Actrix Newsletter February 2003

This newsletter has been produced to help you get the most out of the Internet,
and to keep you, as an Actrix customer, informed of developments and services within the company.
Past newsletters may be viewed at http://editor.actrix.co.nz/
Newsletters are now archived by article at http://editor.actrix.co.nz/byarticle/
Questions and comments about the newsletter can be e-mailed to editor@actrix.co.nz
Other inquiries should be e-mailed to support@actrix.co.nz

by Mike Cooper

Text messaging, pagers, mobile phones - communication on the move is an increasingly important part of our everyday lives. E-mail is no exception to this rule and the Actrix WebMail system is available to provide access to your new e-mail messages when you're not able to be at your home computer.

A recent upgrade to this system has made it more functional than ever for e-mail on the run. This article will take you on a brief tour of the Actrix WebMail system and identify some of its major features.

Why Would You Need WebMail?

WebMail provides e-mail access whilst away from your normal home or office computer. WebMail can be used from any location with an Internet accessible computer such as an Internet Cafe, or a friend's computer from anywhere in New Zealand or the world.

webmaillogin.jpg (5406 bytes)

How to Get There

To get to Actrix WebMail just go to www.actrix.co.nz and look for the WebMail login box - located at the lower right hand side of the Actrix Homepage. Enter your username (which is just the first part of your e-mail address) Enter your password and click Login.

The Main View

Once inside the WebMail screen you will be able to see all the e-mails you have received since you last downloaded to your home computer. Remember that. WebMail will not allow you to access e-mails you have already downloaded to your computer as those e-mails are no longer on the Actrix system. New messages will be in bold type, and messages that have already been read via WebMail will be in normal type. Message markings such as the paperclip for an attachment, and the ! for a priority message are all displayed as well.

All the usual features of an e-mail program are also incorporated, including the Reply and Forward features. Attachments can be viewed and downloaded as well. There is a functional address book allowing you to store addresses online. This is convenient if you want to enter your e-mail addresses before heading away on holiday. It also saves losing the piece of paper you wrote them on!

A search feature is available so you can sift through your messages for a certain word or topic. There is even a calendar feature for managing appointments and dates into the future - for those travelling enter your flight itinerary.

These features are accessible through the menu along the top of the main WebMail view. Make sure to explore all the menus as there is much more to WebMail than what has been mentioned here, and there are features that will be useful to everyone. Have a look at the screenshot below for a better idea.

In particular look through the Options screen which will allow you to configure how WebMail displays messages, set up an automatic signature for your out going messages, highlight messages from particular senders and much more

If you delete a message using WebMail it is a permanent deletion - so the message won't be received on your machine once you return home and check your mail with your normal e-mail program.

If all else fails there is always the Help menu which has a mine of information presented in a relaxed easy to read style to assist you in finding your way around. Alternatively the Actrix Helpdesk can assist you with WebMail inquiries - 0800 228 749

Filing It Away

folderlist.jpg (7011 bytes)

To the left of the WebMail screen is a list of folders - these operate in a similar fashion to the folders in most e-mail programs (such as Outlook Express), however the messages in the Inbox are the only ones that will be downloaded to your computer. That means that messages sent by WebMail are stored in WebMail only - the Inbox is the only downloaded folder.

A number displayed next to a folder name in brackets shows the number of unread messages in that particular folder; and of course the "purge" link next to the Trash folder will permanently delete any deleted messages.

These folders will allow you to manage your e-mail whilst away from home, and save copies of sent messages and drafted messages. Using the folders menu at the top of the WebMail screen you can even create your own custom folder system. Don't forget the Drafts folder to file the all important half finished message for later completion.

Rounding Up

All in all the new features in Actrix WebMail have enhanced the functionality of this already useful tool. E-mail on the go is now even easier with our WebMail tool. Have a look around the WebMail tool, send yourself a message or two with it, explore the different menus available and familiarise yourself with the system. You never know - it might even be worth planning a trip just to test it out!

The Actrix Newsletters have been coming out now every month without fail for more than three years. They have proven to be very popular with Actrix customers, and with many others outside of Actrix who have also seen their value and have asked to be notified of their publication each month.

