(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.

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(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.)