OT: Temporary Internet Files

[Dave Labrecque]

So, I'm looking around my C: drive, trying to clear out unneeded files. I come across C:\Documents and Settings\Dave\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files and it's got, like, 1.4 GB of stuff in it! Dat ain't right! I delete a bunch of stuff. Then there appear to only remain about 200 files, most at 1 KB, with a few getting as big as 30 KB or so. I'm bummed because I can't see data on number of selected files and file size totals in the info bar at the bottom of Windows Explorer, like for other folders. Then I right-click on the parent folder (\Temporary Internet Files) and select Properties to see how much space I've cleared. Hardly any! There's still around 1.4 GB of data, and it indicates over 7000 files and 25 folders! All I can see is about 200 files, as I said.

What's up with this? I've got all the options I can find (Tools/Folder Options/View) set to show all hidden files, etc. Dang.

Interestingly, when I click on the next parent folder up (/Local Settings) the right pane shows the /Temporary Internet Files folder icon is lighter than the rest. Same with /Application Data. Is there some way to undo this double-secret-probation setting for these folders if I want to? :mad:

[IraSeigel]

The bulk of your wasted space in this directory is contained in a hidden file. I think it's a .DAT file.

I believe the ONLY way you can delete it is by exiting out of Windows and rebooting into DOS (!!! - Yikes!!).

You'll find it difficult to get to the exact path, so open your Temp Internet Files directory and copy down the path name. Then you'll have to retype it in a DOS window.

But be sure to completely exit out of Windows first. You can't do it by simply opening a DOS window within Windows.

Note to Mac people: don't smirk!!

Ira

Dave - I realized that I don't know what version of Windows or Internet Explorer you are using. I've done a search in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Here is one Knowledge Base (KB) article that might help you delete the file: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306837

There are others, too, that relate to older versions of IE.

I hope this is helpful.
Ira

[Dave Labrecque]

The bulk of your wasted space in this directory is contained in a hidden file. I think it's a .DAT file.

I believe the ONLY way you can delete it is by exiting out of Windows and rebooting into DOS (!!! - Yikes!!).

You'll find it difficult to get to the exact path, so open your Temp Internet Files directory and copy down the path name. Then you'll have to retype it in a DOS window.

But be sure to completely exit out of Windows first. You can't do it by simply opening a DOS window within Windows.

Note to Mac people: don't smirk!!

Ira

Any chance this DAT file is of interest to me/my system? What about the 7000 other files and odd folders? Should they show up there, too? :confused:

[IraSeigel]

Any chance this DAT file is of interest to me/my system? What about the 7000 other files and odd folders? Should they show up there, too? :confused:

No, it can be deleted, and IE will start a new DAT file.

I say this based on your statement that the file resides in your Temporary Internet Files directory.

There's some blogging about it containing a record of every website you've ever visited. Don't know about that. But I KNOW it can be eliminated safely.

Ira

[Ian Alexander]

I don't know if this is related, but there is a setting in IE that allegedly controls how much drive space is allocated to temp files. Find it under Tools, Internet Options, General tab, Browsing History, Settings button. See if lowering the space allocation tames the beast any.

[Pedro Itriago]

Just deletes those folders inside temp internet files. IE will create new ones when you re-open IE

[IraSeigel]

Dave, are you using IE? I'm on Firefox, so I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it. Also, this Windows installation is only about two months old.

Mark

It has EVERYTHING to do with it!! Wow, that's reason enough for me to switch to Firefox. Getting rid of the Index.dat in IE is truly a nightmare. Just using the delete buttons in IE|Tools|Internet Options|General will NOT delete the Index.dat file. AFAIK, it MUST be done in DOS.

Ira

[Pedro Itriago]

Get Opera. Better zooming handling & no annoying updates everytime you open the browser and that useful open tab/window in background funtion using the mouse's middle button which I wouldn't know how to surf without it.

[DominicPerry]

You can get rid of the dat file with a file shredder like BestCrypt or Acronis. The biggest problem is that IE uses it to see if it has been to the page before, and then looks for the page in the cache, even if the page has been deleted, producing a double delay. Magnificent programming.

Bring back DOS.

Dominic

[Cary B. Cornett]

Just deletes those folders inside temp internet files. IE will create new ones when you re-open IE As mentioned by others, switch to Firefox! I do not now use IE at all except on the rare occasion when a website DEMANDS it, and in that case I first ask myself if I really NEED that particular website.

