Tag: Gmail

Gmail increased file attachment limit-[How to use]

Gmail Increased File upload limitI think majority of us use Gmail for mailing purpose at present followed by Hotmail , Yahoo and so on. In my previous post I had mentioned the Features of different mail providers and Minimal Reasons to choose Gmail for personal mailing system.

There are lots of reasons to choose mail providers, and the attachment size is definitely one of the top reasons to be considered. Recently, Google started to allow file attachment till 10 GB! Of course, there is something that you had to know before using large files as attachment.  I will try to provide an overview on how this large file size email attachment works in Gmail.
 

  1. First open your Gmail account and click on compose button which is at left top corner (Obviously you know it!).  After that you will see one text with the link written as “try out new compose experience.” Don’t worry, if you can’t see this text with your Gmail Account. They are experimenting now with some accounts, so very soon it will be available for your account too! Here is the screenshot for that.
Try new compose link Gmail
 
  1. Click on the link provided, then you will be redirected again to compose your mail in new format which allows large size file attachment. First time you will see an introduction screen. Once you click “Got It”, you will be allowed to compose a new mail.
New Compose layout introduction
 
  1. You will be able to view new compose layout at right bottom corner like this, which have Cc, Bcc just below from and all other options at below like draft mode, text options, attachment options which I will show you in next screenshot
New Compose Layout Gmail
 
  1. After composing mail properly, here comes the fabulous job to attach High Definition Movie or Software in iso format ( more than 700 MB! ) or for e-books whose sizes are greater than 30 MB as I store many e-books in either Hard Drive or Dropbox and now at Google Drive 😀
When you hover  mouse over “+” icon it will expand and will show you something like this
attach from Drive option in Gmail

Now, this is what Google does to attach larger file sizes, It is actually allowing you to insert files from Google Drive where you can store file of any size which is now upto 10 GB for each file. Before this also I was doing the same. I was uploading files to https://docs.google.com  which is now being redirected as https://drive.google.com
 

  1. To upload file size bigger than 25 MB and upto 10GB, you need to click on Google drive icon shown at the above image, then you will see something like this. You can upload files directly from your hard disk or using Google drive. It clearly mention you can upload files upto 10GB in size stored in Drive 😀 (But you will have only 5GB space in your drive!)
Final Attachment Google Drive
 
  1. Once you will upload file(s) successfully, you will have two options before sending, “Share & Send” or “Send without sharing”. Send without sharing means even you mail the attachment to the person; he/she will not be allowed to open. To open that attached file you need to give proper permission to that person. So better click on “Share & Send” option.
Send Option in Gmail
 
  1. But before clicking on “Share & send” button you need to share it with specific permission which you can do either by clicking “Can View” or “more option” just above the “Share & send” button as shown in the above example.  If you click on “More option”, you will be able to see something like this
More-Options-Sharing-Mail

Now share with caution and then send it to the concerned person.

  1. If you don’t like, new compose layout or for experiment purpose you opted for newer layout then you can opt for older compose style by clicking on down triangle shaped icon then click on “Switch back to old compose” and Done!
More option in new compose Gmail
 
Question: Google advertises that I can upload file size upto 10GB, then why I have only 5 GB quota?
Answer:  In Google help page, they have mentioned clearly that this upload limit is of course bigger than free quota user, so one needs to purchase additional Google Drive. It also explains that what kind of file type can be uploaded and opened using Gmail attachment. I would suggest you to go through Google Help page before uploading anything or before purchasing any plans.

Here is the Google Drive Purchase plan: https://www.google.com/settings/storage/
Purchase Google drive plan
 
This link explains how to purchase Google Drive in details.
http://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2375128
 
Few things to note down:

  • General attachment still allows only upto 25MB
  • For free account holder, one can upload upto 5GB file at max
  • To upload even more than 5Gb at a time you need to consider to upgrade package which I mentioned above
  • I personally didn’t like new compose layout, although it looks good in most cases. What I didn’t like is, It’s hard to figure out to change email id while sending ( as I have 3 accounts associated with it ) or to edit subject
  • I will still prefer old compose layout and will share larger files by uploading files directly to Google Drive instead of using mail layout
 

Minimal Reasons to prefer Gmail over other Mailing systems

I love GmailEverybody is already well acquainted with the mailing system’s usages. In brief it’s a platform through which you can send, receive your messages with/without attachments. Attachment may include audio, video, books, exe files too! (Beware of social engineering!).

