(The
North Orange County Computer Club is helping The
Gadgetress tackle the multitude of cries for help from
readers. NOCCC group has experts in Windows, Word and
all sorts of computer topics. The club, which meets
monthly on various topics, has been in existence since
1976. Visit the club's site at noccc.org.)
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Q. For
some time now I have been receiving this message from
Yahoo, and it seems that anything I try to do doesn't
solve this problem. I use Outlook Express. Here is the
message:
Dear
AT&T Yahoo! Customer,
We
noticed that you are accessing email using non-secure
settings in your email software. We would like to
ensure that your AT&T Yahoo! Member ID, password,
and email messages are transmitted securely between
your mail software (such as Outlook or Outlook
Express) and the AT&T Yahoo! Mail servers. In
order to meet this need, please enable SSL via the
instructions that are available on the Help site.
Since
multiple email notifications have already been sent
out about this, we request that you please make the
necessary changes immediately.
Remember,
you need to make these changes if you want to continue
to send/receive email using a mail client. Thank you
for your cooperation.
_
AT&T Yahoo! Customer Support
A. The
main reason you have been receiving this message is an
effort to make it more difficult for the bad guys to
send unsolicited e-mail, aka spam. For years, e-mail
servers used the same two ports (connection addresses
#25 and #110) to send and receive e-mail. By changing
those two addresses and requiring that your connection
to the e-mail server be authenticated, the problem has
been reduced.
AT&T
has several Web help pages at helpme.att.net that can
walk you through the steps to make the requested
changes.
For
your SBCglobal.net e-mail address, the easy way to
make the modifications is to download software that
will make the change for you.
Download
the Windows-compatible software at tinyurl.com/4twlce
or the Macintosh version at http://tinyurl.com/6j38bv.
To
manually change your e-mail program's SSL settings,
follow these steps (taken from AT&T's help page):
1. Open
your e-mail client program.
2.
Locate the e-mail account settings for your particular
client.
3.
Change the POP server to pop.att.yahoo.com.
4.
Change the SMTP server to smtp.att.yahoo.com.
5.
Check the option labeled Use an encrypted connection (SSL).
Change the SMTP port to 465.
6.
Check the option labeled Use an encrypted connection (SSL).
Change the POP3 port to 995.
7.
Confirm the above settings before clicking OK.
For
Outlook Express users, here's a video to help you find
your account settings: tinyurl.com/64x8gk.
I
recommend you watch the entire presentation first,
then replay the video. Click the "Pause"
icon, make the changes to Outlook Express, then return
to the animation and view the next step.
___
(Have
your own quandary? E-mail gadgetress@ocregister.com;
put "Help Me!" in the subject line and
please include your computer's operating system and
amount of memory. Read more about this topic and
others at ocregister.com/gadgetress/stump.)