How to Use Email

In the past few years, email has become extraordinarily popular.

To use email, you need access to an Internet-connected computer, an email address, and either an email client or a Web browser, depending on your email provider.

An email address consists of a user name, followed by the "@" sign, followed by the domain serving the mail for that account. The domain may be an ISP, an online service, or any business or organization with a registered domain name.

Until recently, most people obtained email addresses through their ISP's and accessed their mail using a mail client such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, or Netscape. Virtually all ISP's still include one or more email addresses with their service and will gladly assist their customers in setting up their email clients. (Some ISP's and many corporate mail servers also provide Web-based access to email using nothing but a Web browser like Internet Explorer.)

The exact procedure for setting up different email clients varies, but all email clients require the same basic information:

• The user's display name (the name you want to appear next to your email address when someone receives a message from you).

• The user's username on that system (the part of the email address before the @ sign), and sometimes the domain (the part after the @ sign).

• The incoming and outgoing mail servers that the account will use. This information can be obtained from whomever has issued you the email address (for example, your ISP or your employer).

• Your password.

To see detailed instruction about how to set up Microsoft Outlook Express, which comes with Windows and is the most popular email client, click here.)

Webmail

Recently, there's been a trend toward Web-based email accounts from companies like Yahoo, Hotmail, Netscape, and many others. These companies provide email addresses (often for free) to pretty much anyone who asks for one, and then provide access to that mail via any standard Web browser, from any Web-connected computer in the world. They make their money by putting advertisements on the pages that users use to access their mail.

There are legitimate reasons why many people prefer Webmail to traditional email. Webmail is accessible from anywhere, doesn't require configuring an email client, doesn't require you to have your own account with an ISP, and is usually free. It is particularly popular with people who use public library or school computers to access their mail, as well as with students, military people, and others who travel a lot.

But Webmail has a dark side, as well. Companies who issue Webmail addresses tend not to care whether a person who applies for an email address is actually who they say they are. They ask, but they tend to do little to verify the information that is provided. So Webmail addresses and public terminals are commonly used by nefarious individuals for fraudulent purposes or to send "spam" (unsolicited commercial email).