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Email: addresses and software (screen 8 of 20)
One of the most common uses of the Internet is 
electronic mail(1), or email.
The reasons for its popularity are not hard to find. It is cheap, fast, and reliable. It can be sent or received without you leaving your computer. And the same message can be sent to many people at the same time for no additional cost. If you are the sort of person who sends out standard letters, this feature alone makes it worthwhile.
Email is faster
Snail mail is the name applied to mail that goes through the ordinary postal system. Email is so fast snail mail can't compete.
Email lets you attach files
You can also send other electronic files attached to an email - so documents, photos, and sound files can go round the world with the email in seconds or minutes.
Email works by using computers as electronic mailboxes
Email works by using storage areas on computers as electronic mailboxes. To send an email you first send it to the computer of your Internet Service Provider (ISP)(2), which then relays it to the 'mailto' address you have specified.
That 'mailto' address is to the electronic mailbox of that person at their ISP.
You type in the email address of the person or people you want to send the mail to, type your message, and click the Send button. It couldn't be much simpler. Regardless of where the recipient is, they receive the mail within minutes.
The next time the person you sent your email to opens a connection to their ISP using their email software they will be told they have email waiting, and it can be downloaded.
The email address
Email addresses are now almost as commonplace as telephone numbers for organisations. You can recognise an email address by its @ symbol. For example: editor@culture.gov.au
Characters before the @ identify the individual or area within an organisation; in this example it's the editor of the Culture and Recreation Portal.
Characters after the @ indicate the address of the computer where that person has their electronic mailbox - culture.gov.au - in .au Australia, in the .gov domain, on the Culture and Recreation server.
An example of an email address for an individual is jsmith@isp.com.au. This indicates that the person called jsmith has their electronic mailbox on isp's computer, that this is a commercial ISP (.com), and that they are .au - in Australia. Notice the structural similarities between email addresses and URLs(3)?
There are two ways(4) of sending emails - by using email software or by using the part of your Web browser software which manages email. For example, Microsoft Internet Explorer comes with Outlook Express Web-based email and the Netscape Communicator package includes Messenger Web-based email.
If you use email software
Once you are connected to the Internet, you need software to send an email message. You can sometimes download versions of email software free(5). You can also buy software which includes a range of features which makes managing email easier.
Email software allows you to store both outgoing and incoming messages, store addresses of people you normally send mail to, and enclose or receive files with your mail. Replying to or forwarding mail is easy. And you are able to send mail to several people at once.
You can set up folders and subfolders to organise your emails by topic or by sender and you can automatically filter emails on particular subjects into folders.
You can learn to use email software(6) on the Internet.
The alternative to email software: free email accounts for individuals using Web browsers
There is an alternative to specialised email software if you are an individual and not using your email account for commercial purposes. Hotmail(7)provides free Internet accounts to individuals for non-commercial purposes. You don't even need to own a computer - you just need access to the Internet and to a Web browser. Hotmail works using Web browser software rather than specialised email software.
Yahoo!(8)provides a similar service as does Mail.com(9).
The disadvantage with Web software is that it doesn't provide the email management features which are part of specialised email software.
You can visit the Free Email Address directory(10) for other free email options.
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References
- The Beginner's Guide to Effective Email http://www.webfoot.com/advice/email.top.html
- Guide 6 screen 5 http://culture.gov.au/resources/guides/g6/s5.htm
- Guide 3 screen 4 http://culture.gov.au/resources/guides/g3/s4.htm
- Different types of email http://www.emailaddresses.com/guide_types.htm
- Free email software http://eudora.qualcomm.com/eudoralight/
- Learn to use email software http://www.eudora.com/
- Hotmail http://www.hotmail.com/
- Yahoo! http://mail.yahoo.com/
- Mail.com http://www.mail.com/
- Free Email Address Directory http://www.emailaddresses.com/
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