Category: Communications (Page 1 of 5)

Caller ID Spoofing

September 21, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Caller ID spoofing, or phone number spoofing, is important to understand. If you’re not familiar with this practice, let me explain:

Caller ID Is Fallible

When you receive a phone call, most phones display some identification about the inbound call. You may see:

First Name, Last Name, Area Code and Phone Number
Business Name, Area Code and Phone Number
Private
Unknown Caller

You need to know: The info shown on your Caller ID can be altered. Both the number and the name on your Caller ID display could be inaccurate or untrue. It is easy and often free for someone to change (spoof) their Caller ID info.

Legality

Phone call spoofing, as a practice, is legal in our country. But using spoofing to defraud or cause harm is illegal. If this gives you some pause, if you’re wondering why spoofing is legal at all, consider some possible legitimate uses:

Law enforcement may need to alter their identity as they investigate crimes.
Collections agents might spoof their Caller ID info so that a debtor won’t avoid their calls.
A doctor or counselor may spoof their number when calling a patient to maintain a crucial level of privacy.
Friends might use Caller ID spoofing for pranking each other, without causing harm.

Scammers!

Of course, the main point of this post is to talk about scams, and make you alert to them. Scammers love to use Caller ID spoofing when they call their potential victims. They know that people tend to believe what they read, especially when it flashes by quickly. Robocallers and spammers also use phone spoofing, but the biggest danger is from scams like these:

Caller ID shows the name of a US Court System or the IRS, and the caller says you need to pay off your fine/charges now, or be incarcerated.
Apple/Microsoft/Amazon/Facebook Support shows on the Caller ID, and a robocall tells you that your account has had suspicious activity on it. Press 1 to be connected to an agent who will help (steal) your account.
Your bank shows on the Caller ID, and they are calling to reset your PIN and password, as someone has tried to hack into your accounts.

To be absolutely clear, the above examples are scams. The IRS, Microsoft, your bank, etc. are NOT going to call you for account changes or payments. Please hang up if you ever answer a call like these!

Scams of all kinds use spoofing to make their calls show the same area code and exchange as your number. This is called Neighbor Spoofing. They make their number look very close to your number, so that you think it is someone local to you and might answer more quickly.

It is also possible for someone to spoof your exact phone number. This can be done to confuse you and get you to answer. But it can also be done to deflect blame to you. If you ever get angry calls from other people, telling you to stop with the spam calls, understand that a bad actor may be using your number in their spoofing scheme.

How to Defend Against Call Spoofing

You’re doing it right now. Maintaining awareness that Caller ID is not to be trusted is the best defense against Caller ID spoofing. After that, you can consider some extra tactics:

Talk to your phone provider and see if they offer/recommend any particular call screening options or apps with spoofing protection.
Put your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry.
Don’t answer unfamiliar numbers. Let every unexpected mystery call roll to voicemail.
Report persistent spoofing problems to your phone carrier and/or the police.

Mail2World ↔ Gmail Problems

September 11, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 1 Comment

If you use Shentel (or other Mail2World) email, you might notice that you can’t get an email to go through to someone’s Gmail address. Or maybe a Gmail user is telling you that they can’t send email to you at your Shentel.net address. I’ve seen Mail2World ↔ Gmail Problems off and on for many years now. Here are Too Many Words™ about why that is:

Email Authentication

As email flies around the globe, it runs through many checks and authentication. Mail servers scan email for legitimacy, spam content and other safety concerns. These authorization methods are a bit above my paygrade to discuss in detail, but the main ones are called SPF, DKIM and DMARC. You can look them up and read about them, if that’s your cup of tea.

Google takes security seriously. They are very strict with their email authentication, and they frequently improve their server security. Due to Google’s size, when they raise the bar for email authentication, it affects the entire world. Other providers take notice and follow suit whenever Google makes a change to their email protocols. If email providers don’t update their email security to match Google, some legitimate email may be marked as spam. Other email may simply not get through.

The Email Block

And here we get to a problem I frequently see with Shentel email and other Mail2World-offered email addresses. It goes both ways:

Gmail user sends a message to a Shentel address, and receives an Undeliverable message in response.
Shentel mail user sends a message to a Gmail address, and receives an Failed_Precondition message in response.

You can always try sending your email in a different way. Log into a different browser or a different email app. Try using the webmail site, if you haven’t already. Go to a different computer or device. If the problem persists across multiple pieces of technology, then the problem is not yours and it’s out of your hands.

