Part 8. Getting Online
Before you can do anything online, you have to actually get online. Fortunately, with Mac OS X getting online couldn’t be easier. In fact, your Mac might have completed some of these tasks for you already based on the information you gave it when you first started up Mac OS X. If not, don’t worry—nothing here will take you more than a couple of minutes to complete, and then you’ll be ready to go.
In this Part you learn how to set up an Internet connection and how to get online using those settings. Although the details vary somewhat depending on your connection type, the setup process is similar no matter how you connect. Don’t be intimidated by the techie terminology—after you have your settings in place, you won’t need to worry about any of the details again. You might need to get some information from your Internet service provider, but if that’s the case, you’ll receive this information when you sign up with the provider.
You’ll also learn about Mail accounts: how to set them up and use them to send and receive email. And you’ll learn ways to keep your email spam-free, organized, and easy to deal with—no matter how much email you receive each day. You can even automate some organizational tasks so Mail takes care of them for you, such as filing your email in the proper mailboxes according to sender, recipient, or subject; this part shows you how.
Setting Up an Internet Connection and Your Email
Setting Up Your Connection
To set up your Internet connection, you’ll need to find out a few things from your Internet service provider (ISP): your login name and password, possibly the ISP’s DNS (Domain Name System) server addresses, and definitely the preferred configuration method.
Note: Talk to Me
The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is the language in which your Mac communicates with the other computers on the Internet. The choices in the Configure IPv4 menu are different ways of setting up a TCP/IP connection. PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) is used for phone line connections, and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is used for broadband connections and internal networks. If your ISP doesn’t use DHCP, you need to enter those settings manually.
Choose Apple menu, System Preferences.
Click the Network button to see your connection settings.
Choose your connection type from the column at the left of the window.
Choose your ISP’s configuration method from the Configure pop-up menu: usually Using PPP for phone modems, Manually for LAN connections, or Using DHCP for cable and DSL modems.
If your configuration method is Manually, enter your IP address, the subnet mask, and the router address for your network.
Enter your ISP’s DNS server in the DNS Server field.
Click the Advanced button if you want to turn on AppleTalk networking.
Click AppleTalk to reveal the AppleTalk tab.
Check the Make AppleTalk Active box, then click OK.
Click Apply.
Note: Getting Help When You Need It
If any of these settings don’t make sense to you, get in touch with your ISP’s tech support people. It’s their job to help you make the connection, so stick with it until you have what you need.
Note: Don’t Worry, Be Happy
You might notice different tabs in the Network preferences pane, but don’t worry. For example, when you’re configuring Ethernet, you see PPPoE settings that don’t appear when you’re configuring a phone modem.
Note: If Your Mac Is a Laptop
If you connect using different methods in different places, you should definitely look into creating custom locations so you don’t have to change all these settings every time you switch connections (see Part 5, “Customizing Your Mac").
Note: Status Quo
After your network settings are in place, you shouldn’t need to change them unless you buy new hardware (such as a router for Internet connection sharing) or your service provider changes the way its service is set up.
Connecting to Your ISP
If you use a phone modem or a DSL modem with PPPoE, you need to initiate a connection when you want to go online. You can store more than one configuration, in case you connect in different ways at home, at work, and on the road. System Preferences always remembers the last connection you made.
Choose Apple Menu, System Preferences.
Click to choose your modem.
Type in the connection data, including your username and password.
Click Connect.
Tip: Getting Offline
You need to disconnect when you’re done surfing and checking your email. Go back to System Preferences and you’ll find that the Connect button has changed to a Disconnect button. Click that and you’re offline again.
Tip: Status Symbol
In System Preferences, check the box labeled Show modem status in menu bar to add a Modem Status menu to your menu bar. And in the Modem Status menu, choose Show time connected to display how long you’ve been online.
Setting Up Email Accounts
Setting up new email accounts works the same way whether you’re using Mail for the first time or adding an umpteenth different email address for yourself. You’ll go through a series of dialog boxes that ask you for your username, password, server names, and other information.
Note: More Fun with Mail Accounts
You can set up as many Mail accounts as you have email addresses. Mail automatically filters your incoming email into a separate mailbox for each address, so you can keep your messages organized.
Tip: Different, But the Same
If you choose .Mac from the Account Type pop-up menu in the first dialog box, your choices will be slightly different. Mail knows how .Mac is configured, including the server addresses, so it fills in a lot of information itself.
In Mail, choose File, Add Account. (If you’re starting Mail for the first time, you’re taken directly to this series of dialog boxes.)
Fill in your name, email address, and password; then click Continue.
Type your incoming mail server’s address, your username, and your password; then click Continue.
Check Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and then click Continue.
