After looking at a couple of sites, including cristina@expatsinitaly, what I see as the problem is that I never activated 'outlook express' and most of the email boxes that pop up on websites automatically are OE, so of course I can't use them. I think I would have to go to yahoo which is where I get mail to email them to solve the immediate problems of making reservations or whatever.

So if I find a way to activate OE will it 'have' to be my default email, can I have more than one?

After so long a time since last repair(about 4 mos), I don't even have the icon on my desktop anymore it just disappeared.

I'm sure these are all very simple things for you guys and I appologize for my ignorance, but the fact is that I haven't been hooked up for 4 yrs and didn't know much before that(with an American server who apparently cleaned out what gunk there was back then before it got to my door!), so what's a little thing for the pros is ANGST RIDDEN PARANOIA for me!! This last year I've paid out about 500eu to people to clean out all the virus and spyware infections(Italian shop) until the last 2 American guys who freelance out of the base got me stripped and running, bless their hearts. Pieta' G.

quote:

Originally posted by bardigiana:
.... until the last 2 American guys who freelance out of the base got me stripped and running, bless their hearts. Pieta' G.

Please, more details.

Outlook isn't much better security wise then explorer. I don't keep up to date with windows but somebody should be able to mention a relatively safe email program.

Eudora is the choice of nerds I believe. You can't channel hotmail through it though (I know that's not the right word, but you know what I mean!)

Okay first the problem. Basically, if you want to click on a link to an email address either on this or any other site, you wil need to have a mail reader that is installed on your computer. If you do not want a mail reader on your computer then you have to copy the email address and put it in the adress line of any email you want to send out thropugh yahoo or whatever..

If you do want to have an email reader on your computer then I would go with Mozilla or another internet browser/mail & news reader. Then all you have to do is set the new email reader as the default and it will then open when you click an address.

Thanks for speaking my language Cristina!

I had firefox once and loved it but had problems with thunderbird? at the time but that was about a year ago will give it another shot I think.

Mani tried to PM you, but haven't figured that out either, but went looking for their flyer and they have an email address:

John and Robert ComCRathotmaildotcom
hope this is OK with them.

Outlook express is a simple email program that comes with windows and works just fine. If you don't see it on your windows screen look for it in programs. Right click on it and drag it onto your screen. You will have to enter the info for your email address and internet provider to send and receive email.

You must have an anti virus program on your compter, you can't live without it. Norton antivirus is one of the standards and is easy to use. You will set it to protect email, anouther must. Norton utilities comes with the antivirus program and provides some usefull tools for keeping your computer running smoothly.

Norton is reliable and easy to use, but can be a bit heavy. If you are looking for lighter anti-virus software, I would recommend Bit Defender. Also note that these days anti-virus software is not enough. Anti-spyware is also essential. I use Alluria.

I had Norton and had a virus attack 'that' or how I got to it, so opened the door to everything else. The 'boys' put in Symantec, seems to be doing fine and microsoft antispyware which I do full scans every 3 days and download all updates whether I need them or not. Will look into alluria if you think it works better than the microsoft, at this point it's sort of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' tho. Thanks so much for all the input and bearing with me on this, downside of having a techi-EX who just fixed stuff when they went wrong, so I'm years behind in that department.