Our aim with the newsletters has always been to provide them as a service rather than as some form of marketing tool. In part we see them as a contribution Actrix can make to the Internet community of New Zealand in general. We plan to continue with this philosophy.

While feedback for the newsletters has been overwhelmingly positive, we believe it would be a good idea to pause at this stage and make some effort to gather some broader statistical feedback. Therefore we'd really appreciate you taking the time to complete our online survey, whether you read the newsletters regularly, or whether this is your first or only time. We'd also like to hear from you if you don't value the newsletters.

Please complete the survey only one time per person. If someone else, e.g. your spouse or partner, shares your Actrix account with you, then it is fine for them also to complete the survey. In fact we'd appreciate it if that could be done.

In order for the data to be valid, we can't make the survey accessible to the whole world. Therefore, when you click the link below, you will be prompted for your Actrix username and password. Please be assured that this is only a measure to protect access to the survey. Your username will not be included with the survey that you submit.

The survey will not take you long to complete. It is just a series of multiple choice questions. Please compete as many questions as possible by clicking the response that reflects the most accurate answer for you. Space will also be provided for you to provide extra comments if you wish. When you are done, simply click the Submit button.

The survey is available at this link: Actrix Newsletter Survey 2003.

Once again, thanks for your time and your assistance.

Rob Zorn
editor@actrix.co.nz

Few would argue that viruses and unwanted e-mails (Spam) are foremost amongst today’s Internet concerns. New and increasingly sophisticated viruses are being released each month, more rapidly than most people are able to update their systems as a protective measure. These can delete your files, wreak havoc on your hard drive, infect your contacts via your address book, and send your computer out of action. Also, experts estimate that Spam will shortly outnumber wanted e-mail each time a mailbox is checked. Indeed many people already report this phenomenon.

Actrix Networks is therefore pleased to announce the impending release of a suite of products to deal with each of these problems in an affordable, easy-to-use, and extremely effective manner. No special software will need to be downloaded or purchased.

What follows is a fairly brief description of the suite and how each element works. We plan to launch the products very early in February and much more detailed information about how to use them will be released at that time.

The Actrix Security Suite consist of two products: CyberScan, a server-based anti-virus solution that will remove known viruses from your e-mail before it reaches you, and CyberFilter, which will give you virtually absolute control over what can or cannot reach your e-mailbox. You will be able to purchase either product individually, or you can purchase the Actrix Security Suite which includes both products at a further discounted rate.

How CyberScan Works

CyberScan is the Virus-Protection element of the Security Suite. It will help protect your computer from known viruses by scanning all your incoming e-mail, including attachments, as they pass through our mail servers. If a virus is detected, the virus is destroyed and the remaining, now harmless e-mail will come through to your e-mailbox. Our servers will add a message advising that a virus has been detected and removed. They will similarly notify the sender.

If you choose CyberScan, all e-mail sent to you at any Actrix e-mail address you have will be disinfected of known viruses. As CyberScan is only resident on Actrix mail servers, it cannot protect you from viruses sent to e-mail addresses you may have that are provided to you by other ISPs.

CyberScan Availability

At Actrix we like to keep things simple and cost-effective. Therefore, if you choose CyberScan, its full benefits will also be extended to all the mailboxes or extra e-mail addresses you may have with us, under your main account.

CyberScan will be available to all Actrix customers, including business and residential, for the same low price!

How CyberFilter Works

CyberFilter is the Anti-Spam element of the Security Suite. Despite what others may claim, we believe it is the best possible approach to Spam protection. Other anti-Spam systems work on the basis of many complex rules that are applied to your e-mail as it passes through the server. If the e-mail breaks enough rules, it earns enough points to be deleted from the server, permanently. Unfortunately, these rules are known by professional Spammers, and many are able to be avoided or reduced in effectiveness.

CyberFilter is different in that it works on a White, Grey and Black list system that you have total control over via a CyberFilter interface which is automatically added to your Actrix Member’s Section when you sign up for the product.