There are hell lot of mail providers are there like yahoo mail, rediff mail, hotmail, Gmail , gmx, in.com and now facebook too!  You can read the features of mail providers from here.

But I personally prefer Gmail over other mailing services due to various reasons:

  1.  Provides space more than 7GB and its continuously increasing bit by bit every second. If you need more space (very rare), you may buy by paying $4.99 for 20GB space. Here are the features of space offer.
  2.  Layout is very simple and easy to use. (May be I am little biased over here!)
  3. You can send attachment up to 25 MB (I know there are many mail providers who may offer more than this. GMX offers up to 50 MB!). But I am ok with it. If you need to send a file of size larger than 20 MB just split it using winrar or winzip application and just mail part by part.
  4. Access too many accounts just from one login id (Isn’t it fascinating and wonderful). You can have access to web analytics, web master tool, Google adsense,  blogspot, orkut, youtube and now Google+
  5.  I liked its various lab features. Few of them are worthy to mention.

    • Undo sent mail within 30 seconds Priority Inbox
    • Showing no of unread mails over tab icon
    •  Move icon column. Now I don’t need to see at the right side of the mail that if anything is attached with it or not. It shows the attachment icon in the left side. Easy for me to identify if anything is attached with mail or not. (Simple but effective)
    • Title Tweaks. I can easily see how many new mails have arrived under tab. It is very useful when you have opened many tabs in a single browser. Instead of Inbox (7) it will show me (7) Inbox.
    •  Sending in the background. Now I can read or do anything with my mail systems while sending mail in parallel.

    6. To read more about these features, please read our post on Gmail Features That You may like

  6. Google’s chat functionality is also cool. Audio chat, video chat, group audio chat and now group video chat too (They call it hangout under Google+ banner).
  7. Now you can take backup of your Gmail contacts, buzzes, Picasa albums and probably mails too.
  8. It have various other features too like Google calendar, Event organizer, Google docs, Buzz which makes it more useful in comparison to other mail providers. (Almost everything you can do at one place with a simple click.)
  9. You can login to more than one account with switch account functionality.
  10. Account Activity facility makes you aware that who accessed your account at what time and from where. If anything unusual would happen in accessing your account Gmail will notify you.
  11. Google tackles with spams in a very smart way. Its mail filtering technology really amazing. It saves our time and electricity too! (Why electricity? Relate it with Global Warming)
  12. Waiting for Google voice and sms functionalities in India. Its available in US already.

Note: This is my personal view about Gmail. If anyone has similar or different views, please revert here with your comments 😀

 

 

Features of different Mail Providers

Different Mail ProvidersThere are many mail providers  over the web but I would state the features of 5 highly popular or useful mail providers. (It’s totally my views, so it may differ person to person).

Gmail, Yahoo, rediff, mail.com, in.com ,lycos, facebook.com, gmx.com, hotmail, aol, gawab, mail.ru, 126.com are a few to include in that list.

1.       Gmail

gmail iconI have already explained why I like Gmail most. There is not much to write here again about this lovely mail provider. You can read our previous post based on Gmail.
In short let me tell you that

·         it’s  easy to operate

·         it’s really very fast

·         7 Gb+ space

·         Attachment up to 25 MB

·         So many lab features

·         Can login to multiple account at one time

·         Access a lot of services just by having one mail id. Like blogspot, analytics, webmaster, adsense, google+

·         Audio and video chat with soothing enhancements

·         Easy to access through mobile devices too

2.       Yahoo

Yahoo iconAfter Gmail, I can say Yahoo mail is ubiquitous over the web, mobile devices, iPad etc with unlimited storage facility, chatting etc.

·         It has almost unlimited storage capacity

·         Attachment limit is 25 MB

·         Keyboard shortcuts are there and are having similar to desktop like interface too

·         No labeled message as far as I have experienced

·         No IMAP access to its mail, so no support for desktop email programs

·         Yahoo! Mail offers free email accounts with yahoo.com, ymail.com and rocketmail.com domains.

