From the dawn of history, people have needed reliable methods of sending private messages from one person to another. Ancient kings would send messengers running across the moors to deliver invitations to the palace in the next kingdom. The "relatives back east" would send condolences to their intrepid pioneer kinfolk by the Pony Express. And today we drop a Christmas card in a U.S. Post Office box to be delivered by the Postal Service. The delivery method changes, but the messages stay pretty much the same.
Electronic mail (e-mail) is the next generation of delivery services. You type a message on your computer, use your modem to dial up the Internet, and press a few buttons, and your mail is whisked through a vast, interconnected network of Internet wires and connections to your addressee's computer. (Of course, in order for e-mail to work, your recipient has to have a computer connected to the Internet too. Otherwise you're back to licking the stamp at the Post Office.)
This article looks at the basic components you need in order to start using e-mail (namely, an Internet connection and an e-mail program.) We'll also run quickly through the process of using a typical e-mail program to send, receive, and manage e-mail.
Since you're reading this book, I'm going to assume that you already have an Internet connection of some sort. But what sort do you have?
Why does it matter? Because your connection type somewhat dictates the mail package you use. Online services want you to use their own proprietary mail software, while the latter two service types enable you to use any mail program you like.
Hardcore e-mail users sometimes maintain two separate Internet accounts—one on an online service, and one with an ISP. That way they have two different e-mail addresses, and can keep their business and personal mail separated. If you participate in LISTSERV discussions (groups that exchange ideas via e-mail), and you are an online services user, consider getting an ISP Internet account just for the additional e-mail address, so you can keep the LISTSERV traffic separate from your regular e-mail; otherwise your regular e-mail may become bogged down amid the hundreds of LISTSERV messages that pour into your inbox every week.
If you access the Internet via an ISP or LAN, you can use any e-mail package you want. Even if your system administrator or ISP has provided you with a package, you can usually choose a different one.
But what package to choose? The best way to evaluate an e-mail package is to look at two things:
The bar has really been raised in recent years for e-mail programs. Features that used to be luxuries are now considered minimum standards. When looking for an e-mail package, you should not accept one that does not let you do the following:
The major e-mail packages are continually embroiled in a "one-upmanship" contest, in which each new version brings a new feature that the competitor doesn't have yet. Some of these features are really wonderful, while others you may never need. Here are some of the fancy extra things that some e-mail packages do:
If you use the Internet through an online service, your choice of e-mail software will be limited or non-existent. Each service provides its own e-mail program, which starts automatically when you dial up the service. There isn't much choice. Luckily, however, most of these proprietary e-mail packages are full-featured, and offer the same benefits as many of the Internet e-mail programs you might choose if you had the choice.
A few online services do let you use alternate e-mail programs. CompuServe, for instance, can be accessed through Microsoft Exchange, the Windows 95 e-mail program, if you set it up correctly. See the Help system in Exchange to learn how to set this up.
If you use an ISP or LAN Internet connection, you will find your options more broad. If you are a Windows 95 user, you can use Microsoft Exchange, which comes free with Windows 95. (It is also the default e-mail program for users of the Microsoft Network online service.) Its features are competitive with the best e-mail programs, plus it offers the capability of sending and receiving faxes and integrating e-mail from various sources into a single in-box. If you use The Microsoft Network, CompuServe, the Internet, and your company's e-mail system, and you want to have all your mail in one place, Microsoft Exchange is a good choice.
If you own Microsoft Office 97, and use Outlook, be aware that Outlook supercedes Exchange, so you will do most of the mail management from Outlook that you used to do in Exchange.
Another excellent choice is Netscape Mail, which comes free with Netscape Navigator versions 2.0 and above. It offers almost all the features described earlier in the article, both the essentials and the extras. Although it doesn't allow you to manage e-mail from multiple sources, or send faxes, users with a single e-mail address will find that it meets all their needs very well. It also is available for many platforms (Mac, UNIX, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and so on.), so that you can find a version for your system no matter what kind of computer you use.
If you are using the Internet through your company's LAN, you may already have a good e-mail program in place. Lotus's CC:Mail, for example, can manage Internet e-mail too along with your company's LAN e-mail. Or you may have access to Microsoft Mail through your LAN, another full-featured program that also handles your Internet mail.
There are many other e-mail programs available—some for free or as shareware, and others in retail boxes at stores. No matter which program you pick, you should evaluate it using the criteria listed earlier in this article, to make sure it will do everything you want it to.