White List: At the Member’s Section you can add e-mail addresses to your White List. Anybody from an e-mail address you place on your White List can send e-mail to you freely.

Black List: At the Member’s Section you can add e-mail addresses to your Black List. Anybody from an e-mail address you place on your Black List will receive a bounce from our servers indicating that your account doesn’t exist, thus preventing your e-mail address from being added to circulating lists of confirmed e-mail addresses valued by Spammers.

Grey List: People not on your White or Black lists can send you e-mail, but it will not come through to you automatically. Instead, our servers will respond to them on your behalf and ask them to confirm their good intentions. Spammers are not usually interested in checking replies and most will not confirm. On the remote chance that they do, they can easily be blacklisted and you’ll never hear from them again.

You will still able to see what e-mails you have been sent from people not on your White List by logging into the Member’s Section and into your CyberFilter interface. There you will find a list of all the e-mails that have been sent to you by people not on your White List. This list of e-mails will be called your Grey List. With simple mouse clicks you can add senders to your White or Black List, delete e-mails and so forth. We will keep all such e-mails on our servers for 90 days unless you delete them yourself.

You can log into the CyberFilter interface as often or as little as you like. With CyberFilter, it’s up to you just how much time you want to waste dealing with Spam.

Pricing

CyberScan - $2.95 per month, or $15.95 for six months.
CyberFilter - $1.95 per month or $10.45 for six months.
Security Suite (both products) $3.95 per month or $19.95 for six months.

The Actrix Security Suite will be available early in February. At that time we'll e-mail all customers and post information about how to sign up on our web site.

Please note: Actrix supplies links to these sites for your interest and possible use. We cannot endorse or take any responsibility for their contents. Got a site you think would be neat to share with other readers? Let me know and receive a free Norrie the Nerd chocolate bar courtesy of Actrix!

Worth 1000
www.worth1000.com/galleries.asp - This page contains over 1,000 parody pictures skewering modern culture. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this site says plenty. They may take a while to load on a slow connection, but the pictures are categorised conveniently, and navigation through them is a snip.

Finger Twister
www.jboom.com/twister/ - Remember 'Twister' the old-school game of limb bending fame? Well, it's now been developed for the lazy and you can play online using just your fingers and a keyboard. Try and use only ONE HAND and when you press a button KEEP IT PRESSED DOWN until the end of the level!

Monstrous Numerology Calculator
www.monsterillo.com/numerology.html - Enter your birthdate and full name, and get an instant numerology reading. The site will return your Name, Personality, Destiny and Soul Urge numbers and then give you a brief interpretation of who you are, what you're like and what your purpose is here on earth..... Mayhaps......

Various Hubble Galleries
http://hubble.stsci.edu/gallery/ - This site provides some of the very latest space images from the Hubble Telescope. It also provides links to a series of galleries such as the best of the pictures, behinds the scenes at the image factory and a collection of free wallpapers. Really neat stuff!

This Day in Music
www.thisdayinmusic.com - Updated everyday, This Day in Music provides you with several facts or pieces of trivia from the history of music that happened on "this day." There are several other features such as Name that Tune, and Born on this Day. Be sure to click the Bits & Pieces link for categories of summarised facts under various categories. There is all sorts of interesting stuff to learn here. Did you know that Kylie Minogue is only 4'11" tall?

Universal Translator Fun
www.tashian.com/multibabel/ - This site may be a fun distraction for a few minutes. Enter your favourite phrase (such as "How many roads must a man walk down?") and see the weird and amusing results after five language translations between English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and back into English again. You'll be amazed at what gets added and taken away in the process of translation!

Pee Ball
www.peeball.com/home/default.asp - Not quite as prurient as it may sound, this game lets everyone experience the fun that can be had at a men's urinal. Jump the obstacles as they come floating down the tray, and don't forget to drink plenty of fluids to keep your "energy" levels up! It appears you can even buy peeballs these days, with proceeds going to the International Peeball Federation's partner organisation - the Prostate Cancer Charity.

