We’ve all used a CAPTCHA but few understand it or know what they do. CAPTACHA is the acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.”

In a nut shell CAPTCHAs are those weird looking characters that we’re forced to type in when trying to get to the next step of a form. It’s a clever way of ensuring that the person filling out the form is an actual human and not a computer or “bot”. Google as do many other companies, rely on CAPTCHAs to add an added measure of security.

A not so common problem can occur when trying to access your Google Apps email account with Outlook or similar email client using POP or IMAP. When a user makes too many unsuccessful attempts to access an email account using POP or IMAP, Google may consider the account as being attacked or about to be compromised.

When this happens, Google Apps users may not be able to send mail using their email client. To fix the problem, Google suggests “Unlocking the CAPTCHA.”

http://www.google.com/a/your_domain.com/UnlockCaptcha

Obviously you need to replace “your_domain.com” with your actual domain name.

The page you see should look like this:

To unlock the CAPTCHA you’ll need to type the username and password of the email account giving you problems, then ironically enough, type in the CAPTCHA shown, then the Unlock button.

It usually takes Google several minutes for the email account to start working as normal. It’s important to note that just because you’ve unlocked the CAPTCHA once for a particular email account, that’s not to say that the same problem may not occur again.

To avoid issues which may cause Google to be concerned about an account, try not to connect using Outlook or other email client from too many IP addresses within a short period of time. Jumping from one Hotspot to another or cruising the neighborhood to find an open wireless connection to check your email, are just some of the reasons which can cause a problem. Increasing the “timeout” setting within your Outlook advanced settings for a particular email account may help as well.

The best solution however is to stop using Outlook completely and use your web browser instead. We suggest reading the article entitled:

“Still using MS Outlook?”

Remember to bookmark this page or Google’s Unlock CAPTCHA page in the event you need to ever Unlock your Google CAPTCHA.

For years the running joke is that everything hinges on a password. Think for a moment. What if someone had access to to your email account, online bank account, FTP password… yeah it’s enough to make anyone who cares straighten up and get tense. While nothing is 100% secure, there are things you can do to minimize the horror of getting hacked.

To begin with NEVER elect to “Stay Signed In” when logging into your Gmail or Google Apps account. The few seconds it takes to type in your password is great insurance in the event someone gains access to your computer.

The next recommendation is to create a password scheme. For example, use 4 numbers, perhaps your month and the year you were born. Then perhaps your first name alternating between upper and lower case letters, then 01, 02, 03, 04.

If John was born February 2, 1964 then a good password would be 0264JoHn followed by 01, 02, 03, 04 (0264JoHn01). The last two digits would represent the time of the year, in this case, which quarter of the year. If it’s March, then the last 2 digits would be 02. If the current month is November, then 04. This password scheme works well because it also forces you to change your passwords at least 4 times a year based on the time of year or quarter.

This same scheme could also be used for passwords on certain web sites. For example, if you visit CNN.com often and you need to create a password for their web site, then consider using the first 3 letters of their domain name in conjunction with the scheme you just learned (cnn0264JoHn) and possibly forgo the last two digits. If the web site was Walmart, then wal0264JoHn. This ensures that every password for almost every web site you visit is unique and easy for you to remember.

Feel free to create your own password scheme to help you easily recall your password but make it difficult enough that it would be impossible to guess. Never use the same password for everything! Never use the same password for everything! Never use the same password for everything! Do I need to repeat that again? Good.

Any web site which has access to personal information such as banks or email accounts, should use a scheme forcing you to change your password each quarter.

Using “bosco” as your password is not advisable. Sorry Seinfeld lovers, that was just too tempting not to throw that in

What are you nuts? Seriously, if you’re still using Outlook or any email client for that matter, then you’re not reading the writing on the wall.

Email clients like Outlook, Eudora, Macmail and others are all applications or programs designed to primarily do one thing, and that is to fetch email from an email account. The problem is that they tie you to a single computer.

Most all of these email clients are also slow, take of a lot of your computer resources and make it difficult to organize your emails. I know, you’re probably thinking that’s not true. You have folders and move emails into folders to stay organized, right? That’s not organized, at least not organized as it compares to using Labels and Filters like those found in Gmail and Google Apps. You can read more about Labels and Filters on our site.

Outlook is also particularly prone to problems in that everything, all your emails, attachments, contacts and calendar all reside in one massive file called a PST file. Should this one PST file ever become corrupt, lost or infected… you better have a very recent backup and your MS Office installation disk to do a full re-install.

These are just a few of the problems not to mention the fact that Outlook is a “porker” of a program. It hogs a lot of your computers resources when open. It’s for this reason and more that email clients like Outlook are quickly becoming a thing of the past and being replaced with web based solutions. A perfect example of these web based email solutions is Yahoo mail, Hotmail and Gmail. Where you use a web browser instead of an installed program to manage all your email.

Eventually all email clients like Outlook will be replaced by web based email. Even Microsoft agrees, think about it… The last “real” version of MS Outlook was Outlook 2003. Microsoft never released Outlook 2004, 2005, 2006 and it’s only because of Vista (I get shivers just saying it), that Microsoft was forced to put out Outlook 2007.

When it comes to these new web based solutions, nothing but nothing compares to Google email. Gmail and Google Apps run circles around Outlook or for that matter, any other web based email solution as well.

Even programs like MS Word are going to be web based. For example, in the very near future, MS Word won’t be a program you install and run on your computer. Instead it will likely be ported over to a web based application where you will pay a subscription fee to use it and with all subscriptions being run through the basement in Redmond, WA.

