Ask Leo! #522 - So many clouds! Filtering junk, not filtering not junk, labels versus folders, remembering passwords and more... - Confident Computing

Featured

Is it safe to let my browser remember passwords?

If I consider my computer to be physically secure, am I reasonably safe letting Firefox remember my passwords (without using a master password), or am I being incredibly stupid to do that? What if I do use a master password?

I certainly wouldn't say incredibly stupid at all. But it's definitely an additional risk, and one that needs to be understood.

But you're correct in considering physical security first. The problem is that people often assume they have more physical security than they actually do.

And master passwords? Well, they're nice, but they too have their limitations.

Continue Reading: Is it safe to let my browser remember passwords?
http://askleo.com/16718

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How do I stop Outlook.com from putting legitimate messages in the junk mail folder?

My outlook.com is putting legitimate emails into its junk mail folder. I use 2011 Outlook on my Mac. I never see the emails because outlook.com is putting them in junk mail at the outlook.com site, and is not forwarding them to me. It seems very random, but some of my closest friends' emails are going into the junk folder as well as other legitimate contacts.
Can I just not use outlook.com, do I need it? How I stop the filtering of legitimate emails in to the outlook.com junk folder?

Spam is an incredible problem, and email providers go to great lengths to filter it out. Microsoft is no different – their email infrastructure deals with an incredible amount of spam, I'm sure.

As it turns out, with any one of Microsoft's email addresses – @live.com, @hotmail.com, @outlook.com and others – you're still really using Outlook.com whether or not you ever visit it on the web.

Let's look at the options you have to make sure you get the email you want.

Continue Reading: How do I stop Outlook.com from putting legitimate messages in the junk mail folder?
http://askleo.com/16732

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How do Gmail labels relate to folders?

Google Mail, or Gmail to most, is a wildly popular free email service. It's fast, easy to use, and sports one of the best spam filters around.

What most people don't quite realize is that Gmail looks at the world a little differently than most. And in doing so, it leverages something else that Google has a strong track record in: search.

Gmail labels are aren't what most people think they are. Normally, that's not an issue, but when accessing Gmail using a desktop email program via IMAP, it can cause a lot of confusion.

Continue Reading: How do Gmail labels relate to folders?
http://askleo.com/16745

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Previous Issue

Glossary Term

cloud

The Cloud is nothing more than a reference to services and technologies provided online over the internet.

Using the term "cloud", besides being marketing buzz-word, conceptualizes the internet itself as a cloud so as to avoid having to detail the reality of it's massively complex interconnections. Even before the term "cloud" was popular in general use network diagrams often used the image of a cloud to represent large networks.

Cloud computing is nothing more than using internet-connected computers to perform computational tasks.

Cloud storage is nothing more than data storage provided by online services.

Cloud services are nothing more than services provided by online service providers.

Naturally all of the above can be intermixed.

"The cloud" is nothing really new: email has been essentially a cloud service since its inception. What has changed, however, is the ubiquity of internet connectivity, the increased speeds at which people are connected to the internet, and the fact that using online services is becoming more and more practical for more and more people than ever before.

Glossary Terms are featured selections from The Ask Leo! Glossary.
Have a term you'd like defined? Submit it here.

Featured Comments

What Security Software do you recommend?

lynn writes:

I have found that the times I am using Norton (years ago, norton 360 and now norton antivirus provided by my isp) that I cannot use restore points. When I had a hard drive failure while using 360, I was told nothing could be salvaged because of Norton goback. I think I'm ready to stay away from Norton. I also use CC Cleaner and smart defrag, but haven't seen any issues with norton regarding those.

Leo writes:

If you rely that heavily on System Restore I would STRONGLY encourage you to read this: Why I don't like System Restore

Lester writes:

I recently recovered a friends computer from a Cryptowall infection. It was the worst infection I have ever seen. I think that it counted up over 20 viruses and trojans. Like usual, I used Malwarebytes and it took care of most of it, but not all. So I ran Windows Defender (which the malware had shut down) and got several that Malwarebytes had missed. But it still wasn't clean, so I ended up running the Eset trial version to finish the job. The point is that no software is guaranteed to fix it all. After an infection like this one, your computer may never be totally the same as before. I am going to wipe this particular computer and reinstall it from scratch. I have already educated my friend in the intricacies of keeping image backups as a way to avoid this kind of scenario. And by the way, incase you're wondering, he did lose some data, but we managed to shut down the system before Cryptowall was finished, so we rescued some that way. Some was on a backup, and some had been copied to OneDrive. But the family pictures that he really, really, badly wanted are gone forever.

A One Step Way to Lose Your Account ... Forever

Dalton writes:

People, enable these recovery options! I personally forgot the password to my microsoft email (it is on one of networks set up by Microsoft: hotmail, live, or outlook) which is linked to my microsoft account.

Luckily, the info was updated and the alternative email was in place. They just needed to be used.

I got my account back through the alternative email address recovery option since my phone's battery was dead and was charging.

Seriously: If you want your account back, put recovery information into it to access it. You never know when it will be useful.

Leo's Blog

An Abundance of Cloud Storage

With Amazon announcing that Prime members can now store unlimited pictures in their cloud, it drove home to me just how much things have changed in just the last few years.

Cloud storage was at first an interesting concept, then a rare but useful commodity, then a differentiating feature between services.

And now? Not only is it ubiquitous to the point of being almost expected, but some aspects are almost, dare I say it, annoying.

Continue Reading: An Abundance of Cloud Storage
http://askleo.com/16760

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