Offline Mail Reading
Offline reading is the best way to stop Web bugs in their tracks. This means reading your e-mail while you are not connected to the Internet. If a Web bug can't send information back to the server that spawned it, it's useless. If you're using broadband, like DSL or a cable modem, going offline is complicated, but you can do it. If you're connecting to the Internet via a dial-up modem, going offline is easy - just disconnect. However, do you really want to have to disconnect every time you read e-mail, and then reconnect when you're finished? If you're using a modem, the wait can be interminable.
Fortunately, there's a better solution. Several e-mail clients allow you to take the program offline without taking the entire computer offline. This allows you to read e-mail and reconnect immediately again as needed. You get the same effect as with a disconnection, but it's far less hassle.
Outlook and Outlook Express
Outlook and Outlook Express can easily go offline. Simply go to the "File" menu and choose "Work Offline". Unfortunately, due to the way Microsoft tied its e-mail programs and Internet Explorer together, your choice to work offline in your e-mail program also prevents your Web browser from accessing the Internet. Of course, Windows users who use others browsers (Mozilla, Netscape, Opera) don't have that limitation. So, it's possible, for example, to go offline in Outlook or Outlook Express and still use Netscape to access the Web.
Work offline in Outlook
Mozilla or Netscape E-mail Program
If you go offline in Mozilla or Netscape e-mail programs, the Web browser will also be taken offline. Since the e-mail program and browser are really parts of the same program, this makes sense. But it can still be annoying if you find a Web address in an e-mail that you want to check out using your Web browser. Nevertheless, you can also go offline easily if you use Mozilla or Netscape to read e-mail. In fact, you have two methods available.
The Mozilla/Netscape e-mail program makes this process especially easy. In the bottom left of the program's window there is a small icon of two cables joined together. Simply click it, and you are now reading your e-mail offline.
Easily enable Mozilla/Netscape to work online or offline
Alternatively, you can choose the File menu, then select "Offline" and highlight "Work Offline".
Work offline in Mozilla/Netscape by choosing the Work Offline menu