Type your outgoing mail server’s address and (if necessary) your username and password; then click Continue.
Check Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and then click Continue.
Double-check the settings you made; click Go Back to change them or Create to accept them.
Note: Pop Goes the Email!
POP and IMAP, the two Account Type choices that you are most likely to use, refer to the way your email is handled on the server, the computer that receives your email over the Internet and forwards it to your Mac. Most commercial ISPs use POP, but university systems, for example, often use IMAP. If you’re not sure which account type your email uses, check with your network administrator or technical support department.
Sending Email with Mail
Sending email works the same whether you’re composing a new message or forwarding or replying to a received message. The steps given here assume you want to start from scratch with a new message. If you click a received message in one of your mailboxes, you’ll see toolbar buttons for replying and forwarding.
Click the New Message button in the toolbar.
Type the name of the person you want to email. If the email address doesn’t appear automatically, type the email address in angle brackets after the name.
If you’ve set up multiple email accounts, choose the one from which you want to send in the From pop-up menu.
Type a subject in the Subject line and your message in the message area. Click Send.
Tip: Jazzing Up Your Emails
To attach a file, click the Attach button in the toolbar and navigate to the file you want to attach. To make your email text colored, click the Colors button and choose a color in the Colors panel.
Tip: It’s Better to Receive
To see email others have sent you, select Mailbox, Get All New Mail. Or, you can schedule automatic mail pickups by choosing Mail, Preferences. Click General and choose an option from the Check for new mail menu.
Receiving Email with Mail
There’s nothing quite like that friendly chime (or beep, or other sound) from your computer indicating that you, yes you, have email. By default, Mail drops all of your new, unread email into your In Box each time you check for new messages.
Choose Mailbox, Get All New Mail.
Click a message listing in the In Box to see the message’s contents.
Click Reply to answer the current message.
Click Delete if you want to send the message to the Trash.
Tip: I’ve Got Mail?
Mail can retrieve your email messages automatically on a schedule you determine. Choose Mail, Preferences and click General. Choose a time interval from the Check for New Mail pop-up menu.
Tip: More Ways to Reply
To answer an email message, click Reply to send your answer to just the original sender. Click Reply All to send it to everyone who originally received the email. And click Forward to send it to another recipient.
Using Stationery Templates
Email is a lot more than just text these days. Yes, back in the day, your geek IQ was measured by the complexity of the ASCII art in your mail signature, but we’ve moved on. Now, with beautifully designed stationery templates, Mail makes it easy for you to turn your emails into 21st-century masterpieces.
In Mail, enter the subject of your message, then address and compose it.
Click the Show Stationery button.
Click the stationery template you want to use.
Click the Hide Stationery button and send your message.
Tip: Over and Over and Over
If you find yourself using the same stationery template a lot, drag it into the Favorites category, which will show up first each time you click the Show Stationery button.
Note: The Order of Things
If you don’t compose your email message before choosing a stationery template, you’ll find that Mail has inserted placeholder text into your message area. To get rid of it, select the text and type your own text over it.
Subscribing to RSS Feeds in Mail
RSS is a technology for putting website content wherever you want it: on your screensaver, in your Dock, or even in Mail. If you check a particular website frequently for updates, try subscribing to its RSS feed so you can keep an eye on the site without having to switch to your web browser every few minutes.
In Mail, choose File, Add RSS Feeds.
Click a category on the left, then choose the feeds to which you want to subscribe.
Click Add.
In your new RSS mailbox, click an RSS message to read it.
Tip: Feeding Yourself
If the feed you want isn’t listed, it’s easy enough to add it. In Step 2, click Other at the bottom of the dialog. In the Feed URL field, enter the URL for the feed you want. This information should be located on the site’s home page.
Tip: A Word to the Wise
When you’re choosing RSS feeds, check the Show in Inbox box if you want to be sure you see all messages from a feed right away. Be warned, though—your Inbox may soon be chock-full of RSS messages.
Organizing Mailboxes
If you get a lot of email, you’ll quickly find your Inbox filling up. Creating a system of mailboxes in which you can file all that email will save you time in the long run because it makes finding what you want when you need it easier. You can nest mailboxes within other mailboxes to set up as complex a system as you need.
Tip: Like Parent, Like Child
If a mailbox is selected when you click the + button, the new mailbox is created as a child of the selected mailbox—in other words, it is within the selected one.
In Mail, select View, Show Mailboxes if mailboxes are not visible.
Click the + button at the bottom left corner of the window to create a new mailbox.
Enter a name for the mailbox and click OK.
To create a mailbox inside another mailbox, click a mailbox name and then click the + button.
To move a mailbox inside another mailbox, drag and drop it into position.
Control-click a mailbox and choose Rename from the contextual menu to change its name.