Also, it is wise to ditch Outlook Express in favor of Thunderbird.

[DominicPerry]

A recent survey said that about 1 in 10 websites do not adhere to standards, and only work with IE, using proprietary MS technology. Whilst this is pretty outrageous, 10% of websites not working is a real PITA. I won't reward MS by giving them any of my money ever again, but IE is free. all you can do is badger the companies which have 'faulty' websites when you find Firefox doesn't work. It's not a very practical proposition, life is too short.

Dominic

[Cary B. Cornett]

A recent survey said that about 1 in 10 websites do not adhere to standards, and only work with IE, using proprietary MS technology. Whilst this is pretty outrageous, 10% of websites not working is a real PITA. I won't reward MS by giving them any of my money ever again, but IE is free. First of all, I almost NEVER find a website that won't "play nice" with Firefox. 1 in 10 seems like a very exaggerated statistic, and I wonder who was behind said survey (couldn't be MS, could it??). Second, I don't uninstall IE, I simply make Firefox my default browser. I still have the option of using IE on the rare occasion that I may need it. So, switching to Firefox will not do any harm, and will likely do some real good, and you don't have to lose the availability of IE to do that.

Best of both worlds, yes? :cool:

[DominicPerry]

I'm sorry, I can't find the reference to corroborate my figures. If it's less than 10%, that's good news. Microsoft needed to be punished for their anti-competitive actions by bundling IE with the OS, and in the EU they have been. I have no idea how Firefox or Opera or anyone else makes money out of writing an alternative browser though. MS makes money out of producing an all in one integrated package, and in that regard you get your money's worth.

Dominic

[Craig Allen]

A recent survey said that about 1 in 10 websites do not adhere to standards, and only work with IE, using proprietary MS technology. Whilst this is pretty outrageous, 10% of websites not working is a real PITA. I won't reward MS by giving them any of my money ever again, but IE is free. all you can do is badger the companies which have 'faulty' websites when you find Firefox doesn't work. It's not a very practical proposition, life is too short.

Dominic
I have to wonder if the stat was actually 1 in 10 sites don't adhere to standards. FF will render sites 'properly' even if they don't follow the w3c standards.

[Pedro Itriago]

I'm sorry, I can't find the reference to corroborate my figures. If it's less than 10%, that's good news. Microsoft needed to be punished for their anti-competitive actions by bundling IE with the OS, and in the EU they have been.

The same should be done with mac.


I have no idea how Firefox or Opera or anyone else makes money out of writing an alternative browser though. MS makes money out of producing an all in one integrated package, and in that regard you get your money's worth.

Dominic

Ads & direct funding by "supporters"

[Dave Labrecque]

Just deletes those folders inside temp internet files. IE will create new ones when you re-open IE

The folders don't appear. Only a couple hundred files do, despite the fact that there are 7000 of them (and some folders).

[Dave Labrecque]

As mentioned by others, switch to Firefox! I do not now use IE at all except on the rare occasion when a website DEMANDS it, and in that case I first ask myself if I really NEED that particular website.

Also, it is wise to ditch Outlook Express in favor of Thunderbird.

I do use Firefox. I only use IE when I have to. I don't use Outlook Express. :(

[Dave Labrecque]

I don't know if this is related, but there is a setting in IE that allegedly controls how much drive space is allocated to temp files. Find it under Tools, Internet Options, General tab, Browsing History, Settings button. See if lowering the space allocation tames the beast any.

Good idea. Tried it. Nothing so far. Maybe I need to reboot?

There's also options in there to delete stuff. Maybe I'll try that.

Still irritating that there things are hidden despite my Windows Explorer settings. :mad:

Ahem... but, thanks. I'll let you know if things disappear on a reboot. Unless I find another way to zap 'em first...

[DominicPerry]

Inside IE
Tools -> Internet Options -> Delete Files.

This gets rid of most of the bulky stuff, but not the .dat file.
You can also elect to delete the cookies - if you do, you will have to log back into websites which you previously logged into, like this one!

Dominic

[Dave Labrecque]

Hmmm. I just cleaned mine out as well, although the folder is named "temp", not "temporary internet files", for whatever Windows reason. There were no hidden or .dat files at all. So now it has zero files with zero space used.