·         It can be found in mobile devices too!

3.       Hotmail

hotmailWindows Live Hotmail is again a free email service with unlimited storage and can be considered the most secured mail provider over the internet.

·         Easy to use

·         Very simple layout as compared to Gmail

·         Maximum file size allowed is only 10MB

·         It doesn’t offer IMAP Access

·         You can set hotmail to accept mail from the people who are in your address book.

·         Live messenger is very famous. So nothing more to discuss about it.

·         A vacation auto-responder answers emails in your absence (Almost all mail providers have this feature)

4.       GMX

gmx icon·         It’s a reliable email service filtered well of worms, viruses etc and provides unlimited online storage.

·         It offers a rich web interface which may make you to feel better and more interactive.

·         POP and IMAP access are allowed in GMX

·         No chat and no support for handheld devices

·         50 MB attached file size limit

5.       Mail.com

mail.com iconIt’s good for forwarding mail with various domain names and attachment limit for any file is 50 MB. But it lacks security features and trust of other webmail services.

·         You can choose your mail id from 200 listed domain names. ex: sanjeev@writeme.com or jassi@techie.com (sounds interesting )

·         It offers a calendar and notepad too but can’t beat Gmail’s features.

·         50 MB file attachment size limit.

·         Spam and virus protection is little weak (which may be of major concern while choosing this mail provider)

·         It’s online calendar, solid address book feature may attract intern users

There are other major mail providers also but I think these are at the top with respect to storage, popularity, user friendly aspects.
Rediff has changed its look, now it’s easy to navigate date wise, easy to delete, easy to attach file etc but still I am not sure if it has attracted as many users as those 5 mail providers have.

Here is the comparison of list of web mail providers: http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Comparison_of_webmail_providers

How to send executable files through mail

exe files attachedHave you ever noticed that you cannot send any executable file format through mail?
Whatever mail agent would be, say Gmail or Yahoo or Rediff. No one allows you to send files which have executable format like .chm, .exe, .js, .vbs etc

But there are two most common ways to send such files through your mail id. I would show it using Gmail Account.

Problem:  While attaching above mentioned formats, I got error stating that it’s an executable file. For Security reason Gmail doesn’t allow you to send this type of file.

Solution:  There are two methods to bypass this security issue.

Method 1

Steps Included

  • Error in gmail file attachmentRename the file’s extension  to most common extension which will not cause any security issues.  “txt” or “doc” or “pdf” would be the most useful extension to send executable files.
    For ex: If file name is testing.exe Change it to testing.txt
  • Now attach this converted file to your mail id and send. (Gmail would not show any error with such files)
  • Tell the recipient that after downloading that attached file change it to proper file extension. In this case, change it from testing.txt to testing.exe
  • Done! (It shows that Gmail only checks the file extension not the contents inside it. Even it is not checking for signature/pattern to determine whether it is proper file or not. )exe file download-gmail

Method 2

Problem: Method 1 would work if you have to single file or separate files in the same mail but by attaching one by one separately. What if you have lots of files of same or different extensions which you want to sent as a whole. Rather say you want to send a folder containing various executable files. 

Solution: We can send it through any compressing tool which has the feature to set password to your file or folder. Winrar being the best example for this scenario. Download it from the here


Steps Included:

  • winrar optionsRight click on the file or folder that you want to send and click on add to archive option
  • Set the passwordset password in winrar

    • Click on Advanced tab 
    • Now click on set Password button (see at the right center )
    • Type the password and reconfirm it again.
    • Click Ok
    • Again click Ok to get out of making rar file.
  • Now you will see one new file with .rar extensions. Ex: If you have file called abc.chm or a folder called setup which is have lots of executables files inside. Then after doing above steps, you would get abc.chm.rar or folder-name.rar.
  • Attach that file in your Gmail account and send to the specific user.(Maximum file size allowed by Gmail per mail is 25 MB)
  • Done! It shows that It checks the files and contents inside it but cannot scan the files which is password protected. So it simply allows it!password protected file

If you know any other way to send such files, please do comment. I tested it on Gmail but I think it would work in almost all mail clients.

