26/05/2021
As soon as I was able to, I connected to the internet. How many remember the dial-up modem connecting with the internet provider with "hmmmmmmmmm k-dang k-dang weeeeeeee......." before finally getting a connection, only to find that someone else in the house needed the phone? Aaaaargh! We were charged for how long we were connected, not data. With a 56K modem, data usage was definitely not the issue for the provider! Imagine trying to stream Game of Thrones. That would have been a barrel of laughs! It's a different world now.
I remember Telecom launching Xtra in the late 90s and it soon became the most popular internet provider, but also provider of email services. That was the main reason people connected to the internet back then. Long story short, we often find with some of our elderly, and not so elderly customers, that their Xtra email address can be up to 25 years old. In just about all of that time, they haven't had to enter their password so they adamantly believe they don't have one, which explains the blank look on their faces when I ask for it.
Storage on email servers was way more expensive back then, so the capacity of the server to hang on to your emails was very limited. The only protocol offered for a while was POP (post office protocol) so that was the default. You had to tell your email client software how many days to hold on to an email before deleting it from the server, to save space, otherwise your mailbox filled up and you couldn't receive new mail. IMAP (internet message access protocol) came along to save the day which allowed you to synchronise your mail directly with the server but not many people used it because you needed way more space, and Xtra didn't let you have it until more recently. Unless you paid big bucks of course.
So what's my point? Well there's several three: first, document your password and store it safely. Better still, use a password manager. More on that another day (note to self, do a post on password managers). Second, if you are asked to set answers to security questions don't answer dumb ones like "What was your first pet's name?" That answer may change as you grow older and your memory changes. Your mother's maiden name is a good one, or your first school and your oldest cousin etc. Those answers are always going to be the same and you'll have less trouble remembering them. Thirdly, have a look at whether you are using POP, if you are using a mail program such as Thunderbird, Windows Live Mail or Outlook. If so, have us help you change that to IMAP. Maybe do some housekeeping too and get rid of those old ones you don't need any more. Then, when you're ready, give us a call on 0800 NEEDANERD (63 33 26) and have one of us awesome blokes come out and sort it out for you.