What has happened is that Google has beaten Microsoft to the punch. No longer do you need to have Word, Excel, Powerpoint or Outlook as programs installed on our computers. With the advent of Gmail and Google Apps you now have the ability to manage all your email from any computer connected to the Internet using your web browser. Google’s web based solutions also give you the ability to create calendars, documents, presentations, spreadsheets as well as share them with any other Gmail or Google Apps user. And just to add icing to the cake, it’s free!

Historically however Microsoft doesn’t take blows like these laying down. Their answer to Gmail and Google Apps is a product/service called Windows Live Mail. But to compare the two is like comparing “Apples to Pneumatic Shock Absorbers”. Microsoft knows full well that Google has beaten them to the punch. Why do you think Microsoft is making just a huge push to buy Yahoo? Hello…

Wake up folks. If you’re not using Google’s web based email, shared calendars and docs, then you’re simply missing the boat. If you’re still using Outlook to manage your email then you’re simply wasting time, being unproductive and prolonging the inevitable.

Take my advice and stop using Outlook or any other email client. Instead, start using Gmail or better yet Google Apps. It is the closest thing to online “true love”. If you don’t believe me, try it yourself. Then tell me if you don’t agree that Google Apps and Gmail aren’t the best thing since sliced bread.

Creating a standard Gmail account is easy but not necessarily what you want. To find out, ask yourself these questions:

Are you planning to have a web site now or in the future?
Do you want your email address to look professional?
Have you already registered your own domain name?

If you answered yes to any or all of the questions above, then do not get a standard Gmail account. Instead, get a Google Apps account. If you do not know the difference, please read this article:

The Difference Between Gmail and Google Apps

If you’re certain that all you need is a standard Gmail only account, then simply go here to set up your new Gmail account:

http://www.gmail.com

If you wish to take our advice, then you’ll need a Google Apps account. To begin with you’ll need to have already registered your own domain name (something.com). To register a domain name, use regiSTAR.com! All domain names registered with regiSTAR.com are pre-configured to use Google Apps. The setup process which you are about to learn, is already provided by them. You simply go to http://email.your_domain.com, login, and you’re off and running.

If you have a domain name and it is already registered with another domain name registrar, then you’ll need to have a working knowledge of DNS, CNAME Records, MX Records and A Records or URL Forwarding. The process can be time consuming if you don’t understand these terms or how they work. We recommend using our new quick and easy installation of Google Apps but should you decide to do it yourself, then here is checklist of what you will need to get started:

• Have already registered a domain name.

• Know what DNS servers your domain name is pointing to.

• Have the ability to modify those DNS server. If your domain name is pointing to your web hosting providers DNS servers, you will need to contact them and ask if you are able to make changes to your current MX Records. Please note that most hosting providers will not give you access to their DNS servers. If this is the case, ask if they can make MX Record and CNAME record changes for you.

• If your domain name is already pointing to an existing mail server, you’ll need to make sure that you pull your latest email off of your current mail server before pointing your domain name to Google’s mail servers. You’ll need the current mail server addresses or IP address(s) of that mail server in the event you screw things up and need to go back to your original configuration.

• If you’re managing a large list of email accounts, be sure to get the current user name and password for each account before proceeding. This will help make the transition process easier for your existing email account users.

Once you’ve made sure your checklist is completed, follow this link to establish a Google Apps account:

http://www.google.com/apps/

** Please note that attempting to establish a Google Apps account then stopping half way simply because you don’t fully understand CNAME Records, modifying domain Host records, A Records or MX Records, can make it even more difficult for someone else to help you finish the process. Unless you are well versed in DNS administration we strongly suggest you hire an IT administrator to help you, transfer your domain name to regiSTAR.com or use our new Google Apps installation service.

Gmail is the world most reliable, powerful, yet easy to use email management system on the planet.

On April Fool Day of 2004, Google released the beta version of Gmail. Gmail was released as “invitation only” and is now available to anyone. Gmail is much more than an email management system. Through your Google email account, you also have the ability to create web based shared calendars, shared documents, shared spreadsheets and more. Each Gmail account comes with contact management, IMAP, POP download, email forwarding and close to perfect spam filtering.

Google Apps was released four years later in April of 2008. Designed for both commercial and non-commercial use. The biggest difference between Gmail and Google Apps is your email address. Google Apps users are able to use their own domain name as part of their email address (username@your-domain.com). Standard Gmail account users have an email address of username@gmail.com. Both are free, however Google Apps users are able to increase the size of your email accounts by upgrading to a Google Apps Business account.

If you don’t already have a Google Apps account, then get one! There is no reason why everyone should not have their own domain name and thus a Google Apps account. If you do not yet have you’re own domain name, then stop here and go register your domain name right now. We highly recommend regiSTAR.com since they provide all their domain name registration customers with free Google Apps accounts.

If you’re familiar with web based email systems like Yahoo mail, Hotmail, or MSN, then you’ll feel right at home with Gmail but the differences stop there.

Let’s face it. Google is the most popular company on the Internet. So popular in fact that not being a part of their winning team strips you from some of the most useful applications online. One such application is Google Analytics. Google Anaylitcs allows web site owners to track visitors to their site and much more. In order to use Google Analytics or any other Google service, you need to have at least a standard Gmail account.

Look, no other email system on the planet compares to Gmail. It’s a fact and if anyone contests it, then they are simply lying or just haven’t used Gmail before. No other email system is more reliable, spam free and allows you to be more productive. Nothing compares and it’s free. If you already have a domain name but are not using Google Apps, then consider using our quick and easy installation service.

Here is a link to Google’s Top 10 Reasons for using Gmail. We couldn’t have put it better!