I am perplexed

pawzisme

Valued Member
The message below was sent to me today by a friend. I have arranged to go and see her on Wednesday evening, but it is bugging me meanwhile as I cannot make sense of it. She is now on GMail, and the e-mail she sent me was from Gmail. I don't know whether she uses the web and is getting the old address coming up in auto complete in her browser or whether she has her mail come down to the desktop and somehow activates the old address, but only sometimes - confusing, and I do not understand the reference to options for ms e-mail either.

Can you make any sense of it please, so I can go with some idea of where to look?

I have a problem with emails when I either want to send a file or photos or want to order something from a site I haven't ordered from before. We have changed to Googlemail; but all the afore mentioned come up with Freeserve which is our old email provider. This means that replies come into Freeserve which will be discontinued at some point, people and companies also have an incorrect email address. I have located a place where window xp shows options for emails but only microsoft ones.
 
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EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Hello,

How did you meet this person? The email strikes me as an excuse that would come associated with a dating or bank fraud response to some sort of scam email. Maybe it's the bad English. Maybe it's because I see a lot of spam emails. Did you recently reply to an unexpected email that promised something? Anyway, something seems wrong here, think about how you got to this point and if you are being asked for anything. Beware of internet scams.

If you have known the person a long time it's possible their account has been compromised and someone else is using it for scams. If you post the full headers of the email we can tell you where in the world it was sent from and you can figure out if that makes sense. Also, if you have the phone number for your friend (and you've known them a long time) try calling them to let them know there might be a problem with their email account and that they should immediate change their passwords and security questions and answers.
 
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pawzisme

Valued Member
Raymond, she is a known friend, I go round her house every Wednesday to study Greek.

With respect, I do not think this is anything to do with her account being taken over. She is not computer literate, nor does she explain things well, hence the confusion. As I am person many local folk go to when they have problems with their computers, she has asked me for a solution, and likely tomorrow night I will understand what the problem is once I see what is happening for myself - but here being an e-mail forum, I thought I would ask for specialist wisdom as her somewhat confusing message makes no sense to me - nor to you either it seems. I had hoped to get some guidance of what the problem could be, simply to best use the limited time I will have to fix the problem.

Thank you for your help :)
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
I see a lot of scams and get those kinds of questions, apologies for the misunderstanding and thank you for putting the email into the correct context. :)

After ruling out scams and rereading her email I think the problem could be that she is now using Gmail but her email program and/or the default email program setting on her computer is sending email From: an old freeserve email account.

Check the default email program on her computer and have it send email From: the new Google email address.

Also, here are the directions for making Gmail the default mail program on her computer : How to make Gmail your default email program | Email Questions

I believe this is the info you need to solve the problem. If there is still a question after seeing her computer please let us know.
 
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pawzisme

Valued Member
Raymond we are thinking alike here - I just got confused because the e-mail she sent me was from G-mail, and I doubt she is using a desktop e-mail client for it as she would not know how to redirect, so I wondered if it might be that she is going to online sites like Amazon ( I am guessing) and her old details are being used.
Anyway, I will find out a bit more tomorrow and if I need some more wisdom will hotfoot it back here. I shall print out the how to you have given and go through it with her. Great help, thank you :)

oh, it is a notifier Gizmo! I reckon she will be pleased with that :)
 
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pawzisme

Valued Member
Raymond, hope you see this, if not I will create a new thread.

I have had a look at my friend's computer, and one of the problems became clear. She was opening up her pictures folder (she is an artist) and clicking on a link to the left of the window which would send the chosen file or folder to e-mail, and of course it was looking at the Outlook Express client, which was their old account.

Is there any way she can make GMail the default for 'desktop' activity?

I have shown her how to attach photos on GMail so it isn't the end of the world if she can't use the link-to-email options within Windows.

She doesnt want to delete the old e-mail account yet as it is still receiving traffic, but when she does I can show her what to do and how to make OE invisible.

The other problem is what I suspected, that she is going on to sites and logging in to her account, and needs to change her account details on the site web page.

She said she had contacted most of the sites by e-mail to notify the change of e-mail address, and that they had answered via Google, but in my view she needs to change the data on the page herself - do you think so? Cookies.
We couldn't find out where to do this on the page we visited, but there must be an option somewhere on there.

Thought you would like to know since you were kind enough to offer help :)
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Yes, here is how to make Gmail your default email program.

I'm also including a video. I'm experimenting with video help.

Please let me know if you think it helps in addition to the written directions. :)

The full directions are here : How to make Gmail your default email program | Email Questions

I added the video to the link above. Did it help you solve the problem?
 
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pawzisme

Valued Member
Raymond, it is late now so I shall properly investigate this tomorrow - it looks whizzy :)

I have given the download link to my friend for GMail Notifier, as a first step, and will go from there if she wants to make GMail default. Thank you so much for your help, I will give you feedback on the vid as soon as I have had a look at it and the instructs. :)
 

pawzisme

Valued Member
Raymond, the instructions are clear, but the vid, as I saw it from your link, was too small to see what to do and had no sound. Maybe if downloaded and the window size increased it would work, but it would be difficult to follow that at the same time as going through the process, so for me the written instructions are the way to go, and if my friend wants to make Gmail her default mail I shall be happy to send them to her. Thank you :)
 
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