Internet Service Tutorials Tutorial 3 — Email Made Easy

What You’ll Find in this Tutorial

This tutorial is split into sections which are listed below. If you want to go to a section at any time, simply run your mouse over the title. When the section title is highlighted, click your mouse one time.

Introduction
What is E-Mail?
How Does E-Mail Work?
To Send or Receive E-Mail
Anatomy of an E-Mail
Understanding E-Mail Addresses
E-Mail Service Providers and E-Mail Clients
How to Send E-Mail; Step-by-Step
Adding a Signature Line to Your E-Mail
Attaching a File to Your E-Mail
A Four Letter E-Mail Word – SPAM

Tutorial Introduction

Traditional post office mail service can take days to send a letter across town or weeks to send to another country. One of the best things about e-mail, is that it takes only a few seconds for the receiver to get your message. E-mail is also a lot less expensive than traditional mail service or a telephone call. So, in order to save both time and money, more and more people are turning to the Internet so they can stay in touch with friends and relatives more often and much, much more quickly.

In this tutorial, I’ll give you some guidance on how to use e-mail, and explain the different parts of an e-mail message, but first…

What is E-Mail?

Very simply put, e-mail is an electronic message sent from one device to another. In most cases, the device used is computer to computer, but now with new technology, e-mail can be sent and received by mobil phone and personal (digital) organizers. With e-mail you can send or receive personal or business messages in simple text format or with file and photo attachments. You can also send music or video files and software programs.

Let’s say for example you want to stay in closer touch with family members spread across the country or even around the world. Telephone calls are nice, but can also be very expensive. Staying in touch has never been easier than using e-mail. It’s of no surprise that e-mail is the number one use of the Internet today.

How Does E-Mail Work?

Just like the post office, you send a letter to Aunt Mary who lives in the next state. You write her a letter on a piece of stationary, put it in an envelope, write her street address and take it to the post office to buy a stamp. From there, the post office takes the letter and will deliver it to Aunt Mary as quickly as they can. Along the way, the letter will make several stops at different post offices before it finally arrives to the home of Aunt Mary.

Well, e-mail works pretty much the same way, only a lot faster. You still write Aunt Mary a nice letter, but with e-mail, you type the letter in a computer program or web site so there’s no need for stationary or an envelope. Once you’ve typed your letter to Aunt Mary, you put her e-mail address (this is similar to a street address) and push the send button. The letter still goes from one place to another (mail server to mail server), but it moves from place to place very quickly until it reaches the final mail server. There it is stored electronically until Aunt Mary logs into the Internet and checks her mail.

To Send or Receive E-Mail

To send or receive e-mail, you need to have an account with an e-mail service and a connection to the Internet. There are many different e-mail services to choose from and later in this tutorial, I’ll talk about some of the different services available so you can decide for yourself what service is right for you. With most e-mail services, you can send and receive e-mail from anywhere in the world. All you need is a computer or other electronic device for sending and receiving e-mail and an Internet connection.

A couple of terms you might hear when using e-mail are POP and SMTP. POP stands for Post Office Protocol and SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocols. Basically, when you type and send an e-mail, your mail service receives the e-mail at the SMTP. Then, the e-mail is sent to the e-mail receiver through a variety of POP servers until it arrives at its destination.

Anatomy of an E-Mail

Just like a letter, an e-mail is made of different parts that need to be complete in order for the message to be received. The e-mail is divided into 2 groups. Group 1 – The header. The header contains the sender and receiver e-mail address along with the subject and often times the date. The header is usually what most people will see first when they go into their e-mail accounts. Group 2 is the body. The body of the e-mail is the actual message that you’re sending. Look at the following example of an e-mail. Can you tell where the header ends and the body begins?

Header
The header is the e-mail address of who you’re sending to and the subject. Each time you send an e-mail, the receiver gets your e-mail address and the date send. This too, is part of the header.
Body
The body of the e-mail is the message you are sending.

Understanding E-Mail Addresses

E-Mail addresses are divided into three parts. Let’s use the following example: yourname@gmail.com. The “your name” is the person who the electronic mailbox belongs to. It’s also known as the username. Then comes the “@”. Next comes the host name “gmail” or often referred to as the domain name. This refers to the server where the person has an electronic mail box and is usually the name of a company or organization. After the domain name comes a “.” (dot) and is followed by three or more letters (such as .com or .edu). This part of the e-mail address indicates the Top Level Domain (TLD) and tells us the type of organization hosting the service. If the service is outside of the U.S., it may be followed by a two character country code (like .mx for Mexico, .ca for Canada or .it for Italy).

These Top Level Domains are currently in use.

