Wireless Sniffing / E-mail Etiquette | WLPC Wireless LAN Weekly EP 8

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Today’s episode features Ben Miller, of Global Knowledge, talking to us about ‘Sniffing’ Wireless networks. Ben has a blog dedicated to this. He bring some insights on the various types of Wireless Sniffers available and why we should be adept at these to help in our Wireless LAN Troubleshooting.

He is followed by a return of Elaine Rogers of Seefin Coaching talking to us about the proper use and skills needed have proper E-mail Etiquette. Something we all need a little reminder to do in our hurried lives.

Enjoy!

E-mail Etiquette Show Notes

We use e-mail to communicate with our boss, colleagues, clients, or prospective employers, family and friends.

At times e-mail is the only communication we have with certain people.

What is Email Etiquette?

It’s a loose term that refers to the customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group.

Like every other form of communication, one must use proper etiquette when dealing with other human beings. There are, of course, rules of etiquette which pertain to email, and I am going to discuss a few here later in the podcast.

Why do we need Email Etiquette?

Professionalism: an organisation will portray a professional image by using proper language

Efficiency: emails that get to the point are much more effective than badly worded emails

Protection from liability (or at least lower costs in liability): employee awareness of email risks can protect an organisation from costly law suits

GENERAL:

  1. UPPERCASE LETTERS – too many will seem like you are shouting – which is rude. We can use uppercase to emphasise one word, We can also use italics and emboldening for emphasis
  2. Treat an e-mail as privately as you would a postcard – anyone could see it and it cannot be erased as easily as burning a snail mail letter if intercepted
  3. Always check spelling and punctuation – texting type wording might be ok for friends, but it’s more effort to read them. Never use inappropriate acronyms [TTYL – talk to you later, IMHO – in my honest opinion, lol] or shortened words when e-mailing in a professional capacity
  4. Never send spam – it is unsolicited
  5. Emoticons have become popular and highly accepted forms of showing emotion or feeling in the non-emotive world of written e-mails. Keep it at an acceptable level – not too much waving, pumping lovehearts, laughing
  6. Leave out ?????? and !!!!!!! – again overuse of these portray aggression
  7. Someone upset you? – count to ten (100 if you have anger management challenges) before you reply – don’t respond immediately – sleep on it before losing a customer or upsetting your boss
  8. Keep your message short and to the point – try and cut out waffle
  9. Create an Out – of – Office reply – you are responding that you cannot deal with their email immediately but will on your return (ensure you do deal with their mail on your return)
  10. Subject Line – pertinent and blunt – don’t use an old Subject to talk about something else – change it so when the receiver is sorting their inbox – people can see related mails grouped together
  11. Don’t get involved with chain e-mails – they are a form of spamming
  12. Use Reply-All button appropriately. Nothing worse than being in a list of 20 people and everyone is replying to all when not necessary
  13. Be careful of overusing the “high priority” or “important” flagging system – the term “Crying Wolf” comes to mind here
  14. Be careful with formatting – may not convert well in older programs or plain text messages

STRICTLY BUSINESS:

  1. Be concise and to the point
  2. Answer all questions asked, and attempt to pre-empt questions to reduce return mails
  3. Use templates to make your life easier – make sure to personalise them
  4. Use short paragraphs and blank lines to structure your mail – harder to read on screen than on paper. Make sure your email has an Intro, Body and Closing
  5. Never reply back and discuss a different subject without changing the Subject Line
  6. Do not discuss confidential information by e-mail
  7. Use CC to copy only – no action is required by anyone who is mentioned in the CC line
  8. Use the Bcc line to send e-mails to multiple parties whilst protecting individual addresses
  9. Leave out read and delivery receipts – it portrays that you do not trust the receiver. Ultimately they can ignore it and you are still unaware if they received it or not

Final Words

Every company should have an E-mail policy that an Employee or Manager can refer to if problems arise or questions need to be answered.


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