Email Overview

Email: Short for electronic mail, the system that let people send and receive messages with their computers.

Encryption: The modification of data so that unauthorized recipients cannot use or understand it.

Email is the most popular and in many ways, the most useful Internet service. More people use email on any given day than use any other Internet service. Tens of millions of messages fly across the wires each day. It is not too threatening, and it’s an understandable concept: you’re sending a letter. The only differences are that you don’t take it to the post office and that it’s much faster.

Mail Programs Allow You To:

	Read incoming mail
	Send new mail
	Reply to messages you receive
	Forward messages to other people via email
	Save messages for later
	Read saved messages

What email system?

There are many. Your ISP will usually provide you with one. Your work may also provide you with one from their ISP. There are many free email services such as Netscape, yahoo or hotmail. Most email concepts are the same.

Address: It has three parts

	Your account name or username
	The “at” sign @
	Your domain name (the address of the company)

My account name is trodolico…My domain is yahoo.com….Therefore, my email address is trodolico@yahoo.com

Abbreviations and Emoticons are common. These are some ways that people try to liven up their messages. Using obscure acronyms and little pictures commonly known as “smileys.” Here are a few examples.

BTW
LOL
TIA
IMO
:)
:(
8-)

:-0

By the way
Laugh out loud
Thanks in advance
In my opinion
A smile
Sadness
Goofy looking smile, wearing eyeglasses
A look of shock

Etiquette

	Be polite, avoid foul language
	Check spelling
	Use subject lines well

Cautions

	Remember people can adopt fictional personas
	Viruses; keep current. The news will warn you.
	It is not very private, able to be printed, copied, passed around. Don’t write something you may regret later.

Finding email addresses

	Call the person
	Look on business card
	Search Four11, Switchboard, WhoWhere, etc. Click onto my web site and try out some of the people finder links.
	Find out the addressing scheme for their on-line service and guess i.e., username@aol.com, username@companyname.com (such as xxx@ibm.com).

Email Headers

	Subject
	To, Cc, Bcc
	From
	Attachments
	Writing area