Dave, are you using IE? I'm on Firefox, so I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it. Also, this Windows installation is only about two months old.

Mark\

I use FF mostly, IE, occasionally, as needed for certain sites. My Bank (Bank of America) has told me on more than one occasion that the don't support FireFox. It still works in FF so far as I can tell, but it doesn't remember my user ID. IE does, so I favor it.

It's odd how my user ID is remembered by IE and not FF for some sites, but the opposite is true for other sites. I just don't want to take the time to play with cookies and stuff for each of these occurrences. So, I suffer IE now and again. :mad:

[Dave Labrecque]

It has EVERYTHING to do with it!! Wow, that's reason enough for me to switch to Firefox. Getting rid of the Index.dat in IE is truly a nightmare. Just using the delete buttons in IE|Tools|Internet Options|General will NOT delete the Index.dat file. AFAIK, it MUST be done in DOS.

Ira

OK... I'm goin' in. Nobody move...

[DominicPerry]

IE will remember things using integrated windows authentication, FF won't cos it can't get a handle on the same link. The stuff which FF is remembering will be cookie based, which is a bit safer.
It's fundamentally a bad idea to let IE remember your password for banking sites. Just don't do it.

Dominic

[Dave Labrecque]

Weird... in DOS I can see two folders and no files in that (Temporary Internet Files) folder!

Looks like the guilty folder is called "OLK1A2". I ran a defrag report and operation on my C: drive last night, and it told me the same folder contains a 1.19 GB file (which I recognize as an old Outlook PST file that I probably restored from my archives a while back -- so why would it end up in here?).

I also recognize the folder "OLK1A2" as the path where Word directs me when I'm trying to save a Word doc that I've opened as an email attachment (in Outlook 2000). Interestingly, for the last few weeks, when I try to do that save operation, I see that folder as the parent in the Save dialog, and when I try to browse to a different folder on my system, Word locks up for several seconds before letting me re-direct the path and do the save.

Anywho... I use the DEL command in DOS, and guess what...

I get a list of about 12 DOC and HTM files for which "access is denied". Lovely. Oh, but wait! A check back in Windows Explorer shows that the Temporary Inernet Files folder has shrunk from 1.4 GB down to 130 MB. Whoo hoo! Got most of it. Sure would be nice if I could have a gander at that 130 MB worth of files, though.

OK... I had my gander. Through the DOS window. With the right command I can see all the files. Just not sure how to delete them. One at a time? No thanks. Then I tried del *.*. No workie.

OK... went into IE and deleted Temporary Internet Files. That got 'em! Still showing about 12 MB in the Temporary Internet Files folder. Probably that remaining "OLK1A2" stuff. Word docs and HTM files. I guess I'll give up... for now.

Thanks everyone for your help! 'specially Ian (who got me poking around inside IE options) and Ira (who sent me DOS-ward).

What a great place! :)

[Dave Labrecque]

IE will remember things using integrated windows authentication, FF won't cos it can't get a handle on the same link. The stuff which FF is remembering will be cookie based, which is a bit safer.
It's fundamentally a bad idea to let IE remember your password for banking sites. Just don't do it.

Dominic

Really? Even with zillion-bit encryption and all?

[Dave Labrecque]

Inside IE
Tools -> Internet Options -> Delete Files.

This gets rid of most of the bulky stuff, but not the .dat file.
You can also elect to delete the cookies - if you do, you will have to log back into websites which you previously logged into, like this one!

Dominic

That got it, thanks, Dominic. Saw your message too late, but, thanks just the same. :)

[Dave Labrecque]

It's not that difficult. After reading your post I realized I left my cookie jar open, so I cleared all. Then I set FF to keep cookies "until they expire".

Then I went to the obvious sites that need cookies, primarily my financial sites, SS, Digi and a few others I visit regularly. Once those cookies were in the jar, I switched to "delete when I close FF"

Took about five minutes, and I should be good until I stumble on something I forgot.

Odd that BofA gives you problems. I have no problems with any of my financial sites using FF.

mark

mark

I'll try it all again. Maybe I'll learn something new this time. I only a couple days ago figured out the thing about setting them to "until they expire" first, then resetting to "until I close FF". I'm a little slow...

