MSN Rules... I think

Having had much more experience with MSN than icq or skype etc I feel much more at home using msn. I know how all the settings work and think that it is great that MSN is linked to your hotmail account and can check emails so easily.
The only problem is that is you create a group in your contacts, you can't delete the group unless you find someone to take over it. This is pretty annoying as I didn't actually mean to create the group.
Chat is useful for communicating with people who are online at the same time as you and you require an answer straight away. It is handy because you can write in short point form and receive questions or comments back about what you are saying straight away. Chat is only useful though if the person is online at the same time. However you can chat with people all over the world, and its cheap and you can keep copies of the conversation, where as a telephone call you can't keep copies unless you have a phone that can record the conversation. So therefore chat is handy as you can reference the conversation at a later stage.

The Ins and Outs of ICQ

On Monday 6th April, I prepared for the chat task which was arranged for a few us to meet online on Tuesday.

Firstly I downloaded the program, which was quite straight forward, I then created an account filling in as little information about myself as possible. I accepted all the terms and conditions (which I actually didn't read...) and then I was ready to go.

I had a bit of a play around with the settings and my profile etc, added a few people who's ICQ numbers had been posted on the Blackboard.

I found the ICQ program to be quite straight forward and, easy to setup, easy to locate friends if you had their ID number or nickname. When you are "chatting" you can see when other people are typing a message.

I was involved in a 3 way chat, at times I did find it confusing keeping up with the conversation. I think for someone who was experiencing chat programs for the first time it would be very difficult keeping up. I have had extensive practice at the MSN chat, a little bit from ICQ many years ago.
Rachel who was in our chat group was quite worried about the security of chat programs and about all the terms and conditions that most people read through when joining. I was not so concerned as I have had the previous experience with chat programs. It would be quite interesting to know how many people actually read the terms and conditions before accepting these programs.

Also if you are a slow typer you would struggle keeping up with the conversation and having your say. Unless you are with a group who have a similar typing speed. Having people in a group who type at the same speed would help the conversation flow at a suitable speed and would allow everyone to be involved equally.

I thoroughly enjoyed using ICQ again and felt that this task was a huge success. The people who were more advanced users of ICQ helped the less experienced through the task. I don't think security would be a huge issue unless you are adding a heap of people that you don't actually know. The use of emoticons is a very useful way of expressing your mood or feelings when in the chat program. If we didn't have this option many people may find it very difficult understanding sarcasm, jokes, or if someone is angry etc...

ICQ is good fun and very handy communicative tool!! :)

Module 2 - Tasks

Q1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?

A1. At first glance of an email you can easily observe the following 'surface' metadata:

• The Sender
• Who the email is addressed to (Receiver)
• The Subject of the email
• The date and time the email was sent
• Who is copied in the email (unless they were BCC)
• The urgency in which the sender has assigned to the email
• We can determine if the sender requires an immediate response
• Some email addresses you are able to determine which country the email originated from ie .au is for Australia
• You may be able to tell which institution or company they are with (for example .gov you would know straight away that they can be associated as part of the government).

Therefore there is quite a lot of information that is available in the email message. This then makes it easier to determine whether the email is correctly sent to us or if it was in fact ment to be sent to another person. Also the email message gives us a overview of what is to come in the body of the email ('implied" metadata) before we set out to read the whole thing.

Q2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all' functions of email?

A2. With the email becoming one of the biggest forms of communication for both personal and business the use of 'cc', 'bcc' & 'reply all' is a very handy option.

To 'cc' (carbon copy) is to send a copy of an email to secondary recipients as well as the person it is directed to. This is a useful way of sharing important information and keeping people in the loop. I find this very handy at work when a customer emails me with a compliant, I then try to answer their email but 'cc' other people at my work so they know what has happened and what current situation is. Other times I would use it when making a compliant myself, I would 'cc' my manager so that the person who the email is directed to knows that the manager is following what is happening also.