If you are using an online service, or an e-mail program that has been pre-configured for you by your system administrator, you can skip this section. But if you've downloaded (or purchased) and installed the e-mail package you want to use, you may need to do a bit of tweaking to set it up.
The main thing that your e-mail program needs to know is the name of your mail server. Some programs will distinguish between your outgoing mail server (SMTP) and your incoming mail server (POP3). You may also need to supply your e-mail address and your mail password (which is probably the same as the regular password you use to log in).
Since Netscape Navigator's e-mail component is the most popular one that requires this kind of configuration, let's look at how to set it up:
Sending e-mail is a lot like sending a regular letter through the U.S. Postal Service. You compose your message, include an address to deliver it to, and drop it in the mail. The only difference is that to send e-mail, you don't have to buy a stamp.
The exact command used to start a new message varies depending on the e-mail program you are using, but it is usually something like New Message, To: Mail, or Compose. Select that command or click that button, and a new message composition window appears.
No matter which program you are using, the procedure is the same for composing a message:
A message composition window for Netscape Mail, with a message already composed and ready to send.
Just as you wouldn't drop an envelope into a mailbox without a complete address on it, you can't expect your e-mail to reach its destination if you don't know the correct address to send it to.
The best way to find out someone's e-mail address is the same as the best way to find out their regular mailing address: ask them. Remember that there are other communications media, like the telephone too! Just pick up the phone, call the potential recipient, and ask for the e-mail address. If you have the person's business card, the e-mail address may be listed there.
If phoning is not an option, there are other ways to look up e-mail addresses on the Internet, although none of them are perfect. If you know that the person is a member of the same online service as you, use that service's Search feature to search for the member name. On America Online use the Members, Member Directory command; on CompuServe, use Mail, Member Directory.
If you don't know what service the recipient uses, you can try an address lookup site on the World Wide Web.
Deciphering E-Mail Addresses
An e-mail address looks like this: name@address. The "name" portion is the person's unique user name on whatever system they are using. For instance, mine is fwempen, a combination of my first initial (Faithe) and my last name (Wempen). Then after the @ sign is the domain name, the address of the system you use. In my case it's iquest.net. Some addresses may have many words separated by periods after the @ sign, such as carla@newriders.mcp.com. Generally, such addresses read from most specific down to most general; for instance, in that example, "carla" is in the "editorial" department at "nrp" (New Riders Publishing), which is a division of "mcp" (Macmillan Computer Publishing), which is a "com" (commercial).type of site.
Most of the popular e-mail programs enable you to send attached files with your e-mail. In other words, if I were working on an Excel spreadsheet, I could attach it to the e-mail message and the recipient would receive not only the message but also a copy of the spreadsheet.
There is usually an Attach File button or menu command prominently displayed in the message composition window. Just select that button or command, and a dialog box appears prompting you for the file's name and current location. Locate the file and click OK, and the file's name appears on a line in the message composition window, so you know it's attached.
Some e-mail programs enable you to attach multiple files to an e-mail; Microsoft Exchange does, for instance. However, Netscape Navigator's mail program, and most online services mail programs, do not. That means if you have more than one file to send, you either have to send separate messages for each file or you have to use a compression program like PKZip or WinZip to store all the files in a single compressed archive to send.
Online Services and File-Sending
Although most online services enable you to send files, they allow file-sending only to members of the same service. For example, CompuServe users can attach binary files to messages, but only to other CompuServe users. Similarly, America Online users can send files only to other America Online users. Internet users can send files to anybody, but recipients on online services may not be able to use the sent files; they may come across as a screenful of gibberish.
Why is this so? Because e-mail is a plain text medium. In e-mail's purest form, it isn't possible to attach a binary file to a message. File attachment is accomplished by encoding the binary file with a scheme that converts the file to a long text-only string of what looks like gibberish. The recipient's e-mail program at the other end decodes it and it turns back into a binary file. Most Internet e-mail programs recognize the MIME method of conversion. However, many online services use their own proprietary conversion scheme, and can't decode MIME-converted files coming in. If a program can't decode a MIME file, it leaves it unconverted—that is, as a long string of gibberish text. So if you see a screenful of meaningless text, what you're probably seeing is an unsuccessful attempt to send you a file.
