How to access Yahoo Mail using Pop3 or Imap

Yahoo! launched a redesigned version of Yahoo Mail two days ago and it caught part of the user base of the service by surprise. While the changes look good on paper for free users, as they do get access to several features that were reserved for premium members previously, not all users are happy with the new interface.

It is possible to change some settings back to - close to - old values, but some features like tabs seem to be gone forever. While it is currently possible to switch back and forth between the new interface and the basic interface in the settings to get tabs back eventually (since Yahoo seems to offer two different basic versions right now, you may need to try multiple times), it is likely that this option will be gone in the near future as well.

Accessing Yahoo Mail using Pop3 or Imap

One of the benefits of the changes over at Yahoo Mail is official support for Pop3 and Imap connections for free account users of the service. What this means is that you can connect to Yahoo Mail using third party tools like Thunderbird, Outlook, or other mail services that support these protocols.

If you are missing tabs for instance, you may want to consider using Mozilla Thunderbird to access your Yahoo Mails when you are working on your computer, as tabs are supported by the cross-platform program.

Good news is, it is really easy to set up Yahoo Mail in an email client. Let me show you how that is done using Thunderbird.

Note: Setup in other clients may vary a bit, but the values that you need to enter do not really change at all, so that you can use the information provided in this guide to set it up in any email client, desktop, mobile or web.

The information you need

You need the following information to set up your Yahoo Mail account in an email program:

• Your Name: A name
• Email address: username@yahoo.com
• Password: your Yahoo Mail password

Pop3 incoming server:

• Server hostname: pop.mail.yahoo.com
• Port: 995
• SSL: SSL/TLS
• Authentication: normal password

IMAP incoming server:

• Server hostname: imap.mail.yahoo.com
• Port: 993
• SSL: SSL/TLS
• Authentication: normal password

Outgoing server SMTP:

• Server hostname: smtp.mail.yahoo.com
• Port: 465
• SSL: SSL/TLS
• Authentication: normal password

Configuring Thunderbird

• You can download Mozilla Thunderbird from the official website of the project. It is a free download.
• Once you have installed it and ran the default setup, select File > New > Existing Mail Account.
• Enter the Yahoo email address in the Your Name and Email Address field, and your Yahoo Mail password in the password field.
• Click continue.
• You can then decide whether you want to use IMAP (remote folders) or POP3 (keep mail on your computer).
• The default settings that Thunderbird proposes are working right out of the box and there is no need to change them.

Thunderbird will test the password one last time after you hit the done button. If everything turns out alright, you should see the new Yahoo Mail account listed in the left sidebar in the email client. Click on Inbox to display all messages. You can open messages in tabs by middle-clicking them, or Shift-left-clicking, or by right-clicking them and selecting to open them in new tabs.

EyePro 3: Say Goodbye to Computer Vision Syndrome

by Martin Brinkmann on October 10, 2013 in Software 1

When you work long hours in front of a computer, you may have experienced some of the ill-effects that may come along with it.  This ranges from an aching body because of how you sit or stand in front of the computer to headaches, dry or tired eyes that may be caused by looking at the computer monitor without taking a proper amount of short breaks.

The latter is called Computer Vision Syndrome, and while it is temporary in nature, it can be avoided altogether by taking short breaks while you are working on the computer.

You can try and take breaks on your own, and while that may work for some, others may forget to take breaks. That's when software like EyePro comes into play, as it notifies you when it is break time, so that you know when you should take a break.

EyePro is not the first program that we have reviewed for this purposes. In fact, I counted six programs that offer similar features: Break Taker, Time Clue, Eye Guardian, Eye Care, Eyes Relax,Eye Defender and Workrave.

EyePro 3 Review

Once you have installed EyePro on your Windows machine and started it - it seems to require elevated rights for that - you will notice that it minimize itself to the system tray automatically.

It is highly suggested to restore the program window to configure it before you start using it. The default break intervals, 7 seconds every 20 minutes and 1 minutes every 30 minutes may not be to your liking.

You can change the long break and short break interval and length in the settings. Here you can also disable short or long breaks in case you only want to work with one type of break throughout the day.

The program displays a notification 20 seconds before every long break, which you may want to turn off or change as well, as it too can be distracting.

EyePro takes over the complete screen during breaks. On long breaks, it displays work place exercises that you can follow, or jokes and quotes to keep you motivated. Those can be disabled if you want to run custom exercises or none at all and simply close the eyes for the break interval.

EyePro keeps track of usage statistics which you can open in the main program window. Here you check how many breaks you have taken, skipped or postponed, and get an overall status of your break habits.

The EyeCare Tips section offers interesting information about improving the work environment among other things. This includes proper chair, desk and monitor setup, proper posture while working on the computer, and about other influencing factors such as the lighting conditions.