[DominicPerry]

Really? Even with zillion-bit encryption and all?

To be honest, most of the security holes have been sorted now but.....
One of the principles behind the early browsers was the concept of the 'sandbox' - the idea was that the browser was walled off from the OS. Fine for viewing things, but quickly limiting. So, when you go to attach a file in hotmail (or in the SAW forum;) ), you have to link the browser to the OS in order to be able to search your local machine's hard disk. In a true 'sandbox', this is not possible. Some of these links are part of the browser, some part of the OS, sometimes they rely on plug-in etc. The problem is that they are not always watertight and they can be used in the wrong direction, to extract data from your machine via the browser. As I say, there's not much to worry about these days, but as a principle, it's best if you know what these links are and when they are being used and when they are being given authority to move data around. The problem with IE is that it is so tightly integrated with the OS that it doesn't let on what it is doing. Firefox, Opera etc have to function across a discrete wall - this gives them and consequently you, move control over what is being passed around. Encryption doesn't come in to it.
I've spent most of the last 10 years working in IT for companies which do work for the MoD - the UK version of the DoD. I don't understand all the ins and outs, I just know about a lot of the principles involved in secure systems. One of them is "Don't store passwords on the device that you use to access the system which uses the password". Obvious really.:D

Dominic

[Tree Leopard]

Clean Disk Security
http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/clndisk.html

One the best cleaning apps out there. Will erase all the temp files and IE index.dat files you want. (the files will only appear "cleaned" after your next boot).

CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/

A v.good freeware cleaner. DL the portable version and create a shortcut for desktop.

Look through the options and configure to suit. Make it habit to run these at the end of the working day / before you power down. You should notice a small boost in performance.

Andre

[Ian Alexander]

[snip]
Looks like the guilty folder is called "OLK1A2". I ran a defrag report and operation on my C: drive last night, and it told me the same folder contains a 1.19 GB file (which I recognize as an old Outlook PST file that I probably restored from my archives a while back -- so why would it end up in here?).

I also recognize the folder "OLK1A2" as the path where Word directs me when I'm trying to save a Word doc that I've opened as an email attachment (in Outlook 2000). Interestingly, for the last few weeks, when I try to do that save operation, I see that folder as the parent in the Save dialog, and when I try to browse to a different folder on my system, Word locks up for several seconds before letting me re-direct the path and do the save.
[snip]
Thanks everyone for your help! 'specially Ian (who got me poking around inside IE options) and Ira (who sent me DOS-ward).

What a great place! :)
I have never used Outlook or Outlook Express, but my mom did. She asked me to help her find some attachments others had sent her. I was astonished to find that the attachments in OE were not saved as individual files anywhere, but the entire IN box, with attachments imbedded, was ONE GARGANTUAN FILE. So you can't use an attachment in another app without opening OE and the message it was attached to. Incredibly kludgy. I moved mom to Eudora, which asks on install where you want things to go. To bad Qualcomm quit developing it. I'll use the last version until it won't work anymore. Unless I find Cary's Thunderbird to have appeal.

Glad you got some relief from IE, Dave.

[Richard Rupert]

\

I use FF mostly, IE, occasionally, as needed for certain sites. My Bank (Bank of America) has told me on more than one occasion that the don't support FireFox. It still works in FF so far as I can tell, but it doesn't remember my user ID. IE does, so I favor it.

It's odd how my user ID is remembered by IE and not FF for some sites, but the opposite is true for other sites. I just don't want to take the time to play with cookies and stuff for each of these occurrences. So, I suffer IE now and again. :mad:

Dave,

I don't know if it would affect your ID memory issue, but you can add an "extension" in Firefox to make a page display as it would in IE by left clicking the Firefox icon in the lower right corner of the Firefox browser (after installing the extension)... maybe worth a try. You can read about and download the extension here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

Installed extensions are accessible/manageable by clicking (in your Firefox browser) Tools>Add ons, then click the Extensions tab.

I have a page on my own (self-built) website that will not display properly in Firefox, but switching the rendering engine this way will correct the display. A workaround, to be sure...

[Dave Labrecque]

Thanks, gents. :)

[Dave Labrecque]

I bailed on Outlook (never used Express) years ago, and switched to Thunderbird and never looked back. Although I think having Outlook onboard may be handy for transferring data to Blackberries or cell phones. It's easy to export data to and from Outlook and Thunderbird.