What to Do About It

If you’ve got Mail2World ↔ Gmail Problems, it is Mail2World’s fault. M2W needs to update & fix their email security. For anyone impacted by this, please consider these options:

Call Shentel tech support at 1-800-SHENTEL and report the details of your email error messages.
Email Mail2World tech support at support@mail2world.com
Consider creating/switching to another email address

I really do need you to consider that last one, if you suffer from this problem. Shentel can only report your trouble to Mail2World. Mail2World may or may not respond to your direct queries. They do respond to emails… sometimes. They have fixed this kind of problem before… but it took weeks or even months. Please know that Gmail/Outlook/AOL/Yahoo/ProtonMail/Apple email addresses typically do NOT have this problem! There are more reliable email products out there for you!

Mobile Broadband

August 18, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 2 Comments

When shopping for internet service, you may have plenty of options: Cable, Fiber, Fixed Wireless, Satellite, DSL. But one oft-overlooked option needs to be included: Mobile Broadband. This home internet service is powered over the airwaves and through the same towers as your cellular phones. Consider these options from the big cellular companies:

T-Mobile Home Internet

AT&T Internet Air

Verizon Home Internet

If you have terrestrial options for internet service, you may want to stick with them. But the new residential mobile broadband service can be a moneysaver/lifesaver for people in rural, underserved areas. If you are suffering under super-slow DSL, or flaky satellite internet service, or high-priced Starlink, the above options are worth considering!

But mobile broadband is not available everywhere. The first step for anyone considering this type of internet is to talk with the provider. Visit a T-MO, ATT or VZ store and have them check your address. They’ll let you know if your residence is serviceable.

When someone signs up for mobile broadband service, the provider sends a Wi-Fi modem, as shown above. The user plugs it in, uses an app to setup the household Wi-Fi, and then starts connecting the household computers and devices. It’s usually pretty streamlined and easy. And their Wi-Fi modem serves as a regular router, allowing you to connect multiple computers, streaming devices, printers, etc..

These home internet options are not as blazing fast as cable or fiber, but they should be significantly better than DSL. If you investigate this type of internet, make sure to ask the provider what type of speeds they think you’ll get in your area. They can vary wildly from one region to the next.

Starlink Satellite Train

May 15, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Alright, folks: if you ever get to see this in your night sky, relax and enjoy the spectacle. This is not War of the Worlds or Independence Day or HHGTTH. It’s a Starlink Satellite Train!

Starlink is the world’s premier satellite internet service provider. And as they expand and improve service, they launch new satellites, in long strings, as shown above. Some people around the globe have been lucky enough to see these as they fly into the stratosphere and enter into service.

You might be surprised to see how many Starlink satellites we have orbiting the Earth. If you’re interested in trying to spot the next Starlink Satellite Train, you can check out this site to figure out when the next launch may be visible in the night sky. This article and this site also has information about past and future launches.

New Storage Limits on Outlook.com

April 13, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Microsoft has made some changes to the amount of free storage you get with their email and other cloud services. If you are a paid member of Microsoft 365, you probably don’t have to worry about any of this. But free users are in a different boat. The new storage limits on Outlook.com email addresses are likely to cause confusion and total email blockage!

There’s a lot of confusion about it all, because Microsoft has created a very complicated problem here. I hope I can explain it a little better than they do:

The Basic Quotas

Free users of Microsoft storage get 5GB of storage space for their files. This is where your OneDrive files go, if you use that.
Free users of Microsoft email get 15GB of storage space for their emails, contacts and calendar entries.
Microsoft free services work great, until you exceed a storage quota. Once you exceed a quota, the service stops working until you resolve the overage.

The Confusion

Here’s where Microsoft has made things confusing: your email attachments now count against both quotas. Depending on the size of your total saved attachments, you can be under quota in Outlook.com, but over your quota for Microsoft (cloud) storage. I’ll paint a hypothetical for you:

Let’s say that I’ve been saving years of emails in my Outlook.com address, and those messages total 10GB in size. That’s fine! That’s well under the 15GB Outlook.com quota. But due to the new rule, those 10GB of messages have close to 10GB of attachments, and those count against the other quota. When Microsoft notices that my email attachments are exceeding my 5GB Microsoft storage quota, they shut down my email, until I fix it.

