You said
"Also, I keep getting this anti spam thing that shows very cryptic combinations of letters and numbers that I have to type into a box before the e mail will be sent. They are so hard to read I often have to try 3 or 4 times to send it. They say is is to prevent spam, but I still get spam! "

Yes, that's to prevent THEM from getting SPAM, not you!
(Automatically generated mails do not get through)