I prefer Thunderbird's junk mail filtering options...although tech support is non existent. I'm in the middle of switching from POP to IMAP to allow leaving messages on my server to check from various computers....but am having trouble figuring out how to download and save emails to a local folder without archiving my entire profile that requires importing, etc.

Mark

In Outlook you can set options to leave messages on the server. You can also save individual emails to a folder (on you HDD) of your choice, though it's a one-by-one Save operation via a dialog, which may not meet your needs. There are also export options that allow you to select what you want exported (so you don't have to do the whole enchilada). Again, maybe not what you have in mind. Are these options available in Thunderbird?

[Pedro Itriago]

Dave,

I don't know if it would affect your ID memory issue, but you can add an "extension" in Firefox to make a page display as it would in IE by left clicking the Firefox icon in the lower right corner of the Firefox browser (after installing the extension)... maybe worth a try. You can read about and download the extension here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

Those things don't work. Opera has that included in the browser, but that only works for stats on the server that hosts the page or silly stupids that want to block pages based on the browser people use.

Banks and other places use features found only on IE. That's why they don't work until the developers of those sites stop being lazy coding only with MS tools.

[Dave Labrecque]

Dave,

I don't know if it would affect your ID memory issue, but you can add an "extension" in Firefox to make a page display as it would in IE by left clicking the Firefox icon in the lower right corner of the Firefox browser (after installing the extension)... maybe worth a try. You can read about and download the extension here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419

Installed extensions are accessible/manageable by clicking (in your Firefox browser) Tools>Add ons, then click the Extensions tab.

I have a page on my own (self-built) website that will not display properly in Firefox, but switching the rendering engine this way will correct the display. A workaround, to be sure...

Thanks, Richard. Hey, you're not in Green Valley, Arizona, are you? (20 minutes south of Tucson)

[Naturally Digital]

Yes, I believe Tbird can do most or all of that stuff, I just haven't figured it out. I can find some instructions, but can't get it to execute, so I suspect it's operator error or perhaps a setting somewhere.

MarkI've been using Thunderbird for a few months now and I'm very happy with it. I have it sharing it's data files between Windows and Linux (the data files are on a shared partition) and until recently I was accessing email from two machines so I was leaving the messages on the server for 10days. All worked great.

[Richard Rupert]

Thanks, Richard. Hey, you're not in Green Valley, Arizona, are you? (20 minutes south of Tucson)
No, Dave... I'm in central Pennsylvania. But my sister and brother in law live in Sun City West... I think that's north west of Phoenix... ah heck, that isn't relevant at all is it? :confused:<LOL>

[Richard Rupert]

I live in a City in the West that has Sun.

Mark

I've wondered who's captured it!

Actually, it's been seen quite a lot around here lately, but it seems to have lost much of its heating prowess. Perhaps you're just sucking the heat out of it.

[Dave Tosti-Lane]

Those things don't work. Opera has that included in the browser, but that only works for stats on the server that hosts the page or silly stupids that want to block pages based on the browser people use.

Banks and other places use features found only on IE. That's why they don't work until the developers of those sites stop being lazy coding only with MS tools.

The plug-in IETab does work with bank sites - it will even fool Microsoft - I've done microsoft system updates from the windows update page using Firefox with IETab. Just recently, my wife tried to access one of the credit card sites to change some account preferences using her Mac, and couldn't get it to respond on Firefox or Safari, - but I had no problem logging on and making the changes using Firefox with IETab from a PC.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a similar plug-in for Firefox that will work on the Mac - I just transitioned my office machine over to an iMac, and still have to go to Windoze on Parallels to set up FireFox with the IETab.
The good news there is that so far, everything I need runs in Parallels just fine - I've run Studio on parallels, and have had no problem running AutoCAD Access, or the various PC based database applications for the college either. I've got it set up with 4 Gig Ram, with 1Gig dedicated to the Parallels/XP virtual machine. It makes a pretty slick set-up, with OS-X Leopard on the main Mac screen, and XP under Parallels running on an adjacent external monitor.

