Move new junk to: [Gmail]->Spam
  6. Trash: Google strongly suggest you don’t do this (because if you have an email in a few folders, then deleting it from one folder will delete it from all folders… which is exactly what I want anyway): Tools -> options -> advanced -> general -> config editor -> in the filter box, type: mail.server.server, looks for the number after “server” which corresponds to the account you are setting up.. be careful here! (eg mail.server.server2) Right click on any name -> new -> string -> enter something like: “mail.server.server2.trash_folder_name” -> OK -> enter: [Gmail]/Trash -> OK (make sure the string you enter has the correct upper/lower cases!
  7. Now for the most annoying part of thunderbird: the columns on the main window. thunderbird-columnsClick on the small box in the top right hand corner of the window (the one with a tiny square and a tiny black triangle),  and tick: size, recipient. untick: starred, read.

Whats annoying about the columns in the main window? With gmail imap, the columns apply to all folders… so the sent mail folder will normally show the sender… which is useless! I need to see the recipient! So I need to show both sender and recipient columns… what a waste of space.

Setup thunderbird email to use gmail (incoming and outgoing)

Computer Aid Posted on by

As part of my process of moving from TheBat! to Thunderbird, I had some pop3 gmail accounts to setup in thunderbird.

thunderbirdAt first I just tried to copy the settings from TheBat!, but it didn’t seem to work.

After a look at googles configuration help, I see that Thunderbird needs to use SSL for incoming emails. That was quick to fix.

Next, I thought I’d setup gmail for outgoing emails as well.

So I followed googles instructions for this (the main point is to use the “TLS if available” setting). It sounds simple enough, but it didn’t work.

Thunderbirds account settings are arranged a bit different to most other email clients… particularly when it comes to configuring outgoing connections.

Yes, most people will use their ISPs SMTP settings for outgoing emails, but I figure if I can I’ll use googles outgoing  mail server if possible.

So, With Thunderbird, all outgoing SMTP connections are configured in one place (“outgoing server (SMTP)”).

Then, within each pop account settings, there is a section where you select the outgoing server from the list that you created previously… It feels backwards to me, but then not many people setup their email client with 6 different email accounts.

Anyway, after some quick experimenting, I find that I just need to make the outgoing gmail settings use SSL and port 465.

spambayes helps eliminate email spam

Computer Aid Posted on by

In my fight against email spam, I have tried my hosting company’s spamassassin, gmail, but some spam still gets through.

I’ve now tried spambayes, and I find it works well. http://spambayes.sourceforge.net/

The main problem I had was getting my email client to talk to spambayes, and then gmail (spambayes doesn’t support gmail-level pop security (yet?).

I found a great workaround by following: http://www.engelassociates.net/email.html (and using stunnel).

Although gmail seems to catch the vast majority of my spam, spambayes adds a nice extra layer, for the spam that slips past gmail.