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HOME TOPICS ABOUT ME One simple technique can save you a lot of trouble and embarrassment when you're using e-mail. If you ignore this little tip, you'll end up wishing you had done it when you had a chance. |
technofile Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983 Your return address should make sense. Check it out!May 9, 1999 By Al Fasoldt Copyright ©1999, The Syracuse Newspapers I was setting up a new e-mail program the other day to try it out. I sent myself a letter, and, boy, was I surprised. It came back right away. Everything looked OK except for one little detail. The letter said it was from "24.205.221.196." Or something like that. It was a name full of numbers. I didnít put them there. The same day I got a note from "Dreamscape" that wasnít from Dreamscape. The folks at Dreamscape didnít send it. Was someone faking it? Was someone masquerading as an Internet Service Provider? This was curious enough, but the next morning I got a letter from "Hotmail." Just "Hotmail." And it wasnít from Hotmail, the Internet site, at all. Usually, Iím just like everybody else. I might glance at the "From:" line in mail that comes in and thatís that. A lot of times it doesnít register on my brain. I read the mail and not the salutations and all that. But Iíve started noticing things lately. You know how it is ñ once you spot the crack in the plaster, you ALWAYS notice it, no matter how hard you try to avoid looking at it. It just sticks in your vision like mental glue. The more I look, the more I see. Itís discouraging. Iíd guess that most e-mail writers have no idea how their return address looks. Iíd have to say many e-mail writers donít even know what their return address is. And, of the ones who DO know, some just happen to think weird or crazy e-mail names are OK. I donít, and Iíll tell you why. Back when only a bunch of geeks knew how to do e-mail, it was OK to have cereal-box names and things like that. You could be "Screaming Yellow Zonkers" or "CornFutz" or something just as dumb. It marked you as a member of an exclusive club. But guess what? The "club" now includes half the creatures on the planet who have fingers and toes. E-mail isnít just a cute diversion any more. Itís the way millions of us communicate. We need to treat it just like we treat regular mail. Iíll bet youíd toss out a letter that arrived from "Mr. Magic" or from "HighScorer." Return addresses should have real names. And thatís the problem. Your return address isnít automatically created for you. You need to do it yourself. If you leave it out, the e-mail program will stick one in for you. Youíll get something stupid as your name and address. Like 24.205.221.196. It turns out I had typed in the IP address of a mail server, and the dumb e-mail program figured it would turn the numbers into the return address. Or like Dreamscape. Or Hotmail. In both those cases, the software used the name of the service provider. Your return address can be a real name. It doesnít have to be your e-mail login name. It doesnít have to be jsmith. It can be John W. Smith Jr. (Your software will hide the "jsmith" part until itís needed by the return-mail system.) So take a look at your mail. Send yourself a letter. You might be surprised at what you see. |