Dave Tosti-Lane

[Jay Q]

I'll try it all again. Maybe I'll learn something new this time. I only a couple days ago figured out the thing about setting them to "until they expire" first, then resetting to "until I close FF". I'm a little slow...
HELLO, McFLY! ;)

I also do online banking with BofA using FF, and it stores my ID. Are you using Exceptions in FF? You can simply add a domain name to the list. Go to Tools > Privacy > Cookies > Exceptions, and simply add "bankofamerica.com" to the list. Then your ID will be saved even if you keep cookies until "I close Firefox". This is what I do to keep FF from becoming cookie-laden, and it works great.

Jay

[Dave Labrecque]

What I'm trying to do is use IMAP instead of POP, to allow me to check my emails from multiple locations. What I can't figure out is how to download to a local folder, or maybe local folders on more than one machine, to sort through later.

My workaround is to have IMAP on two computers and POP on one of my computers, but then the messages are stored at one location.

Mark

What's the advantage of IMAP over POP for this kind of thing? I check email from multiple locations using Outlook and POP.

[Dave Labrecque]

No, Dave... I'm in central Pennsylvania. But my sister and brother in law live in Sun City West... I think that's north west of Phoenix... ah heck, that isn't relevant at all is it? :confused:<LOL>

No, but it's always nice to see some kind of connections out there. :)

[Dave Labrecque]

An email client using POP pulls the messages off of the server onto the local computer. After doing that, you cannot see those same messages from another location.

IMAP leaves the messages on the server and you are just viewing them. You can go to any computer and view them with an email client and they are still on your server until you delete them.

Neither of these are to be confused with webmail, where you can use a browser to go to your server and see what's there...like when your not on one of your own computers.

I have Outook onboard as a part of MS Office, but never properly installed or any accounts created. Just opened it to try and take a peek and it started giving me messages about other software being effected so I stopped.

Mark

OK... sorry if I wasn't clear before. In Outlook (and in other clients, I'd think) there's a setting to leave messages on the server. And it works for POP. I have one computer with that option disabled (my main system at the studio/office) and all other computers set with the option enabled, so that I can check email from home or the laptop, and they'll still be available for permanent download/archiving on the main system.

So, I don't know if IMAP is going to give you anything that POP can'tt already give you. Unless I'm still missing something.

[Dave Labrecque]

Mark,

Does this help at all?

http://helpdesk.graniteschools.org/docs/Document.asp?ID=226

Also:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Synchronizing_mail_on_two_computers_(Thunderbird) (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Synchronizing_mail_on_two_computers_%28Thunderbird %29)

[Dave Labrecque]

Right. Once they're downloaded to my studio computer, they're off the server, and so no longer available to anyone, anywhere, other than on my studio computer.

Are you looking for something different than that? I like it because it gives me one guaranteed central location for all my email archives.

Geeze, man. I've been gone for a few minutes. I heard some tires screeching, then a crash. I opened my back door to see what was going on, and a guy ran by me outside, then jumped the fence into my office plaza's courtyard. I ran to my front door and saw him disappear out the back of the plaza -- out to the back parking lot. I ran back out my back door toward the alley off of the parking lot, then saw the guy running around back there, looking for a way to escape. A cop car came down the alley fast, the cop got out, drew his gun and told the guy to get on the ground. The idiot kept trying to get away. The cop got within a few feet of him, and then the guy started running down the alley. More cops came. He ran around some more. Started coming back my way. Geeze, man. Now the guns were pointing in my direction. He stepped behind a cinder block wall, he ran by me, they finally converged on him, punched him a few times and got him on the ground. Cuffed him.

The SUV he was driving is still poking into side of the building next to mine, bricks laying all over. Engine running, fluids leaking.

OK, I'm coming back down, now. Wow.

Ahem... when do I clear off my server? Well, my ISP's spam service is set to delete spam, I think. And all the stuff that comes to me gets cleared when I download it to Outlook on my studio computer. So, it all happens automatically. Nothing stays on the server.

I used to check all my spam every couple days to find false positives. It was nuts. If someone doesn't get through, they can call me and I'll put 'em on my "trusted senders" list.

[Dave Labrecque]

No.:)

Actually, been there.

Mark

So what am I missing? Why doesn't that work for you?

[IraSeigel]

Clean Disk Security
http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/clndisk.html

One the best cleaning apps out there. Will erase all the temp files and IE index.dat files you want. (the files will only appear "cleaned" after your next boot).

CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/

A v.good freeware cleaner. DL the portable version and create a shortcut for desktop.