• .aero— for the air-transport industry
• .biz— reserved for businesses
• .com— reserved for businesses or commercial enterprises. Most companies use this extension.
• .coop— reserved for cooperatives
• .edu— for educational institutions and universities
• .gov— reserved for the United States government agencies
• .info— for all uses
• .int— for organizations established by international treaties
• .mil— for the United States military
• .museum— for use by museums
• .name— for use by individuals
• .net— for networks; usually reserved for Internet Service Providers
• .org— for non-commercial organizations
• .pro— for use by professionals such as attorneys or physicians

E-Mail Service Providers and E-Mail Clients

There are several different ways to manage your e-mail and the decision you make is based on your personal needs. Most e-mail clients (software that is installed on your computer) work well and you can organize e-mail quickly and easily. Other e-mail service providers (web-based e-mail clients) work equally as well and allow you to send and receive e-mail from any computer. You can compose, read and reply to messages and the mail is kept on the mail server until you download it to you main computer. You can also manage all your mail on the Internet with a web-email service provider. There are several options available. Refer to the following list when making your decision.

* Both NetZero and Juno offer free e-mail service. In addition, they offer free Internet access. You do not need to use the Internet through NetZero or Juno in order to receive their premier e-mail service. Simply click on the link and step through to sign up.

How to Send E-Mail; Step-by-Step

Step One:
After you have selected what e-mail program to use, or what e-mail service provider to use, simply open the mail client or go to the web-mail provider and sign-in. In the examples here, we’re using gmail. Gmail is Google’s gmail service.
Select Compose Mail by clicking you mouse. A new screen will appear. Not all mail services are the same, your mail service might say New Mail

Step Two:
Type in the e-mail address of who you want to send a message to.

In the TO box type in the name of the recipient. It should take the same form mentioned in Understanding E-Mail Addresses. Make sure you enter the address correctly, or the e-mail will return to your inbox with an error.

Note:
You can send an e-mail to more than one person by entering in more than one e-mail address. Simply put a simi colon (;) between each e-mail address. Your e-mail address will be sent automatically to the people receiving your e-mail.

Step Three:
Type in a subject in the Subject line. This lets your readers know the topic of your e-mail and is often displayed on the inbox page.

Step Four:
Now, write your message in the message window. You can also copy information from a word processing program and paste it into your message.

Step Five:
Before you send your message, many mail programs will check your spelling, or let you save your e-mail as a draft if you get interrupted. Once you’re ready though, select Send

Some e-mail services automatically save a copy of your outgoing mail. Double check though, some programs do not.

Adding a Signature Line to Your E-Mail

If you find yourself sending out e-mails frequently, you may consider adding a default signature line to save yourself from "signing" your e-mails. Just like handwritten mail, you can customize your closing to fit your personality. Most often times the signature line would include your name, e-mail address, phone number (optional) and maybe even a favorite quote.

Most e-mail programs are pretty much the same, simply go into Settings or Tools / Options. Read through the section, or look for the tab labeled Signature and enter your desired information.

Attaching a File to Your E-Mail

Attaching files to an e-mail document has gotten much, much easier over time. And, most e-mail programs will help step you through the process of attaching any number of files; word, text or graphic files, photos or video clips.

In general, your e-mail program will have an icon with a paper-clip on it either in the frame of the e-mail, or on the toolbar (maybe even both). Simple click on the icon or Attach a file. You’ll then be prompted to browse through and select the file you want to attach from your hard drive. Once the file is attached to your e-mail, the file name will appear and most likely an option to remove the attachment. Most e-mail programs allow you to attach more than one file. Once you’ve got the files attached, you can type in a few words in the body of the e-mail and send. Make sure you’ve got the e-mail address entered on the To line.

A Four Letter E-Mail Word – SPAM

Congratulations! Now, you’re ready to roll with getting in touch with people on a regular basis. There is one more thing though you should be aware of and that is now that you have an e-mail address, protect it. Be careful to whom and where you give your e-mail address – especially on the Internet. Unfortunately, just like the junk mail you get delivered to your home each and every day, the Internet has become a haven for unsolicited ‘junk’ mail too. It’s called SPAM. And once these Internet marketing schemers get a hold of your e-mail address, they’ll bombard you with everything imaginable.

Most ISPs and mail services filter through inbound e-mail in an effort to delete e-mail that has been mass distributed. Many of them will put the e-mail into a special inbox so that you can still see the e-mail and judge for yourself if it is SPAM. Sometimes though, you’ll find unwanted mail mixed in with your regular e-mails from Aunt Betty and Cousin Joe. It’s advisable not to open an e-mail from someone you don’t know and you should never open an attachment or an e-mail unless it’s from someone you trust. In the even you do get junk mail, report it as SPAM. Most e-mail services have a button or icon that let you do this easily.

Tutorial 4 is on it’s way!

Beginners Series Tutorials
» Tutorial 1 — How To Use The Internet?
» Tutorial 2 — What Can I Do With The Internet?
» Tutorial 3 — Email Made Easy