Email
Contents

INTRODUCTION
EMAIL ACCOUNTS
EMAIL ETIQUETTE
FORUMS

This guide provides a brief introduction to email, including assistance in obtaining email accounts

Online forums are briefly described

 
INTRODUCTION

 
EMAIL ACCOUNTS

To send email, you need an email account. Just as you need a letterbox to receive letters, an email account gives you an email address. Usually you get an email address along with your internet connection, which may be a connection at home through an ISP (internet service provider), or a workplace email account with a network connection to the internet. You may be given an account through your online TAFE course.

Free email accounts are also available from many websites. One advantage of these is being able to access them from anywhere you can connect to the internet.

You may need to think of more than one username because your usual initial and last name may have been chosen by another user: therefore, name and number combinations are often used. You can be very creative choosing a name.

Some websites that offer email accounts are:·

Yahoo
Google (Gmail)
Hotmail

Obviously you will need a computer hooked up to the internet. You may decide to use software that lets you write, send and receive email, such as Microsoft Outlook Express, Eudora Lite, Microsoft Outlook (in the Microsoft Office suite). Alternatively you can use website-based email such as Yahoo and Hotmail, which typically has fewer features but may be sufficient for your needs.

An email address has two parts separated by the @ symbol - the user name first, then the domain name.

For example:
aperson777@somewhere.net.au

aperson777 identifies the receiver
@ this is where the receiver 'collects' their mail - the domain name.

This domain name is like a business name.
The three letter extension after the dot helps identify what type of organisation it is eg com (commercial), org (organisation), edu (educational institution).
A two letter extension to show the country it belongs to. Here it is au (Australia).

EMAIL ETIQUETTE

There are do's and don'ts in sending emails if you want to stay on good terms with the recipients - refer to the Email Etiquette manual (Microsoft Word 2000 file, 185kb) for some hints.

FORUMS

Forums are places on the Internet where people exchange information on
specific topics or issues. Forums can be a great way to learn from other internet
users as well as sharing your own knowledge and views.

Forums can take a number of different forms including mailing lists (or listservs), newsgroups (bulletin boards or Usenet) and chat (instant messaging).

Mailing lists - you subscribe to one of interest after which you receive and send messages via your normal email program. New messages can be sent to the whole group and you can reply to the whole group or just to the writer of a particular message. You can unsubscribe whenever you wish.

Newsgroups - you visit them at their website using your browser, or use specific newsgroup software. You can read messages, post new messages or reply to existing ones to keep the thread of a particular discussion going.
Note: Access to specific newsgroups depends on your Internet Service Provider (ISP) - not all ISPs provide access to the full range of newsgroups.

Chat - you can 'chat' online (in real time) by typing messages while seeing what others are typing via your screen. You can get specific chat software or use a browser-based chat service. (Chat is not currently allowed from NCI computers).