Set up and use a webmail account

Q I have an old Gateway computer with Windows 98SE and a dial-up connection to the internet. I have been sent an email with a large attachment; my email software starts downloading emails but takes far too long. I want to delete the attachment but can’t do that without downloading it. Is there an alternative?

Peter Steed

A There are a couple of ways to do this, depending on the changes you want to make to your computer. First, make absolutely sure your security software is up to date when using the internet with this computer. Microsoft is no longer fixing security problems with Windows 98, so you may be vulnerable.

The simplest way to delete the offending email is to use a website to access the email without having to download the attachment. Many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) provide a webmail service for their email, so ask if you are not sure. If they do not, there are independent services such as Mail2web.com. Enter this address into the Address Bar of your browser (the one at the top) and press Enter.

For extra security we recommend that you click on the Secure Login link. Type in your email address and the password into the appropriate fields and click on Check Mail. Mail2web guesses the server settings for the email account, so click on the Advanced Login link if the login does not work.

Enter the server name, whether the account is Pop3 or Imap, and if the SSL security technology should be used. You can find this information in Outlook Express by clicking on the Tools menu and then on Accounts. Double-click on the email account and then on the Servers tab. The option to select SSL can be found in the Advanced tab. Make a note of these options and try again.

A longer-term solution is to use Mozilla Thunderbird to read your emails. Rather than download the whole email, Thunderbird can be told to download a summary. This is enough to decide whether or not you want to keep the email.

Mozilla Thunderbird works with Windows 98. Follow the wizard for creating an account. Click on the Tools menu, then on Account Options. Click on Server Settings in the left-hand column for your email account. Click in the box labelled Fetch headers only about half-way down so that a tick appears. Click on OK to save the settings. You can now quickly download the message summary and delete it.

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