Verdict

The information the program ships with are a nice bonus that may help you improve your working conditions. While the break reminder does not bring anything to the table that other computer visionary syndrome applications don't offer as well, it is the complete package that may be interesting to some users.

I do not really like the exercises or quotes displayed on the screen during breaks, as they invite you to look at the screen, at least in the beginning. But those can be easily disabled in the program settings, and may provide some users with tips on what to do during breaks

At least 1% of the Top 10000 websites use fingerprinting to track users

Computer users are exposed to a variety of tracking technologies when they browse the Internet. From traditional third party tracking cookies to local storage, Flash cookies and fingerprinting.

Companies that develop browsers aim to reduce the tracking their users are exposed to on the Internet, for instance by implementing Do Not Track options or changing the way third party cookies are handled.

While that takes care of some forms of tracking, it does not touch others.

Fingerprinting became a topic back in 2010 when the EFF released an online tool to compute a browser's fingerprint. It was a first attempt to demonstrate that fingerprinting could indeed be used to track users on the Internet.

While it was common knowledge that fingerprinting was used, it was not really clear how popular it really was.

Fingerprinting study

A recent study suggests that at least 1% of the top 10000 websites use fingerprinting techniques to track users. The researchers used the rankings provided by Alexa, an Amazon company, for their study.

They identified four different fingerprinting technologies: JavaScript-based, Plugin-based, Extension-based and Header-based & Server-side.

All have in common that they extract data either directly during connection attempts or afterwards by parsing log files to identify unique data sets that can be associated to single Internet users.

Information are exchanged with web hosts whenever users connect to servers or Internet websites. In addition to the standard exchange of data, additional queries can be made by using technologies such as JavaScript or Adobe Flash.

It is for instance possible to retrieve the list of installed fonts, the screen size or the installed plugins from a user system.

The program the researchers used crawled the top 1 million websites according to Alexa to determine if common fingerprinting techniques were used by the sites.

While at least 1% of the top 10,000 sites have been found to use fingerprinting tracking, only 404 of the top 1 million sites according to Alexa were found to use fingerprinting.

It needs to be noted at this point in time that it is quite possible that the actual number is larger than that. First, the developers were not able to determine whether server-side fingerprinting tracking was used by a website. Second, there is no common fingerprinting standard, which means that it is possible that attempts were not detected correctly.

One interesting result is a list of fingerprinting providers that the researchers discovered.

The research paper lists detailed information about the methodology used to crawl the sites, counter-measures, and other information that you may find useful.

The script used to crawl the sites will be published in the future on the website linked above. This is also the location where the research paper can be downloaded as a pdf document.

Masking Agent blocks OS and CPU information from being revealed on the Internet

by Martin Brinkmann on October 11, 2013 in Firefox 8

Your web browser sends information about your system whenever it connects to web services on the Internet. Just open Ghacks' quick IP checker and you will notice that the host can identify your IP address, web browser that you are using, and operating system that you have installed.

Most of the time, it is not necessary that this information is submitted at all. While there are specialized services out there that parse the user agent to determine if the browser and operating system are supported, most Internet sites do not make use of these techniques nor require them to function.

That does not mean that the information are not used. A quick check of the user agent may display different versions of the same web page.  Back in 2012 it became known for instance that the online travel agency Orbitz Worldwide is showing customers that use Apple Macintosh systems different and sometimes higher priced travel options than customers who use Windows PCs.

But user-agent information can also be abused my malicious scripts. If a vulnerability is known to only affect a certain operating system version, one could create a script that checks the connecting user's operating system by parsing the user-agent to attack if the information match the vulnerability profile.

Last but not least, the information may also be used in fingerprinting techniques.

Masking Agent

The Firefox add-on Masking Agent replaces OS and CPU information with custom text so that websites cannot use the information anymore. This works well on most websites you connect to, but may be problematic on some that use the information actively as part of their service.

The default replacement text is masking-agent, but you can modify that to anything you like in the options the add-on makes available. Changing text protects the information from being used by websites you connect to.

Note: If you select a unique replacement text, it may actually be easier for websites that use fingerprinting to track you. It is therefore suggested that you do not select a unique replacement text here.

Once you have installed the extension in Firefox, you will notice that it will protect the user agent information and replace them with the chosen text.

Side Note: Other technologies, plugins come to mind, may still spill information about the operating system and cpu even if you are using Masking Agent. If you want those protected on connection, use an extension like NoScript to do so, or set all plugins to click-to-play.

Closing Words

If you want to reduce the chance of being fingerprinted effectively while you are browsing the Internet, then Masking Agent may be an option to do so. It does not prevent other means though, like identifying you based on the IP address, but that's something that you can take care of easily as well.

The add-on lacks a blacklist that you can use to disable it on select properties that require correct user-agent information to function.