The Netcenter's

E-mail

Electronic mail, or e-mail, is mail sent from one address to another. Every user on the net has a unique e-mail address. All you need to send an electronic letter is a person's e-mail address and a computer hooked up to an Internet Account. An e-mail address will always have an @ in it. For example lite@netcenter.com.

It is also possible to send the same letter to several people (addresses) at once (bulk email, or broadcast email), send copies to other people (and with some e-mail programs blind copies) to other people, and even send a copy to yourself.

E-mail has many advantages over regular mail or the telephone. E-mail is much faster than the regular post, called snail mail by e-mail users. E-mail can reach the other side of the world in a few minutes. With so many people using voice mail and answering machines these days, e-mail is much more productive and less expensive than using the telephone in many cases. Now, you can even talk to someone using your computer's microphone over the Internet line saving money on your long distance bill too. The other person you speak with over the Internet, must also have an Internet Account, although there is even new software arriving that allows you on your Internet Account to talk to anyone who has a telephone for a savings of about 50% of any long distance carrier.

If your message can't be delivered, you'll get a message back, usually with your original message attached.

Speaking of attachments, you can attach files from your computer to your e-mail message and send a copy of the file, in its original format, along with your letter. Generally, if you're going to do this, you should be careful to attach only small files (say up to 5 - 10 pages). If you send larger files, it may tie up your computer for a long time (in some cases hours) while the file transfers, or portions of it can be or distorted. If you are sending files, be sure the person on the other end has a program that can use the file: in most cases, it does little good to send a Macintosh file to a Windows user.

You can also use e-mail to subscribe to electronic magazines and newspapers, called mailing lists, and also to some news groups. When you get instructions to subscribe, you'll usually be told to send a message to an e-mail address with a specific phrase as the subject of your letter or in the body of your letter. In these cases, the people who maintain the mailing list are using a program to receive the subscription requests and update the mailing list. Don't send any additional information or questions with your letter - the program that is receiving subscription requests will likely ignore any additional information. This is an automated response mechanism called an autoresponder. These can be rented almost anywhere on the Internet for $5 to $10 per month. They are very useful if you are marketing information.