TasMail Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the answers to some common questions we recieve. Please also remember to re-read the Terms and Conditions.

1. Why can't I create a new account?
As at 1st May, 2008, new accounts can longer be created on TasMail.

2. How do I delete an account I no longer want?
You can't. Accounts that haven't been used for 90 days are automatically expired. See point 15 below.

3. Help! I've forgotten my password!
Click here to go to the password recovery screen.
This will prompt you for your TasMail username. Once you have entered that your "Secret Question" will be displayed. This should prompt you to remember your password. If you still can't remeber your password, or the secret you entered is not displayed, the only option is to create yourself a new account.

4. Is it possible to save a Draft?
Currently it is not possible to save a draft.
We suggest writing your letter into a text editor on your local machine, then when you're ready to send it, Cut and Paste it into your Web Browser.

5. Why don't I get any new messages / Out of Disk Space messages?
Your TasMail account is allocated 5MB of disk space.
If this is exceeded you will not be able to recieve any new messages. It is your responsibility to keep your mail account under 5MB.
Remember that attachments can often be quite large (1 or 2MB). If you have run out of space, deleting messages with large attachments will help.
After you have deleted messages the space will not become available until a system disk cleanup occurs. This is currently scheduled at 6am every day.

6. Why do I see double characters using Tasmail?
You are using an old version of Internet Explorer or Netscape.
Tasmail works best with a Web Browsers that are version 4 or later.

7. I have this weird email that says:
 This text is part of the internal format of your mail folder, and is not a real message. It is created automatically by the mail system software. If deleted, important folder data will be lost, and it will be re-created with the data reset to initial values.
This got delivered accidently when we changed pop servers. You can safely delete it.

8. I get the message "You are not allowed to use TasMail."
You have been placed on the banned list. Your account is now forever closed. This usually happens when someone complains about an email that you sent. Abuse in any form to any person (including admin@tasmail.com) is not tolerated and your account will be banned in the blink of an eye. Any serious complaints can be traced if required - so be careful what you send.

9. Why doesn't admin@tasmail.com answer my mail?
Tasmail is essentially an unsupported free service and is provided as-is. Most requests to admin@tasmail.com will be ignored UNLESS:
1. It is a genuine complaint about offensive email sent to or from a tasmail account.
2. It is a legal or police matter.
3. Something else we feel is important enough.
Requests to change passwords, fix quota problems or supply information regretfully will be ignored. We get too many emails per day to provide this service.
"Thank you" emails will be silently appreciated!!

10. Someone has broken into my account and changed my password and/or secret question!
Your secret question is vitally important to the security of your Tasmail account. If someone else guesses your answer you can virtually kiss your Tasmail account goodbye. Your only solution is to create another one.
We will not fix this for you for any reason! (This is because we have no proof of who you are.)
Make sure there is no way anyone else can guess it!!! For example names of pets, middle names, the person you secretly admire are all very easily guessed by nasty friends. You need something very obscure. A good example would be "tltdompnbiw" which you only know stands for "The Last Three Digits Of My Phone Number Backwards In Words".
The example above is now insecure so don't use it - however something similar would still be good.
Two or three Tasmail accounts every day get compromised. You have been warned!!!

11. Can I use Tasmail as a POP server?
Yes. Set your local mail client to point to www.tasmail.com using the POP3 protocol. Also set your outgoing smtp mail to your ISP's smtp server. (You'll have to ask them about that.)

12. Why can't I transfer my mail from other mail servers to Tasmail and read it here anymore?
We have now blocked Tasmail receiving mail via pop3. It was possible for viruses to enter Tasmail using this method and due to the current virus prevalence we have decided to remove this facility. We apologise for the inconvenience.

13. I have huge amounts of mail coming in, what will happen?
If your inbox gets over 20Mb it is completely emptied.

14. The time is wrong on messages that I send or receive. Can you fix Tasmail's time?
Tasmail's time is synchronized to within milliseconds of an atomic clock. Also, daylight savings adjustments take place automatically (as per Tasmanian time). Any time problems are not the Tasmail server but are either the sending or receiving machine. You will need to look elsewhere if you find a problem with time.

15. I have not used Tasmail for 90 days, what will happen?
If you have not logged in via the web browser or read your mail using POP3 for 90 days then your account is marked "Expired". It will no longer be able to receive new mail and your saved mail will be permanently deleted. No account re-activations will occur after 1st May, 2008.

16. I created an account in June 2003 and it doesn't work?
During a few days in June 2003 software problems prevented new accounts from being created properly. This was fixed, but accounts that were created on those days are unusable. Please create another account.

17. I keep getting emails saying my account is going to expire. These accounts have attachments that I cannot read.
The virus WORM_MIMAIL.A sends an email saying that your account is going to expire and includes some attachments that the email asks you to click. The email is fake and the attachments contain a virus. Telstra's MTS removes the virus and so there is no danger of infection. Just delete this email. Tasmail does not send out emails about accounts expiring. See FAQ point 15.

18. The "Tasmail.com team" wrote to me. What should I do?
This is yet another clever attempt of virus writers to get you to click on their infected attachment. We do our best to clean attachments of all viruses but there is a small window of opportunity (when a virus is new) when it can get through. You should be extremely careful about clicking on attachments in emails. Tasmail has never in the past sent out global messages to everyone - and we are unlikely to in the future. (Even if we do - they will never contain attachments.) We put all messages in the FAQ and important ones on the front page.

19. SPAM. I hate it and my account is overrun with it. What can I do?
Spam IS a problem worldwide and not just with Tasmail. Once your account is on a spammers list you are pretty much stuck with the problem. Changing accounts can help but remember you need to keep your email address private at all times. Also remember that spammers try person's names with known domains (e.g. fred@tasmail.com) - hence you can still be spammed even if you keep your email address secret.

Here are some guidelines to help remain SPAM free:

  • 1) Create a new account that is not a common name (e.g. xy5358@tasmail.com).

  • 2) Do not pass this new email address to *anyone* you don't know/trust.

  • 3) Do not type this new email address in on *any* website. There are safe exceptions to this - e.g. Telstra; financial institutions - basically companies that are Australian and with strict privacy policies - but to be sure just don't do it anywhere.

  • 4) Don't post to bulletin boards, newsgroups or anything using that email address.

  • 5) Use a browser (e.g. Mozilla) that has a POP3 email client with a spam learning function. As email arrives you tell it what emails are spam and it then uses pattern matching to automatically remove future emails. This works pretty well.

  • 6) If you do get spam don't try and "unsubscribe". This just confirms that a real person read the spam and your address might be saved for future spam.

    20. SPAM filtering. What does it do for me?
    TasMail now has a SPAM filter applied to incoming mail. This filter places SPAM into two categories, SPAM and SUSPECTED SPAM.

    The SPAM category is based on patterns and a blocked senders list. If SPAM falls into this category it is deleted, and not delivered to your mailbox.

    The SUSPECTED SPAM category is based on heuristics and as such is more likely to falsely identify legitimate mail as SPAM if it has certain words and characteristics (eg "make money fast"). Mail in this category will be tagged in the subject line with "[SUSPECTED SPAM] ", and delivered to your mailbox.

    Our experience is that there will be a low volume in the SUSPECTED SPAM category, and that it is safer to deliver the mail in this case, rather than run the risk of losing legitimate mail.

    It is important, however, to realise that the SPAM solution will not catch 100% of spam, and that while it has a very low false positive rate (mail that is not SPAM being detected as SPAM), there is still the chance of mail being falsely detected and deleted. (See also point 19 for general rules about reducing SPAM).


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