Explore Mars Now
www.exploremarsnow.org - This exceptional site allows you to visit a "Mars Space Station." Once the site has loaded, click the image to move closer to the base. Then use your console of buttons to move around and explore, learning from the facts presented as you go. It's the next best thing to actually being there! See if you can click your way out of MarsBase and find out if those relics on the surface of Mars are alien-made or not!

Cutrate Internet Therapy
www.eblots.com - I'm not sure just how therapeutic this is, but I guess these are a little bit like Rorschach tests. You look at the scribbly picture and type in what you think it looks like, or what image you can make out of it. After that a page automatically loads that shows how others have interpreted the image. I guess if you're normal your interpretation will resemble everybody else's, but I guess that would depend on the "normality" of the other participants. There's a new one daily in case you need to check your sanity every 24 hours.

Slang City
www.slangcity.com/ - Do you ever find yourself confused by the language you hear on the street, in movies, and in pop songs? If so, this is a site for you. Use the links in the banner image at the top of the page to access the various categories. The Movie Section takes quotes from actual movies and explains them. Of course there is also a Rock 'n' Roll and a Sex section. This is a slang site, so expect some rude words and concepts.

Cockeyed.Com
www.cockeyed.com/ - What a great site! The characters at Cockeyed have all sorts of investigations and experiments to report on. I especially enjoyed their very American investigation of Vegemite found under the How Much is Inside Adventures section. There are also witty and entertaining sections on science experiments, pranks, travel journals and a whole lot more stuff that's hard to categorise.

McSpotlight
www.mcspotlight.org/ - Some people are passionate about McDonalds food. Some people are passionate in their hatred of the multi-national corporation. Perhaps they have good reason. This extensive site deals with McIssues such as, cruelty to animals, advertising, environmental impact, nutrition (or lack thereof) and so forth. "Anything you could possibly want to know about McDonald's or McLibel nestles somewhere in our 21,000 files. Don't get us wrong, though, we're not telling you to give up your Big Macs. We just provide the info for you to judge for yourself."

Queen loses out on NZ's cyber name: Queen Elizabeth, acting as trustee for New Zealand, lost a legal battle to claim the Internet domain name newzealand.com from a US firm, international arbitrators ruled on yesterday. Click here for more.

Code of conduct big frustration : Outgoing Internet Society executive director Sue Leader says furthering a voluntary code of conduct for Internet service providers has been her greatest passion and her greatest source of frustration during her tenure. Click here for more.

Mind of Its Own: Does it seem to you that your computer has a mind of its own? A Christchurch PC user found out to his cost that his definitely did. Click here for more.

Sounding the alarm on video game ratings: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Members of Congress and watchdog groups are again sounding the alarm over the sexual and violent nature of some video games that are falling into the hands of children even though they are intended for adults. Click here for more.

The 12 scams of Christmas: On the first day of Christmas my mail box had for me . . . one suspect prize in a dodgy Spanish lottery... It might be the season for giving, but consumer groups are warning Kiwis not to be sucked in by shady scams... Click here for more.

White House plans wide monitoring of Net: The White House is proposing an Internet-wide monitoring center to detect and defend against major cyber-attacks, but the Bush administration sought to ease worries it might scrutinize individual users' e-mails along with other data traffic. Click here for more.

Killing prompts suit against Internet brokers: In the days after his stepdaughter's murder, Tim Remsburg funneled his fury into phone calls to anyone he thought might help explain her death. Click here for more.

Pay up: Nearly $7M awarded in spam case: America Online has won a court judgment for nearly $7 million in damages against what it termed a "spam ring" that bombarded AOL members with junk e-mail pitching adult Web sites. Click here for more.

Scam artists make hay at online auction sites : Teresa Smith discovered Internet auctions in a big way about two years ago, selling $800,000 worth of Apple Macintosh computers through sites such as eBay and AuctionWorks. Like thousands of other small-time entrepreneurs, Smith found that online auction sites could expand her reach and connect her with customers from Hawaii to Switzerland. Click here for more.

U.S. e-mail attack targets key Iraqis: U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies have begun a surreptitious e-mail campaign inside Iraq, CNN has learned, in an effort to get some Iraqis to defy President Saddam Hussein. Click here for more.

