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This section includes Email information and resources relevant to missionaries and overseas Christian workers.

Anti-Virus software is a must today. Not only should you have some, but it's important to keep it updated with the latest virus definitions (done online and sometimes by CD) and tweeked for optimum security. Make sure that the functions for scanning emails at every opportunity (when they are downloaded, opened etc.) are switched on. Also, make an emergency start-up (boot) disk, your software will tell you how and it will be needed if a virus crashes your machine and it won't restart. Some of the software available is listed below (prices are typical, for a single home user). These sites also have lots of information about individual viruses (and how to remove them/limit the damage) should you ever need to find out. 

AntiVir Personal Edition 'FREE' www.free-av.com
AVG AntiVirus 'FREE' www.grisoft.com
eScorcher Anti-Virus 'FREE' www.escorcher.com
eTrust EZ Antivirus $24.95 https://www.my-etrust.com
(1 year 'FREE' for Microsoft users www.my-etrust.com/microsoft)
Frisk F-Prot Antivirus €23.32 www.f-prot.com
F-Secure Anti-Virus £25.95 www.f-secure.com
Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus Personal £23.95 www.kaspersky.com
McAfee VirusScan £25 http://uk.mcafee.com
Norman Virus Control $60 www.normanuk.com
Norton Antivirus £44.95 www.symantec.co.uk (also available for mac)
Panda Titanium Antivirus $39.95 www.pandasoftware.com
PC Security Shield $29.99 http://partners.pcsecurityshield.com/sw/200/CD733
PC Tools AntiVirus 'FREE' www.pctools.com
Sophos Anti-Virus £? www.sophos.com (also available for mac)
Trend PC-cillin £39.95 www.antivirus.com/pc-cillin
VET AUS$84.70 www.vet.com.au (mostly for servers & workstations)

For independent reviews about any of these products, see www.dooyoo.co.uk For an online virus checker, try:

BitDefender Scan Online 'FREE' www.bitdefender.com/scan/licence.php
Panda Activescan 'FREE' www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com
Trend Housecall 'FREE' http://housecall.trendmicro.com

Other anti-virus filter services:

Bsafemail '$20 per year' www.bsafehome.com (web based email only)
Email Filtering '£1.75 per month' www.emailfiltering.co.uk
Star Anti-Virus Checker '?' www.star.net.uk (for businesses and orgs)
Internetters '£20 per year' www.internetters.co.uk (must have a domain name registered or managed by Internetters)

Many other email providers are starting to provide an anti-virus scanning option for a small charge, or sometimes even free. Hotmail now provides free anti-virus scanning for all of its email accounts.For other anti-virus info and services, see

http://anti-virus.com
www.mcafee.com
www.symantec.com
www.messagelabs.com

It's worth mentioning at this point that many email users are propagating hoax virus warnings around the Internet, not realising that they are hoaxes. If you receive any kind of virus warning, please check it out first using one of the following sites before you forward it on (it just takes a couple of minutes):

www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
www.vmyths.com
http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp
www.truthorfiction.com

Spam, as well as the much sung about favourite Monty Python sandwich filler, is the common name for junk or unsolicited email. It doesn't take too much activity on the Internet before you start to receive spam. Anti-spam solutions include:

ASSP 'FREE' http://assp.sourceforge.net
Bigfoot '$5.95 per quarter' www.bigfoot.com
Bsafemail '$20 per year' www.bsafehome.com (web based email only)
Cloudmark SafetyBar £20 www.cloudmark.com
Email Filtering '£1.75 per month' www.emailfiltering.co.uk
Junkmuncher 'FREE' www.junkmuncher.com
Mailshell SpamCatcher '$19.95 per year' www.mailshell.com
Mailwasher 'FREE' www.mailwasher.net
Norton Antispam £30 www.symantec.co.uk
Popfile 'FREE' http://popfile.sourceforge.net
Spamarrest '$34.95 per year' http://spamarrest.com
SpamButcher $29.95 www.spambutcher.com
SpamCop.net '$30 per year' www.spamcop.net
Spamgourmet 'FREE' www.spamgourmet.com
SpamNet FREE (Outlook only) www.cloudmark.com
SpamPal 'FREE' www.spampal.org
Internetters '£20 per year' www.internetters.co.uk (must have a domain name registered or managed by Internetters)
Yahoo! Mail 'FREE' http://uk.yahoo.com

To see OSCAR user reviews of anti-spam software and solutions, see
www.oscar.org.uk/discus/messages/4/317.html

If you want to send an email to multiple recipients (i.e. email your newsletter), you can often do it with your existing email software by creating a group in your address book, adding all the intended recipients to this group and then putting them in the BCC box when you send your newsletter. However, this has its drawbacks ... but there are a number of emailing services that can do this for you. These can also help you manage your contact list, provide templates for newsletters etc. Here are a few to get you started:

Constant Contact www.ConstantContact.com
eNewsletters Online www.enewslettersonline.com
Graphicmail www.graphicmail.co.uk
iContact www.icontact.com
MailChimp www.mailchimp.com
MarketMailer www.marketmailer.co.uk
MyNewsletterBuilder www.mynewsletterbuilder.com
phplist www.phplist.com