For computer users, one of life's little joys is to check their e-mail to see what messages they've received. Just like regular mail, it may only be ads and other junk, but there may be a surprise note from an old friend or some other goodies.
When you open your e-mail program, the first thing you will probably see is your Inbox. Different programs call it by different names; some refer to it as the New Mail screen. Regardless of what it's called, it lists the new messages you've received.
There are two basic types of e-mail programs:
To read a message, just click or double-click on it, depending on the program type. The lower pane changes to display the message, or a separate window appears showing the message. If the message is long, there may be a scroll bar down the right side that you can use to move through the message.
After you've read a message, then what? If you have an e-mail program other than America Online, you can just leave the message in your Inbox and take a few days (or more) to decide how to dispose of it. The message isn't going anywhere.
With some e-mail programs, after you read a new message, it disappears from your Inbox. (America Online is like that.) To refer to the message later, you look for it in a different folder (such as "Messages You've Read"). With most e-mail programs, however, already-read messages stay until you move them to a different folder for filing. In programs like this, you can tell the unread messages because they're bold or a different color.
When you're ready to do something with the message, you can do the following:
Just as a conversation doesn't consist of one person doing all the talking, an e-mail conversation isn't one-way. Most of the time, when you receive an e-mail message, you will want to respond to it.
To respond to a message, just click the Reply button as you are reading the message. In some programs the button name may be slightly different; it's Re:Mail.
When you reply to a message, a message composition screen appears that is just like the one you saw earlier in the chapter, with two exceptions:
Some e-mail programs quote the original message automatically; others require you to click a Quote button. When a message is quoted, it is copied into the new message with some identifying character at the beginning of each line, such as > or **.
E-mail is not a dangerous hobby, as Internet activities go, but there are a few things you should be aware of to avoid problems. The following sections outline some of the most common concerns that new users have about e-mail use.
Contrary to myths and legends you may have heard, you cannot infect your computer with a computer virus by reading e-mail. E-mail is text-only, as I mentioned earlier in the chapter, and viruses are binary.
However, if you receive a binary file attached to an e-mail, it may contain a virus. Viruses reside in only a few types of files, however—executable programs (which usually end in .bat, .com, or .exe) and a few types of data files that can contain macros (Word for Windows and Excel files). If the file you receive is not one of those types, the chances of it containing a harmful virus are slim-to-none.
If you receive an executable file or a Word or Excel file from an unknown source, do not run it until you have checked it for viruses using a reputable virus protection program such as McAffee AntiVirus or Norton AntiVirus. It is good practice for anyone using the Internet and downloading files to own one of these virus protection programs and keep it updated regularly with the latest virus information.
There is always a new twist on the chain letter circulating on the Internet. Maybe it promises you good luck if you mail the letter to 10 friends, or maybe it relays some sad story about a sick child's wish to circulate his story throughout the world. These things are almost always useless time-wasters. Don't bother your friends with this.
Five years ago, there was virtually no advertising on the Internet. It was a strict self-policing community that drove out anyone who sent out mass mailings of advertising.
Times have changed, however, and each day I find between 5 and 50 pieces of junk mail in my e-mail Inbox. In most cases, like with regular junk mail, all you can do is sigh and delete it.
America Online has gone a step further in helping you stamp out junk mail; they offer the capability of refusing mail from specific addresses. Use the keyword Mail Controls while logged on with your primary ID, and you can enter an unlimited number of addresses from which you don't wish to receive mail. To eventually eliminate most of the junk mail you receive, simply make a list each day of all the junk mail addresses that sent you something and enter them in the Mail Controls.
Unfortunately, there are some crazies and nasties on the Internet, just like in real life. If one of them gets a hold of your contact information, and starts sending threatening or harassing messages, you should do the following:
Would you trust a total stranger who came up to you on the street and asked for your password or credit card number? Of course not. So why should you trust a total stranger who e-mails you?
Follow these rules to avoid getting ripped off online:
E-mail is usually the first Internet tool that a beginner learns to use, and it is often the most important tool available to even advanced Internet surfers. E-mail keeps you in touch one-on-one with individuals all over the world, from your brother in Los Angeles to your stock broker in New York. By mastering e-mail, you ensure that you'll stay in touch with the people and businesses that are important to you, no matter where they might be.
Faithe Wempen is a freelance writer, editor, computer consultant, and software trainer from Indianapolis, Indiana.