To 'bcc' (blind carbon copy) is where you 'cc' someone however they aren't able to view the complete list of recipients. Nor can other recipients see that they received it. This would be useful as you can keep other people in the loop without the person the email is directed to knowing that person knowing other people are copied in the email. Thinking of an example for when I would use 'bcc' at work would be when I am sending the same quotation request to several different suppliers but don't want for each of the suppliers to know who else is receiving the request.

The 'reply all' function is useful when replying to an email where several other people have been copied. This allows everyone to know what my response is and each person involved to act accordingly.

Q3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

A3. The following 2 ways that can help ensure that the attachment you send can be opened by the receiver:

1. Before sending an attachment contact the desired recipient and find out what software and computer system they are using. As if you are sending a file from a PC to mac computer the software is often quite different. If you first discuss what systems you have you can format your files appropriately thus allowing the recipient to open the documents first go. If you aren't sure what software and systems the receiver is using always use file format .rtf (rich text) format or plain text (ASCII) these can be read across most of the programs and platforms. Sometimes the format may change slightly however they will atleast receive the information.
   
2. When emailing an attachment you can copy and paste the important parts of the attachment and paste it in the body of the email. This way if the attachment is not able to be opened the receiver is still able to view the important information.

Q4. What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

A4. At work we have a filter set up that keeps any email from an address that is not in our contact list in the online server inbox, when we connect to the online inbox we can check the surface metadata and decide if this email is spam or not. If it is not spam we then we 'receive' the email and it is then placed in our inbox. This prevents alot of viruses getting into our system.

When 'filing' the email the system is set to keep a copy in the email center which is where our inbox and outbox etc is. These are all store in date order, however we can sort each month by sender, date, subject etc. Also the email is linked to our data base if already added. This way we can see all communication with this client from anyone in our company. I find this very handy as you can quickly check what previous discussions has gone on with this customer before contacting them yourself. And you are able to review any of the emails they mention as they are all filed together in the same place in date order.

Q5. How have you organised the folder structure of your email and why?

A5. I have set up my person email account to have several folders where I file my emails. These folders having headings such as Important, Uni Related, Photos, Work Related etc, Bills etc

Alot of the emails that I receive in my person email account are mostly junk emails or emails from groups I have joined. Majority of the time I do a quick check of the surface metadata then delete the ones that I am not interested in. Then I will sort to show emails from the same sender together.

Once emails have been checked and I have decided whether I need to keep them for reference in the future I file them in the appropriate folders. This keeps my inbox virtually empty unless they are unread emails. And makes checking emails a quick and easy process.

At work we have little say in how the emails are filed and stored however I am very satisfied as to the way the system is set up and have had little trouble when needing to find an email which was sent to me or anyone else at the company months, or even years earlier.

Internet Tools - Traceroute

A new Experience is always welcomed!

Traceroute basically allows us to trace a route between one computers router (Ip address) to another. I performed the trace from centralops.net to curtin.edu.au using the following website: http://centralops.net/co/

The list below is the results of my trace.

I found that there are 19 hops between centralops.net (70.84.211.98) to curtin.edu.au (134.7.179.56). The average ping is 235ms, the lower the ping the faster the route.

I had trouble working out what the averare ping was, because the site I was using didn't make it clear what the pings were and when doing this task for the first time just got totally confused. After checking the blackboard and seeing what others had done I managed to work out the average (I hope).

FTP or in full File Transfer Protocol

This server runs on a unix platform, so CAPITALIZATION MATTERS!
A file named "file.txt" IS NOT THE SAME as "FILE.TXT"

I hadn't done anything using FTP before, this was a new learning curve for me. I downloaded FileZilla and FTP'd to recall.curtin.edu.au and from there I got a little confused!

I was looking through the local network to begin with which I didn't realise I was doing, then I went over the side for the Remote site, finally I found the readme.txt file and downloaded it. So yeah I found the answer that I was looking for CAPITALIZATION MATTERS...

I think that the method of receiving file is good, however a little confusing to begin with and it could end up being quite slow if you have a rather big file to download. It seems pretty safe seeing as you have to have passwords to access certain areas, however hackers are capable of almost anything!!