Look through the options and configure to suit. Make it habit to run these at the end of the working day / before you power down. You should notice a small boost in performance.

Andre

Wow! Just tried the CCleaner. It eliminated my Index.dat and my Temp Internet Files folder went from 15MB to 35KB. (You have to reboot before seeing a difference.) Then I ran the registry cleaner and got rid of some other junk, and I uninstalled some MS Office foreign language proofing programs that didn't show up in Control Panel

Excellent recommendation. Thanks!!
Ira

[Dave Labrecque]

Yes. Last time I tried it that way, some guy crashed his car into the building next door and cops with drawn guns were running around everywhere. When I switched back to IMAP, everything returned to normal.

Har, har. Seriously, that really happened in almost real time right here on the SAWStudio forum.



If you have your email client set up to leave on server, when you go to download a second time, is your email client smart enough not to download a second time because it sees it in your inbox already?Hmph. I guess so. When I'm at home and I hit the send/receive button several times in a session (over an hour, say), the messages don't re-download. I guess each message has some kind of unique ID that gets compared between server and client each time? Good question for the experts around here...




OK, I guess everything is cleared off of the server when you download with your studio computer, no? Yes.


So you don't use your web server for email, but your ISP servers...and there spam filters?Well, I simplified it for the purpose of our discussion. In reality, I have two main email accounts. One with my ISP, as discussed. One with my labrecquecreativesound.com domain, which is setup pretty much the same way, spam-wise. I also have gmail and yahoo accounts. I set them all up so that they delete spam. I set up each account in Outlook so that on my main system it downloads messages and deletes from server, and so that on my other systems it leaves a copy of each message on the server.

Though, I don't think I have my yahoo and gmail accounts set up to be accessed by Outlook, so strike those. I hardly ever use those. I do have my ISP and LCS-domain mail accounts setup in Outlook, though. I may have my yahoo and gmail webmail accounts setup to forward messages to one of my main accounts, but I'm not sure.


I still get false positives with my onboard filters as well. I have my webserver filters off because I've lost important emails that did not come through in critical situations....and I'm a bit gun shy. It's probably more sophisticated now so I should try it again.I've just made the decision not to mess with spam. Not worth my time. So, I leave it to the servers to deal with. Outta sight, outta mind. :) I might miss some important emails that no one follows up on with me. Oh, well. I guess a solution is to set up those automatic deals where everyone not on my trusted list is required to apply for trusted status. I have that capability, but haven't turned it on. Ideally, I guess the same option, but applied to spam, would be good. The theory being that real spammers wouldn't "apply", while real people would.

I may check into that possibility...

[Cary B. Cornett]

I still get false positives with my onboard filters as well. I have my webserver filters off because I've lost important emails that did not come through in critical situations....so I'm a bit gun shy. It's probably more sophisticated now so I should try it again.
I do not trust spam filters, because
A) you cannot eliminate ALL spam without stopping some legit stuff, and
B) you cannot let all the legit stuff in without some spam getting through.

My current strategy seems to work well.
First, my email address is not the obvious "Myname@...", which is always easily guessed by the random-address generators used by spammers. All of my email addresses have numbers in them, and I try to come up with at least slightly oddball names.
Second, my email addresses are all on domains I own, so none of the randomly gotten "aol" or "comcast" or whatever.
Third, I report all of the spam I get to Spamcop as quickly as possible.

I think my worst day for spam in the last several years I got about a dozen. I seldom get more than 3 or 4 in a day. Some days I don't get any. Yea, I "lose" a few minutes to the spam reporting process, but I get the satisfaction of "punishing the spammers" by helping force them to find new addresses to spam from.

[Jay Q]

OK, I guess everything is cleared off of the server when you download with your studio computer, no?

So you don't use your web server for email, but your ISP servers...and their spam filters?
Mark, I have a very similar setup to Dave's, so I thought you might find the following info helpful:

I use POP in Outlook (except for one account that requires IMAP), and use the "Remove from server when deleted from 'Deleted Items'" setting. So, mail stays on the remote server as long as I want it to. Deleting in Outlook just moves mail to the Deleted Items folder (unless you Shift-delete), so until you permanently remove the mail from Outlook by removing it from that folder, it stays on the remote server. Also, unless there's something wrong with your setup (something gets corrupted), Outlook won't re-download mail that was already downloaded -- most clients behave that way.