When this email stoppage occurs, you will see it when you visit your email on the web, at Outlook.com. You may not get this stoppage alert in other email clients (Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.)! So if your Outlook.com address is malfunctioning, visit the Microsoft email website to see if you get an explanation there.

Resolving an Email Stoppage

If your Outlook.com email has stoppage due to this quota issue, you’ll see a message about it at the top, as you log into the email website. But go further to see a proper breakdown and explanation of the quotas for your account:

Once logged in at Outlook.com, click the settings Cogwheel to the upper-right.
Go down the list and click View All Outlook Settings.
On the left, click General, and then click Storage in the second column.

You’ll see something like this:

If the Total used figure is over 5GB, you have a problem to address. You can either a) start deleting emails, or b) pay Microsoft for more storage.

If you’re of a mind to delete things, click the link for Outlook (Attachments) next to Free Up Space. That should take you back to your inbox, but sorted such that the largest email with attached files are at the top. Trash as much as you can stand, and then refresh the page to recheck your quota.

Or if you prefer, Microsoft will sell you more storage for as low as $20/year. If you sign up for Microsoft 365 Basic, your email storage quota will jump to 50GB instantly.

Ads in Your Email Signatures

March 25, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Some companies and software products use your email to advertise their product. Free antivirus companies commonly do this, but Microsoft and Apple are also guilty of this. They insert a blurb into your email signature, so that everyone you contact will read a promotion text at the end of your message.

Other companies do not engage in this behavior, but if you are uncertain, send yourself an email to check. I’ve met many people that had no idea that their email signature had been repurposed as a billboard.

And if you find something unnecessary in your email signature, you do have the right to turn it off or delete it out of there!

Windows Mail

If you use the Mail app under Windows 10/11:

Open Mail
Click the cogwheel icon
Click Signature
Turn off “Use an email signature”
Click Save

Apple Mail

If you use the Mail app on any iPhone or iPad:

Tap on Settings
Tap on Mail
Tap on Signature
Backspace over the text until “Sent from my iPhone” is gone

Microsoft Outlook

If you use the Outlook app on your phone:

Open Outlook
Tap the Outlook button to the upper-left
Tap the Settings cogwheel to the lower-left
Tap Signature
Backspace over the text until “Get Outlook for Android/iOS” is gone
Tap the checkmark to the upper-right

AOL App

If you use the AOL app on your mobile device:

Open AOL and tap the Inbox icon to the lower-left
Tap the Account button to the upper-left
Tap the Settings cogwheel
Scroll down and tap Signatures
Use the slider to turn off “Include signature in new messages”

ProtonMail

If you use ProtonMail on the web:

Click Settings, then click Go to Settings.
On the left, click Identity and addresses.
Delete the text in the Signature box.

Special note: ProtonMail has an additional ad at the bottom of their emails, called the Proton Mail footer. You’ll see it right below the Signature box. You cannot turn off this footer, unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

Avast Antivirus Free

Open Avast Antivirus
Click the Hamburger Menu
Click Settings
Click Protection
Click Core Shields
Scroll down to “Configure shield settings” and click Mail Shield
Uncheck the box for “Add a signature to the end of sent emails”

AVG Antivirus Free

Open AVG Antivirus
Click the Hamburger Menu
Click Settings
Click Basic Protection
Click Email Shield
Uncheck the box for “Add a signature to the end of sent emails”

Let me know if you notice this with any other big name software or email product, and I may be able to add the removal steps to this post, thanks!

Microsoft Outlook for Mac — Now Free!

March 7, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Microsoft has made their Outlook email client free to download & use on Apple computers.

This is just for the Outlook app. If you want Word, Excel or other Office apps, you’ll still have to pay up. Or use LibreOffice.

Outlook aims to be the swiss-army tool of mail clients, with calendaring, tasks and more. If you prefer something more simplistic, MacOS Mail isn’t going anywhere. And if you need something with lots of features but want to avoid Micro$oft, there’s always the free Thunderbird email client.

Dish Network’s 2023 Outage

March 1, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

If you’re having trouble with Dish Network lately, you’re not alone. On 2/23/23, Dish was hit with a ransomware attack, and they’ve been struggling to recover from it for over a week now. You may notice troubles or outages pertaining to:

Dish TV channels
the Dish.com website
Sling TV
Dish Anywhere app
Boost Mobile cellular service
using your Dish login credentials/paying your bill
reaching Dish customer service

Ransomware attacks can take significant time and effort to bounce back from. Last year’s attack on Mail2World laid low their email services for a solid week, but recovery timeframes can vary widely. Dish is being tight-lipped, so far, about the gory details, so I couldn’t begin to predict when their service levels will return to normal.

