Protect your Gmail account from unauthorized access using 2-Step verification

Google has recently launched – 2-Step Verification - to improve the account security. 2-step verification adds an extra layer of security to your Google Account by requiring you to have access to your phone – as well as your username and password – when you sign in. This means that if someone steals or guesses your password, the potential hijacker still can't sign in to your account because they don't have your phone.

How does it work

1. When you want to access Google products from your browser, go to that product and enter your username and password.



2. You'll next be prompted to enter your verification code, which you'll get from your phone. You'll only have to do this once every 30 days if you so choose.

How to get started

Go to your Accounts settings page new window and look for the Using 2-step verification link. If you have the link, click it and start the setup process.

Register non-browser Applications

Soon after you turn on 2-step verification, non-browser applications and devices that use your Google Account (such as Gmail on your phone or Outlook), will stop working. You'll then have to sign in using your username and a special password you generate for this application. (Don't worry, you'll only have to do this once for each device or application.)

You can register them from following url:
https://www.google.com/accounts/IssuedAuthSubTokens

It's an extra step, but it's one that greatly improves the security of your Google Account because it requires the powerful combination of both something you know—your username and password—and something that only you should have—your phone.

Use Gmail’s filter to manage your inbox

The number of emails in our inbox is increasing day by day. With so many emails on daily basis sometimes the important mails go unnoticed because of less important emails like newsletter you had subscribed to, group email, social networking messages etc. cluttering the inbox. Gmail has provided a built-in filter to manage such message as they come.

Gmail's filters allow you to manage the flow of incoming messages. Using filters, you can automatically label, archive, delete, star, or forward your mail, even keep it out of Spam -- all based on a combination of keywords, sender, recipients, and more.

To create a filter:

1. Click Create a filter (next to the Search the Web button at the top of any Gmail page).

2. Enter your filter criteria in the appropriate field(s).

From: Enter sender’s Email address, like organization from which you regularly get newsletter
Subject: Enter the words in subject like [IDSA Group]

You can find a list of advance operators that you can use at:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7190

3. Click Test Search to see which messages currently in Gmail match your filter terms. You can update your criteria and run another test search, or click Next Step.

4. Select one or more actions from the list. These actions will be applied to messages matching your filter criteria in the order in which the actions are listed -- for example, you could choose to Forward matching messages to a specific email address, then Delete the messages. Note that if you choose to forward messages to another address, you'll need to first verify that you own any new forwarding addresses.

I personally like the combination “Skip the Inbox” and “Apply the label”. I do this for all my group emails, by which all the group emails get collected in a Label and my inbox remains clean.

5. If you'd like to apply this filter to messages already in Gmail, select the Also apply filter to x conversations below checkbox.

6. Click Create Filter.