A Brief 'Net Primer

E-Mail Access to the Internet

E-mail access to the internet is simple. Using standard mail client software installed on your personal computer, you can send messages to anyone connected anywhere in the world on the internet, or to any of the major online services, including AOL, CompuServe, ATT WorldNet, etc.

Occasionally you'll encounter someone who doesn't know their own email address!. Simply ask them to send you a brief message, and then to send them a message, "reply" to their message. Also, when you receive their message, you probably can decipher their email address.

If you frequently send messages to the same address, you can save addresses to an address book or save a sample message to a drafts file. Then simply retrieve rather than creating the message from scratch each time.

So that you don't appear to be a "newbie" on the 'net, follow the simple rules of netiquette listed later in this guide.

Tips

Some users, depending on the particular email package used, can set up rules to sort incoming mail by subject or author. (Eudora Pro and other popular mail clients provide this capability) For instance,

all messages from the inet-marketing list go to folder "inet-marketing"
all messages from BillGates@microsoft.com go to folder "Do-Now"
all messages containing the domain name "@AOL.com" go to trash
all messages with subject line "Unsubscribe" go to trash
all messages with sender "sullivan" go to folder "sales update", send draft message with subject "thank you"

These rules make managing an active mailbox much easier

Common E-mail Addressing Syntax:

Internet username@companyname.com
America Online user.name@aol.com
CompuServe 00000.000@compuserve.com (need to change the "," in their CompuServe address to a ".")
MCI Mail 0123456789@mcimail.com
AT&T Mail <username>@attmail.com
EasyMail <62xxxxx>@eln.attmail.com

File any messages you really don't want to lose in an archive, rather than in a folder or in your inbox. Archives are typically filed on your hard disk, rather than in the mail database.

Email Enhancements

Not all email systems support enhancements such as file attachments or "receipt requested" tags. If in doubt, try sending a small document to your recipient as an attachment to see what happens.