1. Communication on the Net

2. Social sites and Social Engineering
Large numbers of people get their news from social sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Most of the traffic on these sites is not validated, verified or fact- checked. Consider the current political situation of tampering with the presidential election.
How do these sites make money?
Advertising
Selling your information to companies
Consider how what you post today will affect your future
Prospective employers routinely look for you on social media

3. Wikipedia Free online encyclopedia (supported by donations)
“Crowd-sourced” articles
Articles written and edited by users – no credentials needed
Major articles seem to be corrected fairly quickly, minor subjects not so much
Don’t trust as the ONLY source – use it as links to original sources
Some companies / government agencies caught making changes to negative statements on the pages concerning them
“Wiki” pages = many people able to change or create
“wiki” Hawaiian word meaning “quick”

4. basics
one of the first things done on networks, starting in 60’s – long before the Web was created
Originally just text messages
These days can have attachments – separate files which have to be processed separately before viewing
Can also have formatting like bold, italics, HTML codes
Do NOT click on an attachment you were not expecting – viruses and worms spread that way!

5. Terminology
client – program which retrieves s from a mail server, lets you read the mails, compose and send replies which are sent to the mail server. It is usually an independent application, not part of a browser. Examples: MS Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora
server - server program on a computer using a protocol like POP3 (post office protocol) or SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) or IMAP (Internet message access protocol)
Web-based – managing via a web browser. Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, AOL mail are some examples.

6. protocols
IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol – downloading/receiving
SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – sending
(older) POP3 Post Office Protocol
Parts of an message
Sender (this is missing from the textbook!)
Recipients
CC carbon copy and BCC blind carbon copy
Subject line (make it meaningful!)
Body (keep it to one topic if possible)
Signature (usually automatic)

8. Reply vs. Reply All Reply should send message only to the sender
Reply All (or group reply) sends a message to the sender and to the people on the cc list (NOT the bcc list)
“Re:” prefixed to subject line of an when it is replied to
Use either but use appropriately
If everyone in the list needs to know it, use Reply All
If only the person who sent the message needs, use Reply
People have lost their jobs by making a mistake with these!

9. Replying and Forwarding
Always include the message you are replying to – especially if the person receiving it is very busy – it’s hard to remember what the message “yes” or “ok” means when you get 50 messages a day!
Forwarding an
Consider carefully what you are doing!
There may be legal implications – do you have the original writer’s permission to do this? They own copyright to their own
Does the recipient of the forward really need to see this?

10. Threads
Clients can group s into threads based on subject lines
Usually they ignore the “Re:” prefixed to a subject line
So don’t change subject line unless you are changing the subject too!

11. issues
People spend so much time handling that it affects their productivity – 30% of your time is not uncommon! Some companies are starting to have “ -free Fridays”! If you are trying to concentrate on a task, turn OFF your alerts for a while.
Some people strive for an empty inbox – less distracting!
Filters can help organize incoming mail
Spam filters can automatically delete or send to Spam folder
Be careful – review your spam folder once in a while – sometimes the filter gets it wrong! Filters learn from experience of what you mark as Junk
Custom filters can send newsletters or mailing list material to appropriate folders for later reference

12. issues
Vacation message is polite – when you will not be answering for an extended period, this will auto-reply with a message to that effect, or redirect the person to someone who is taking care of your duties
Consider that sometimes is not the right medium, maybe face- to-face or a phone call may be more efficient

13. Never delete email! (except spam)
If it can’t stay in the inbox, where to put it?
Some clients offer an archive option, all of them offer ‘folders’ to put s in
Why NOT erase it?
If it is a business , it may be legally important one day
Useful to keep for reference purposes
For teaching, I keep all s easily accessible that I send to or receive from a student or an assistant during the semester. At end of semester, I archive them all in semester backup

14. is asynchronous
Asynchronous (as opposed to synchronous) means that the acts of sending and receiving messages do not have to be “in sync” or happening within a very short time span
You do not have to be logged onto the Internet to receive
Synchronous assumes that the two acts are happening almost simultaneously
Synchronous communication examples:
Phone call
Instant Messaging

15. Who reads your email? You can, of course!
The recipient(s) you sent it to, of course
The system administrators of the ISP you are using
It’s part of the agreement you signed when you got your account
Any hacker who has access to a computer where your message travels to when it is being routed across the Net
The US government (usually with a subpoena)
That’s why you use encryption!
And why you don’t send particularly sensitive information by
Like credit card numbers, passwords, phone numbers, etc.

16. Where is your ?
One question is where is your mail actually kept? Does it reside on the server, where you read it with a browser, or on your local machine where you read it with a mail client?
Advantage to web-based – it is portable, you can access it wherever you can find a browser
Disadvantages – you need an Internet connection to see your mail, provider may set a limit on how big your mailbox is on their server
Privacy concerns – web-based tends to stay on servers longer than non-web-based. And if your provider is in the US, your mail is subject to the Patriot Act which allows law enforcement to see your without informing you!

17. Cautions about
Use caution about sending when you are upset. goes in seconds, too late to retrieve! (Gmail does have a time delay option)
Spam – named after a Monty Python sketch, wastes huge amounts of bandwidth these days
Mail links instead of attaching huge files – some people still have dialup connections!
Use encryption for more privacy – PGP is the most common implementation (Pretty Good Privacy) (public key / private key encryption)

18. Phishing emails These are emails targeted at you
They are disguised to look like they are from companies / people that you deal with
For some reason, they usually have typos or misspellings
Never click on any link or attachment or reply to these!
If you are unsure, contact that business or person by phone.
Reputable companies will NOT use for the purpose of changing passwords or any security activity