Electronic Mail: The Basics

Advantages

You might ask, "What's the point in using Electronic-Mail (E-Mail) when I can just as easily use my phone, my fax machine, or the U.S. Postal Service?" Well, in an attempt to answer this question, some of the advantages of using E-Mail are listed below:

Speed - The physical process of transferring E-Mail is virtually instantaneous.
Free - The is no per-message charge when it comes to E-Mail.
Portability - If you have a computer handy, you can dial your Provider and retrieve you E-Mail from anywhere in the world.
File Transfer - E-Mail can be used to transfer binary files, including executable programs, graphics, sound, and data files.
Permanent Address - If you're always "on the go," E-Mail can give you a permanent address. Using E-Mail, friends can always keep in touch, even if they don't have your most recent phone number.

While E-Mail may not replace the intimacy of a phone call (not yet), it can provide an easy way for friends and relatives to communicate without having to worry about outrageous long-distance charges.

E-Mail Addresses

In the same way that everyone with a mailbox has a postal address, everyone with an E-Mail account has an E-Mail address. These addresses may look unusual, but the rules governing the creation of E-Mail addresses are actually quite simple.

An E-Mail address consists of two parts: the user ID and the domain. A person's user ID is what they use to login to their Internet Provider. While some user ID's resemble the person's actual name (Rob Jones = robjones, Steven McAffee = smcaffee), others are not as obvious (Marsha Thompson = mt295b). The domain is the name of the person's Internet Provider. When the user ID and domain are arranged in the form of an E-Mail address, they look like this:

mclark@finearts.caltech.edu
In this example, the user ID is mclark, which we can say stands for Matthew Clark. Everything after the @ symbol is the domain. This symbol is always pronounced as, "at." The periods separating the parts of the domain are pronounced as, "dot." Using these guidelines, the example would be pronounced as, "M Clark at Fine Arts dot CalTech dot E D U."

Finding Someone's E-Mail Address

Obviously, you have to know someone's E-Mail address before you can send them E-Mail. Fortunately, there are many ways of obtaining E-Mail addresses:

Just Ask! - This is the most obvious and easiest way to get someone's E-Mail address. Just ask them to give it to you either by phone, in person, or by mail.
Check an E-Mail Directory - Many companies, educational institutions, and organizations have their E-Mail directories available on the Internet.
Look at the Return Address - If someone has sent you E-Mail in the past, just look at the "From:" line in the header. The address given there is most likely that person's E-Mail address.
Use an Online E-Mail Search Service - There are several Internet sites on the World Wide Web that serve as clearing houses for E-Mail addresses. Some examples are Four11 and WhoWhere?.