A friend recently had their Gmail account hacked. They had a strong password, but they admitted they had used the same password for other sites. Luckily, they discovered it quite quickly and it doesn't appear that any harm was done.
It's a good idea to use a separate, strong password for your email account because your email account is the "master key" to all your other online accounts. (most password recovery mechanisms use email) I do sometimes reuse the same password, but only for unimportant things like forums or bug trackers which don't have credit card numbers or any other critical information.
This incident gave me the push to get around to setting up 2 factor verification on my Gmail account, something I've been meaning to do for a while.
It wasn't too painful. I installed the Google Authenticator app on my iPhone so I don't have to use SMS. I also set up my LastPass account to use the Google Authenticator as well.
Most people can't even manage to use decent passwords, let alone deal with 2 factor authentication. But if you can put up with the small extra hassle, it's probably worth it.
Also on the security front, I recently decided to install anti-virus software on our Mac's. There's still debate on whether this is necessary, but with Apple's growing popularity, they're becoming an increasingly attractive target. I picked the free version of Sophos to start. It's always hard to tell how good anti-virus software really is, but this was easy to install, hasn't had any noticeable affect on performance, and is completely unobtrusive. Of course, it's yet one more piece of software running on your machine, and can't help but slow down startup.
Showing posts with label gmail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gmail. Show all posts
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Slow Gmail on iPhone
Lately Gmail on my iPhone has been really slow. (This is the web version, not the mail app.) The screen pops up right away, but it takes a long time to finish checking for new mail - maybe 30 seconds.
I don't have a lot of messages in my inbox, often none. And it happens with a good wifi connection.
I didn't really think too much about it, but I let my sister check her gmail and it was much faster. Very strange.
I searched on the internet but didn't find too much. Most of what I found was for the mail app.
So I just did the usual "kick the machine" - I cleared the history, cache, and cookies. That seemed to do the trick - it was fast again (less than 5 seconds).
So I wrote this blog post and then went back and tried it again and it was slow!!!
Next, I tried deleting the databases for gmail. Still slow.
Try again, delete the databases and this time also clear the history, caches, and cookies. Log back in and it's fast again. And it seems to be staying fast this time, although I'm not totally confident that it'll stay that way.
If you're having the same problem and want to try this, go to Settings > Safari, scroll down to the bottom. Click on Databases, then Edit, then delete any gmail entries. I always seem to have two entries which appear identical. Then go back to the Safari settings and click on Clear History, Clear Cookies, and Clear Cache (one at a time).
NOTE: Clearing cookies will log you out of sites, so don't do this if you don't have your passwords handy to log back in.
I don't have a lot of messages in my inbox, often none. And it happens with a good wifi connection.
I didn't really think too much about it, but I let my sister check her gmail and it was much faster. Very strange.
I searched on the internet but didn't find too much. Most of what I found was for the mail app.
So I just did the usual "kick the machine" - I cleared the history, cache, and cookies. That seemed to do the trick - it was fast again (less than 5 seconds).
So I wrote this blog post and then went back and tried it again and it was slow!!!
Next, I tried deleting the databases for gmail. Still slow.
Try again, delete the databases and this time also clear the history, caches, and cookies. Log back in and it's fast again. And it seems to be staying fast this time, although I'm not totally confident that it'll stay that way.
If you're having the same problem and want to try this, go to Settings > Safari, scroll down to the bottom. Click on Databases, then Edit, then delete any gmail entries. I always seem to have two entries which appear identical. Then go back to the Safari settings and click on Clear History, Clear Cookies, and Clear Cache (one at a time).
NOTE: Clearing cookies will log you out of sites, so don't do this if you don't have your passwords handy to log back in.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Drag and Drop Files into Gmail with Firefox
A post by Tim Bray led me to a post by Mrgan whose main complaint is that you can't drag and drop files onto Gmail attachments.
I agree this is a shortcoming. But if you use Firefox you can fix it with the dragdropupload add-on.
And the advantage is that this add-on works with any web site/app, not just Gmail. Whereas, if one desktop app implemented drag and drop, that wouldn't help any other desktop app.
Mrgan's other main comment is that off-line already works with desktop mail apps. That's true, but I still think Gmail's new offline mode is better - you can use it on multiple machines, and it has a flaky connection mode. And unlike POP (IMAP is better), it keeps your email on the server so you don't have to worry about backing it up.
Even Tim Bray seems to think that email is better as a desktop app. Maybe that's because he uses a single machine (a laptop) for work, home, and travelling. For me, using multiple computers (and operating systems), I think Gmail is a lot better. I think I'd prefer it even if I used a single computer, but the advantage might not be as clear.
And, unlike Tim, I do think that Gmail's "conversations" are a big improvement. They take a little getting used to, so anyone who doesn't use Gmail won't necessarily see the advantage. But I find I really miss Gmail's conversations when I use other email apps.
Another thing I think Gmail should be applauded for is that it doesn't add any "junk" to my messages. I think it's pretty ugly when I get professional business communications with Microsoft or Yahoo ads (spam!) on the end of their emails.
I agree this is a shortcoming. But if you use Firefox you can fix it with the dragdropupload add-on.
And the advantage is that this add-on works with any web site/app, not just Gmail. Whereas, if one desktop app implemented drag and drop, that wouldn't help any other desktop app.
Mrgan's other main comment is that off-line already works with desktop mail apps. That's true, but I still think Gmail's new offline mode is better - you can use it on multiple machines, and it has a flaky connection mode. And unlike POP (IMAP is better), it keeps your email on the server so you don't have to worry about backing it up.
Even Tim Bray seems to think that email is better as a desktop app. Maybe that's because he uses a single machine (a laptop) for work, home, and travelling. For me, using multiple computers (and operating systems), I think Gmail is a lot better. I think I'd prefer it even if I used a single computer, but the advantage might not be as clear.
And, unlike Tim, I do think that Gmail's "conversations" are a big improvement. They take a little getting used to, so anyone who doesn't use Gmail won't necessarily see the advantage. But I find I really miss Gmail's conversations when I use other email apps.
Another thing I think Gmail should be applauded for is that it doesn't add any "junk" to my messages. I think it's pretty ugly when I get professional business communications with Microsoft or Yahoo ads (spam!) on the end of their emails.
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