Every month I get calls from people whose email has stopped working because they have exceeded their quota of storage space at the server. This happens most often with Gmail and Comcast accounts, but other email providers have limits as well. I can sympathize with the problem, because I tend to hold onto my email for a very long time, but some simple email hygiene can get you out of trouble. Here are the steps I recommend:

Know your email provider's limits - Gmail gives you 15GB of free storage, but that is a total for everything in your Gmail account, including anything you have in Google Drive or any "original quality" photos. Comcast gives you 10GB of free email storage. Outlook.com (and other Microsoft email accounts) gives you 15GB of free storage. AOL and Yahoo basically allow unlimited amounts of email.

Go directly to the server to clean up your inbox - Even if you typically get your email though a third party application like Apple Mail or Outlook, you should log into your email account from a browser. That means going to www.gmail.com or www.comcast.net and working from there. It will be more direct, and you can generally fix things much faster by working at the server, rather than in your email program.

Sort and divide your email for the most efficient clean up - By default, Gmail separates your inbox into Primary, Social, and Promotions. If, like most people, you don't need to keep the email in the Social and Promotions box, you can very easily delete all the mail there to start creating space. Most inboxes have the ability to sort the mail by date, sender, and size. Once you have sorted your mail, you can use the shift-click technique to select, and then delete, multiple emails at once.

Download and then remove attachments - If people email you a lot of of photos and videos, those attachments are taking up storage space in your account. Search your inbox for attachments, and download any photos and videos you want to keep onto your computer. Then you can safely delete the emails to reclaim the storage space.

Empty the trash - Once you've deleted everything you no longer want, you have one final step - emptying the trash at the server. Until you do that, your deleted items are still taking up space in your account!

Unsubscribe from email lists - After all that work cleaning your inbox, you don't want to run into trouble again. One of the best things to do is to unsubscribe from email lists you no longer wish to be on. All legitimate marketing emails have an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Scroll down and click on it, and follow the steps to set your email marketing preferences.

Of course, if you need assistance with any of this, feel free to give me a call. I can help with email clean up with either an on-site or a remote appointment.

If you read my newsletter, you probably know I am not a fan of "free" third party antivirus solutions, like AVG and Avast. In general, I recommend that PC users uninstall any trial or free versions of antivirus and use the built in Windows Defender that comes with Windows 10. For you Apple users, as long as you keep your system updated, I generally don't recommend any antivirus for Macs, although I highly recommend Malwarebytes as a spyware removal/monitoring alternative.

The one exception has been the Norton subscription that Comcast customers have had access to as part of their subscription. I have recommended people take advantage of that offer, and helped many of you uninstall the pay version of Norton and install the branded Xfinity software.

This month Xfinity informed their customers that their partnership with Norton has ended, and the free subscription to Norton Antivirus will end on January 1st, 2021. As an alternative, they are offering something called xFi Advanced Security. I got several emails from clients asking me what this all means and what to do, so here is my advice.

Uninstall Norton Antivirus by January 1st - an expired antivirus software subscription is worse than no antivirus at all. If you are currently using the Xfinity version of Norton, uninstall it and allow Windows Defender to take over. If you wish to continue using Norton, you can purchase a subscription that includes a 6 month free trial here.

Determine if you want to use xFi Advanced Security - Although Comcast says they are replacing Norton with xFi Advanced Security, it is not a traditional antivirus solution - it's a network security solution that uses artificial intelligence to monitor everything coming and going on your in-home network. It is included as part of your Comcast service if you rent one of several Xfinity modems, and is controlled with an app on your phone or tablet. It can provide parental controls, block malicious websites, and provide other security features. But it's only active if you are renting your modem from Comcast, install the app on a device, and turn it on at the Xfinity website.

I don't really know much about xFi Advanced Security, and was unable to find any third party reviews of the service, so I can't solidly recommend using it or not. However, the internet has become a very dangerous place. If you are eligible and have the correct equipment, it probably makes sense to turn it on, especially if you have a house full of risk taking teenagers. If you want to replace Norton, and aren't comfortable just using the built in Windows Defender, I recommend Sophos, BitDefender or Trend Micro as good pay antivirus solutions.

Every month I post several articles of interest on my Facebook page. For those of you who don't follow me on Facebook, here are some of the stories I've featured in the past this few months.

With the release of IOS 14, iPhone and iPad users can finally customize their home screens with widgets and gadgets like Android phones.

As someone who makes house calls masked up with glasses on, I was extremely grateful when a friend posted this video with a trick that really works to keep my glasses from fogging up!

With all the fraud and scamming going on, I'm often asked if I think using LifeLock is a good idea. Here's an article from one of my favorites sites, Wirecutter, about that very topic, with some excellent advice.

You really shouldn't be using Internet Explorer any more. To drive that point home, Microsoft is now redirecting IE users to Edge when they click on an incompatible link.