 

Make gmail more social : use Rapportive

Rapportive optionsMany of us use gmail account for mailing purposes. If you will open any mail to read, you will notice that in the right side bar of mail; Google ads showing which is of no use for us (almost).
1. Will not it be nice, if we could get something useful instead of those advertisements? 
2. How about getting social updates from different linked sites from the mail sender?

Rapportive gmail screenshot Rapportive is a  CRM (Customer Relationship Management but i would say Content resource Management though), a  Firefox plug-in for Gmail which will do the same as I said above. It will update sender’s social updates from Facebook, Linkedin, Gmail contacts, blogger profile, twitter, picasa etc. It’s one of the best CRM in the market which can be used as google mail plug-in.

You can install it from here  (Detailed instruction will be there with screenshots).
It get s the information based on sender’s mail ID and also allows user notes at the bottom of the page for personal use.

It’s not only that, even you can comment on his/her updates. Like you can comment on sender’s facebook status, recent pics added, can like or even can retweet or reply to his/her tweets. I liked it very much and its really worthy to use.

Something about Rapportive:
It’s a small company founded in January 2010 by Rahul  Vohra, Martin Kleppmann and Sam Stokes. Check this out: http://rapportive.com/about .
 Rapportive’s fund now have crossed $1 million and this plug-in was suggested by lifehacker.com, techcrunch etc.

What they say: You can immediately see what people look like, where they're based, and what they do. You can establish rapport by mentioning shared interests. You can grow your network by connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more. And you can record thoughts for later by leaving notes. Imagine relationship management built into your email. For free.

Security Concerns:
People may think that it can read our contents form various accounts, can get our all personal mails etc. But just ask this question again to yourself. Whenever you are linking one account with other, are not they sharing your details?
What matters is trust and second thing is, it requires Google’s authorization to show you the details. Its works in the same way as other third party authorization tool works. So no harm in using it!

Any Alternatives? Yes

  1. Gist
  2. Whosent.it

3 Easiest methods to make gmail your default Email Client

Love for GmailSometimes you don't need a bulky program just for sending an email like MS outlook, isn't it? And gmail lover would rather prefer sending any mail through their gmail account right? Sometimes you just need to send a website link, or just a screen-shot of  current web page  it really doesn't make much sense to start Outlook for these tiny things.

If you see any emailto: field, that will prompt you to open MS outlook by default which is annoying sometimes. (I really don't like). So if you click on that emailto: admin@aliencoders.org (say an example), it would rather shoot gmail instead of MS outlook. You can do this in three different easiest ways:

  1. Tweaking Firefox settings:

    • Click on  tools-> option
    • Click on Application tab
    • You will see content type and action column. Search for mailto content type and choose gmail from drop-down option against mailto column (you can choose yahoo mail or any other email client too)
    • I would prefer this method over any other methods, because there is no need to install any extra application.
    • It will work only if firefox is opened for sending mail
  2. Using Google-talk settings:

    • Double click on the Google Talk icon in the system tray(you need not to be logged in)
    • Click on the Settings link and go to general tab option
    • Now check the “Open Gmail when I click on email links” box in the Settings window.
    • Click “OK” and You are done hurray!
    • Many people use gtalk, so this is also fine and i would give it second preference
       
  3. Using Gmail notifier:

    • You need to have Gmail notifier installed in your system
    • Right click on its system tray icon
    • Select the Options menu and tick the box next to “Use Gmail for internet mailto: links”.
    • Select your favorite browser in the drop down menu and you are done now.
    • You may get error saying  “Cannot connect to your mailbox. and it always have an unnecessary pop-up to prompt whenever you try to connect gmail at startup.

       

    Personally i avoid installing unnecessary application, if that work will get accomplished by other easier way, isn't it. i would use Gmail notifier when i will not have any option (which will never happen unless and until Firefox or gtalk is there :P)

Firefox and Google Talk settings images:Gmail option in Firefox  Gtalk settings for gmail I hope you will surely like this. need your comments! Happy Alien browsing 🙂