Email forwarding has several useful features. Firstly, it allows you to keep one email address even when you change your local email provider. Very useful for people on the move all the time and who don't want to change their email address each time they move ... like missionaries! Some services also allow you to send copies of incoming emails to several different accounts. Most of these services also provide Spam filters which can automatically get rid of all those junk emails you don't want. Here's a sample of the services available:

Bigfoot FREE (basic service only) & $19.95 a year www.bigfoot.com
Ippimail FREE www.ippimail.com
Mail.com $9.95 a year www.mail.com
Our.ca $12 (Canadian) a year www.our.ca
Pobox $15+ a year www.pobox.com
Spamex $9.95 a year www.spamex.com
Swissmail €25 per year www.swissmail.org
Totalise Justmail £2.50 a month www.totalise.net
For others, see www.emailaddresses.com/email_forward.htm or http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/E-mail/Forwarding

There are numerous scams being perpetrated across the world by emails and many folk are still being caught out by bogus appeals for information or finance. People who work with missions or aid organisations are particularly targeted as they are often seen as a 'soft touch'. If you receive an email asking for your support or telling you that you're the winner or benefactor of a huge sum of money, be suspicious and check it out against one of the following websites:

Scam Busters www.scambusters.org

Why?

Back-ups are useful in the event of virus attack, computer malfunction, damage or theft, or just for when you come to change your computer. Either way, it’s good to have a way of retaining your files if something should happen to your computer.Which Files?

• Email Files
  It’s a good idea to keep regular back-ups of your email folders and your address book.

For Outlook Express: To find where your email folders are kept, select the menu [Tools | Options | Maintenance | Store Folder]. By changing the folder location, you can put it in an area that gets backed up with the rest of your personal files. Alternatively, you can just copy the destination folder directly to a back-up drive. Either way, you can re-import it or replace it if something gets corrupted or deleted.
Your address book is normally kept in C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book\Default.wab
If you have problems finding it, just search the C:\ drive for *.wab and it should find any 'Windows Address Book’ files on your computer. Again, make a copy of this file on a back-up drive regularly.

You can import/export both 'messages’ and 'address books’ to/from most email programmes [File | Import/Export].

• Internet Preferences
  Making a copy of your 'Favorites’ folder will save you losing all this useful data. This folder is normally found at C:\WINDOWS\Favorites

You can also import and export a copy of your 'Favorites’ folder in most browsers [File | Import and Export]

How?

• Floppy Disks
  Using floppy disks (diskettes) to back up files is not practical for whole drives as they only store 1.4 MB each and therefore take ages and many disks to backup today’s modern sized programs. However, for backing up individual files (like the 'Windows Address Book’ file and 'Favorites’ folder mentioned above) they can be very versatile and quick.
• CD Writer/Re-writer
  One of the most efficient ways of backing up large amounts of data is to use a CD writer/re-writer (CD-R/RW). The drives are a bit expensive to buy (getting cheaper by the month) but the CDs are now very cheap (less than £1 for 650MB of space). This is ideal for backing up the email folders which can easily take up 100MB of space.
• Other Alternatives
  Include tape drives, zip drives, online storage

What if I've lost my data?

• Data Recovery
  If you have lost valuable data and need to recover it, try one of these online services:
  www.easydatarecovery.co.uk
  www.vogon.co.uk
  www.ontrack.com/datarecovery

There are various software packages that offer security features and encryption for client based email (i.e. non web-based email). Try these links for some of the options:

AB Text Encrypter $14 http://ab_software.tripod.com/app/abte.htm
A-Lock $29 www.pc-encrypt.com
CryptoHeaven, From $29 per year www.cryptoheaven.com
PC Guardian Encryption Plus Email £46 www.pcguardian.com
PGP FREE www.pgpi.org or www.pgp.com
PMBx $55 per year https://www.pmbx.net
SecureNym $60 per year www.securenym.net
SecurePro $29.99 www.abisoft.net
Swissmail €25 per year www.swissmail.org
Thawte FREE www.thawte.com/email/index.html
ZixMail $1 per month www.zixmail.com

You can also access you POP3 email account (normally accessed with client-based email software) using a secure link from your web browser. It works just like secure web-based email.

www.pop3now.com
www.mail2web.com
www.twigger.co.uk
www.thatweb.com

Aderes.net

Aderes's secure email and web browsing service allows you to safely and securely send email over the internet and to browse the web safely. Aderes uses state of the art SSL encryption to protect your online activities.
Website: www.aderes.net

There are some services that allow you to access virtually any email account (web-based or not) from any computer connected to the Internet. From their main page, all you need to do is type in your email address and password and the service does the rest. Useful when you're not at your own computer or travelling.

MailStart FREE, WebBox $10 per year www.mailstart.com
ThatWeb 'Uni.Mail' $3 per month www.thatweb.com

It's possible to send electronic greeting cards for any special occasion, including Christmas. Here are a selection of sites and pages about e-greeting card services, some of which have a Christian emphasis:

www.christianaid.org.uk/christmas/index.htm
www.byfaith.co.uk/paulecards.htm
www.free-greetingcards.co.uk
http://cards.crossdaily.com
www.christianet.com/christianecards
www.christiangreetingcards.com
www.dayspring.com/ecards
www.friendlycard.com
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/E-mail/E-greetings