A Webmail Annoyance Conquered

Hi folks -- now, this is not, strictly speaking, an AOL Journals tip; it's just something I "discovered" (though in retrospect, I guess it was kind of obvious) that will make my life a tiny little bit less annoying, so I thought I'd share it.

As I've mentioned before, I have to check e-mail for several screen names (often simultaneously), so I use AOL Webmail (it might be AOL Mail on the Web, I can never keep up with the names) alongside my regular AOL client.

One thing that bugged me about Webmail, though, was the annoyingly short session timeout -- it would sign you off and make you retype your password if you were inactive for... well, I wasn't quite sure, but it was too short.

The session timeout, by the way, is a security feature, to prevent people from using your e-mail account if you forget to sign out. It's more important if you're in a public place or shared computer, like a library or cybercafe, but it's less useful if you're the only person using your computer.

Now, I've been using Webmail ever since it came out -- I've just been using it a lot more ever since I became Journals Editor last year. And all during that time, I've been retyping my password every time I timed out.

Finally, this morning, as the Webmail screen was staring me in the face, I realized that I hadn't checked the Webmail settings in a long time, and that maybe there was a preference for the session timeout. So I clicked the Settings button (1).

Lo and behold, after you click the Security Controls tab (2), there's a pull-down menu that lets you set your session inactivity signoff interval; your choices are 30 minutes, 2 hours, 8 hours, and 24 hours (3):

Of course, I'd been set at 30 minutes, which is the default. I bumped up the interval to 8 hours, which should be a lot less annoying.

To make the moral of the story fungible: If something doesn't work the way you want it to, always check the settings to see if it's something you can adjust. Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't and sometimes you'll find something else you didn't know you could adjust that might be useful -- it never hurts to check.

Thanks -- Joe