For now, what I can recommend is keeping your eye on their website and the Dish statement for upcoming details. Also, it is possible that the attackers have stolen customer data, so you may want to proactively change passwords on Dish-related accounts and pay attention to financial accounts you’ve shared or linked to Dish.

For more reading on this, please consider:

BleepingComputer

PCMag

TechRadar

Check Mail from Other Accounts with Gmail

February 11, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Google has built in a very useful feature with their email service. In Gmail, you can configure something called “Check Mail from other Accounts”, and then Google will continually pull in the messages sent to another email address you control. You can do this with one or many other email addresses!

The Steps

Before you start, make sure you know your full email address and its login password.

Go to your Gmail at Gmail.com on a computer.
Click the cogwheel icon.
Click See All Settings.
Click Accounts and Import.
Scroll down to find the subsection labelled Check mail from other accounts.
Click Add an email account and fill in an email address. Click Next.
Choose Import mail from my other account (POP3) and click Next again.
Adjust the Username field to show the entire email address that you want Google to check.
Type in its password in the second field.
You may want to check the box next to Label incoming messages so that the incoming messages stand out from the ones sent directly to your Gmail.
Click Add Account to finish.

Disclaimers & Cautions

If that final setup screen did not fill in the POP server field automagically, you may have to figure out the correct server name to enter. You may also have to double-check the port number. That may mean calling your ISP or doing some research. Reach out to me if you need help with this!

This process can result in you importing a lot of email. If the other address has a lot of email in the inbox, you can expect a lot to arrive in your Gmail. But it shouldn’t hurt anything. At the worst, you’ll just have a lot of unneeded messages to delete.

This only brings messages. Contacts, Calendar entries or Notes are separate and would involve a different set of steps to bring over.

Google only checks the other email once an hour for new messages. That means that as people email your other address, they will arrive in your Gmail inbox, but there may be a time delay of up to one hour.

What Good Is All of This?

People most commonly use this feature when they are switching from an old email address to a new Gmail. It’s really helpful, because all of the old email dumps into the new Gmail inbox. Now you only have one inbox to check! And the label feature helps you determine who is still using the old address. You’ll know form that whom to contact, to let them know about your new address.

You might use this feature, even if you plan to keep the other email address, long-term. It may be too much work to abandon the other address, but it may still help to have everything arriving in one inbox.

Also, Gmail’s spam filter may be the best of its kind, at least amongst free offerings. Routing a spam-laden email address into your Gmail inbox can filter out a horde of nastiness.

Lastly, I often recommend this approach when mail forwarding is not working for someone. If you had set up mail forwarding in your other address and it wasn’t reliable, you can turn it off and try this method instead. Google will get the job done properly.

Shentel/Mail2World’s 2023 Email Outage

February 10, 2023 / Jesse Mueller / 0 Comments

Can you believe it’s been a whole year since the worldwide Mail2World 2022 email outage? Also: Can you believe it’s only been a year and Mail2World has brought us another email outage?

OK, so far, it looks like it’s only affecting Shentel email. I am checking in with other Mail2World clients, and they report no issues at this time. But if you use Shentel email, you may not be able to access your messages, nor will you be able to send or receive anything.

This outage seems to extend to Shentel Webmail, mail clients, and the mobile app. Wherever you go, Shentel email is kicking up some scary security warnings:

If you’re suffering from these errors, there little that you or I can do. It’s on Mail2World to fix this. They may have forgotten to renew a security certificate on the server that makes your email work. For now, I see your options as:

Call Shentel at 1-800-SHENTEL and inquire politely for an ETR.
Sit tight and check your email occasionally.

I will update this page if I encounter new information!

UPDATE@9:30PM: Shentel Webmail is starting to open up again for people. M2W may have bought a quick 1-month security certificate to tide things over.

If you’re still getting errors from your email client (Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird), reboot your computer and see if things start working again!

UPDATE@7:30AM, 2/10/2023: Looks like everything is back to normal and functional again. But now we get to wait a month and see if this recurs on 3/13/2023. Mail2World, we’ll be watching you.