Control-click a mailbox and choose Delete from the contextual menu to remove it.
Note: You Can’t Go There
You can’t add mailboxes inside the default mailboxes (In, Out, Drafts, and Sent). However, Mail automatically creates mailboxes within your Inbox to segregate mail received at different email addresses.
Tip: Another Way to Get There
The same commands you see in the contextual menu are available in the Action menu at the bottom of the Mailbox drawer—click the button next to the + button to see the menu.
Creating a Smart Mailbox
Like smart groups in Address Book, smart mailboxes in Mail are maintained by your Mac. After you determine the criteria for a message’s inclusion in a smart mailbox, the Mac takes over to sort messages into that mailbox as you receive new mail. Because messages can exist in both a regular mailbox and a smart mailbox, smart mailboxes don’t interfere with your usual filing scheme.
Note: What’s It Good For?
Use smart mailboxes to track messages related to a particular project or from people who share a company or ISP. For example, you can have Mail sort all messages about your upcoming Flamingo Party into a smart mailbox.
Choose Mailbox, New Smart Mailbox.
Type a name for the mailbox.
Choose criteria for which messages should be sorted into the mailbox.
Click + to add more criteria.
Select any or all from the pop-up menu to determine whether messages must meet all the criteria or any single criterion.
Click the box labeled Include messages from Trash to file messages that are currently in the Trash folder.
Click the box labeled Include messages from Sent to file messages you send along with ones you receive.
Click OK to create the smart mailbox.
Tip: Any or All
Use any to collect messages that fulfill one criterion or another (if the subject contains “Paris” or “Grand Canyon,” file it under Vacation Plans). Use all to collect messages that fulfill both criteria (if the message sender’s name is “Claus” and the email address contains “northpole.com,” file it under Christmas).
Filtering Email in Mail
The more email you get, the more you’ll appreciate having Mail help you with the filing. Mail can analyze each message you receive based on who sent it, where it was addressed, what it says, or several other criteria, and it can file that message in the appropriate mailbox. Mailboxes with unread messages are shown in bold type.
Tip: Excluding Messages from Rules
You can make a set of rules that acts on all email messages but a particular group. First, create a rule that filters the group you don’t want to act on into the Trash or a mailbox. Then create another rule to apply your action to Every Message; this rule acts on all the messages remaining after the first rule is executed.
In Mail, choose Mail, Preferences.
Click the Rules button to see the filtering options.
Click Add Rule.
Give the rule a name in the Description field.
Choose any or all from the pop-up menu; with any, the rule is activated if one or more condition is met, and with all it’s activated only if they’re all met.
Set up the condition you want to filter on; click the + button to add more conditions.
Set up the action to be invoked if the conditions are met; click the + button to add more actions.
Click OK.
Tip: Explore Your Options
There are many ways to select messages for special treatment. You can tag all messages sent to a particular address with a red label, or you can put messages from anyone in an Address Book group into a specific mailbox.
Tip: Watching for Rule Interactions
The last action step in most rules should be Stop evaluating rules. That way, a message properly filed according to one rule won’t be refiled by another. You can also drag and drop rules to change the order they’re executed in.
Intercepting Spam in Mail
Spam (or junk mail or unsolicited commercial email) is everywhere, and it’s increasing by the moment. Email users are constantly looking for new ways to deal with the deluge, and Apple has done its part by including a built-in, smart junk mail filter in Mail. With your help, the filter learns to better recognize spam day by day.
Note: How Does It Work?
Mail recognizes junk mail using what Apple calls “latent adaptive semantic analysis.” The program scans email messages for certain word patterns—not typical spam keywords such as “make money,” but speech patterns spammers tend to use.
In Mail, choose Mail, Preferences.
Click the Junk Mail button to see the spam options.
Click the Enable junk mail filtering check box.
Click a radio button to tell Mail what to do with junk mail it receives.
Click the check boxes to indicate which types of email shouldn’t be considered spam.
Click the check box to take advantage of junk mail prefiltering done by your ISP.
If you want to make Mail forget the list of known junk mail senders and subjects it has compiled, click Reset.
Click Reset again to confirm that you want Mail to forget its list of junk mail senders and subjects.
Tip: Teaching Mail More About Spam
Mail marks junk mail with a brown label. If a message is brown but isn’t spam, click it and choose Message, Mark As Not Junk Mail. If you get spam that’s not labeled brown, choose Message, Mark As Junk Mail.
Tip: Where to Put Spam
To put all your junk mail in a special mailbox, choose Mail, Preferences and click Junk Mail. Click Move it to the Junk mailbox (Automatic). You can get rid of all the spam you’ve received by choosing Mailbox, Erase Junk Mail.