Swiss town leads way with Internet vote : As the 1,162 voters in this Swiss village cast their ballots in a local referendum, more is at stake than simply a taxpayer-funded renovation of a high-end restaurant. This Geneva suburb is making Swiss history with the country's first legally binding Internet vote. Click here for more.

Microsoft ordered to put Java in Windows: Microsoft must include rival Sun Microsystem's Java programming language in its Windows operating system, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing Sun a victory as it pursues a private antitrust case against Microsoft. Click here for more.

Microsoft unlocks code : In an unprecedented move, Microsoft has said that it will open its source code – the software giant's closely guarded blueprints for programs – to governments and international organisations worldwide. Click here for more.

Mac OS' New Year's Prospects (continued): Make Room for Marklar? Finally, I want to touch on the latest flurry of reports about Apple's sub rosa Mac OS X-on-x86 efforts, a longstanding project to which we first applied a code name (Marklar) and a project size (somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 software engineers, some of them transferred from Apple's receding Mac OS 9 development efforts). Click here for more.

MacOS X86?: An interesting little series of articles: What Mac users think the Mac is, What the Mac actually is, Macopoly, Trouble in Apple Valley etc, etc. Click here for more.

Can a Human Being Fit on an IPod? : One researcher is using his MP3 player to carry around the human genome--and his collection of digital tunes. Click here for more.

Former 'most wanted' hacker going back online: A man the federal government once labeled "the most wanted computer criminal in U.S. history" has won a long fight to renew his ham radio license and next month can resume surfing the Internet. Kevin Mitnick, 39, of Thousand Oaks, California, served five years in federal prison for stealing software and altering data at Motorola, Novell, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and the University of Southern California. Click here for more.

E-mail virus picks up speed: A new virus which first appeared just before Christmas is infecting thousands of computers across the world. The spread of the Windows e-mail worm, called Yaha.K, has led anti-virus firms to classify it as a high risk. Click here for more.

How to avoid net nasties : This week's news that rock legend Pete Townshend is being investigated by police regarding internet child porn is a timely reminder for parents to ensure a safe, appropriate internet environment for their kids, writes Glynn Hardy in this week's Online. Click here for more.

Site offers home delivery of marijuana: Canadian activists for the medicinal use of marijuana celebrated a court victory on Thursday by launching an Internet site offering home delivery of cannabis for seriously ill people. Click here for more.

US town sold on web for $NZ3.4 million : An 33 hectare town in northern California has been sold on eBay for $US1.78 million ($NZ3.4 million), a strong price considering the sellers dubbed the place a "fixer-upper" and the first bidder had only wanted to pay $5,000 for it. Click here for more.

Old computers gain new appreciation as collectibles: Yesterday's computers, so often dumped for the next new model, have finally come to be treasured as historical artifacts. And techies, known more for their skills than sentiments, are waxing nostalgic for vintage models from Apple to Zenith - and paying good money for them. Click here for more.

Fight with computer brings SWAT team: A 32-year-old Boulder man who had opened his apartment's patio door to enjoy Wednesday's unusually warm weather was later overheard screaming threats and seen waving what appeared to be a handgun, prompting a maintenance worker to call police. Click here for more.

Using water as an organic network between two computers: StreamingMedia is an interactive data sculpture that employs a new Internet protocol (H2O/IP) I developed that uses water to transmit information between computers. H2O/IP functions in a similar way as TCP/IP but focuses on the inherent viscous properties of water that are not present in traditional packet networks. Click here for more.

Hacker replaces DUI record with smilely face: A man who erased his drink-driving record from a police computer and replaced it with a winking "smiley face" graphic ended up with a suspended licence and a fine when police failed to see the funny side. Click here for more.

Thanks again for reading the Actrix newsletter. Feedback can be sent to me via the e-mail address listed below. Please limit this to comments/suggestions regarding the newsletter. Requests for support should go to the Actrix Help Desk (support@actrix.co.nz) or to the Accounts Department (accounts@actrix.co.nz).

Take care through February,

Rob Zorn
editor@actrix.co.nz
http://editor.actrix.co.nz