Spam filtering depends on your host's setup, of course. Like Dave, I use my hosting account mail and my ISP mail (which is really just a backup account). Unless your host uses lousy or outdated spam filtering, you should be able to do the following: Set up a whitelist to ensure that mail from certain addresses always reaches you (you could also set up a blacklist, but spammers virtually never use the same address twice). Use whatever filtering mechanism is offered to control how strong you want the spam filter to be. A good filter will let you decide how strict the filter should be and what to do with the filtered mail. You can just forward suspected spam to a spam folder so that it isn't deleted -- the spam isn't downloaded when you download via your web client (you'd check it via webmail). You can also set up additional filtering on specific keywords in the subject line or body of the mail.

My host also has a nice "daily digest" feature where it sends a summary of suspected spam which is held in limbo for a limited period unless I specifically request it be sent. It shows the header info plus the first 100 chars of the body, so it's easy to just glance and see what is and isn't spam, and if there're any false positives, you can simply reply to the mail with an "X" in a given box (it's easier to do than to explain), and it immediately sends the mail.

Well, that was a bit lengthy, but the point is you really can have a high degree of control and flexibility with email these days, and depending on your client, you can even use POP to imitate IMAP to a degree. HTH.

Jay

[DBenkert]

<snip>
That became a problem when I needed to check something someone sent me, and the only way to do that was go to the studio.

<snip>

Not trying to derail this, but something I have found very useful for my 3 locations is LogMeIn - basically a free Internet remote desktop. I do keep things synched like Dave and others have mentioned, but this is always nice in case of emergency. One other thing it helps is sent mail - for me that doesn't really get synched between my machines so if I need to check if I sent something, I can Log in to other machines and check.

Of course, this assumes your computer is online all the time :cool:

[bcorkery]

...and you may be right about the POP protocol with the "leave messages on server" option being a better choice. Mark,

This is my choice. At the office, I pull the files down and my laptop and home compters are set to leave messages on the server. Works great for me.

I used to send the messages back to myselfe but caught myself checking the mail again and haveing to send it to myself again ... I'm not going to bother admitting how many times!

[Dave Labrecque]

Mark,

This is my choice. At the office, I pull the files down and my laptop and home compters are set to leave messages on the server. Works great for me.

I used to send the messages back to myselfe but caught myself checking the mail again and haveing to send it to myself again ... I'm not going to bother admitting how many times!

Been there. :o

One more note to my "system" is that if I leave town for any length of time (i.e., enough time that I don't want to have to deal with re-reading and re-filing all the emails sent to me while I was away), at the end of the last in-office day, I move my desktop outlook.pst file (the one that has all the current stuff in it) to my laptop. That way my laptop "becomes" my office email machine while I'm away, including the setting to delete messages from the server. When I get home, I move that PST file back to the desktop system, and Bob's your uncle. :)

[Dave Labrecque]

My problem remains having all emails available on all machines, so I think I'll switch back to POP everywhere, and experiment with the number of days things stay on my server.

Problem is, I don't necessarily go to the studio every day if I'm doing other business out of the home office.

I'll probably go crazy trying to delete everything I don't need off of multiple machines, but modifying the POP seems like less work than modifying IMAP.

Mark

How 'bout just leaving 'em all up on the server. Organize and file them there. Archive them there. Let one machine back it all up in case of catastrophe. But there'd be no need for synchronizing the various machines, etc. Though, you'd no doubt lose some nice features of a nice email client... unless you could set up all machines to mirror that server all the time.

Just thinkin' out loud here...

[Ian Alexander]

My problem remains having all emails available on all machines, so I think I'll switch back to POP everywhere, and experiment with the number of days things stay on my server.

Problem is, I don't necessarily go to the studio every day if I'm doing other business out of the home office.

I'll probably go crazy trying to delete everything I don't need off of multiple machines, but modifying the POP seems like less work than modifying IMAP.

Mark
I've been thinking that you might consider keeping your email application on a laptop that you take with you wherever you go. It sounds like mostly you're at two locations, the studio and home. But even if you go to other studios, hotels, Starbucks, etc., you can usually find a wireless access point. A laptop would keep all of your received and sent messages with you. I think you've written that you have a laptop, no?