Email Basics

In this tutorial, we will cover some email basics. "Electronic mail" is a very common and convenient way to keep in touch with others. You can send mail and text messages to any person in the world with an e-mail address. Your messages will arrive in the recipient's Inbox (like a mailbox) usually within seconds. Of course, you can also receive messages from anyone who knows your e-mail address.

You can also use e-mail for sending files over the internet to someone else, such as documents, photos, and music. Files sent this way are called "attachments" because you are attaching the document or picture to the e-mail. It's no different than sending a photo inside a mailed letter.

The nice thing about e-mail is that if you wish to send the same message to several different people, you don't have to compose a separate message for each person. You can just add all of the names to the same message and send to all of the people at once. The recipients have the option of replying to everyone you have sent the message to or just to you.

If you receive a message and would like to send it to someone else, you can "Forward" it to whoever you like without having to retype it.

Electronic mail can be sent at any time of day since it will sit in the recipients inbox until they check their messages.

Electronic mail is basically free. There's no need for stamps or envelopes like regular letters. The only expense is what you pay for Internet service.

To begin sending and receiving mail, you will need:

• An Internet connection. (See the link to Accessing the Internet on the Computer Basics page.)
• An application such as Outlook Express which comes with Windows, or one of the free web-based mail accounts, such as Google's Gmail, MSN's Hotmail, or Yahoo! Mail. These search engine accounts allow you to check your mail from any computer with an internet connection.
• An e-mail address. Your Internet Service Provider will usually provide you with an address. An e-mail address consists of a user name (it doesn't have to be your real name), the "at" symbol @, and the name of your ISP or web-based mail provider. The format would look like this: Joe@yahoo.com or pete@earthlink.net.

Outlook Express

Once you have a working internet connection and a valid address, you can then begin to send and receive mail. To use the Windows built-in application, Outlook Express, you must set up an mail account by using the information provided by your ISP, such as, your e-mail address, a password, the names of your incoming and outgoing mail servers, and other settings.

To Add an E-mail Account in Outlook Express

Open Outlook Express by clicking the Start button, then All Programs, then Outlook Express.

The next window will ask you what your mail address is, based on whether you are using the mail address provided by your Internet Service Provider or one of the free search engine mail accounts. Click Next when complete.

The next window will prompt you for your mail server names. You will need to get these names from your ISP. Click Next when complete.

Reading E-mail Messages

Outlook Express will check to see if you've received any mail when you start it up. It will then check every 30 minutes for new mail. The 30 minutes interval can be changed by using the Options selection found in the Tools menu. All new received mail will go to your Inbox. Click the Inbox folder in the Folders list to display all of your received mail. The message list will show you who sent the message, the subject, and the date and time it was received.

To view a mail message, click on it to open it. The contents of the message appear below the message list in the Preview Pane. In order to view the message in a separate window, double-click on it in the message list.

To reply to a message, click on the Reply button. A new window will open with space above the original message for you to type a reply.

Creating and Sending E-mail Messages

To create a new message in Outlook Express, click the Create Mail button. A new message window opens.

In the To box, type the e-mail address of at least one recipient. If you're sending the message to multiple recipients, type a semicolon (;) between mail addresses.

In the Cc box, you can type the mail addresses of any secondary recipients—people who should know about the message but don't need to act on it. They'll receive the same message as the people in the To box. If there are no secondary recipients, leave this box blank.

In the Subject box, type a title for your message. This is not mandatory and can be left blank if you wish.

In the large blank text area, type your message. Click the "Send" button to send the message.

Sending an E-mail Attachment

If you want to send a file attachment to someone, click on the "Attach" button with the paper-clip icon. You will then be prompted to locate the file that you wish to attach, so make sure you put it in an easy to find location like the desktop. Once you have located the file, select it, and then click Attach. The file now appears in the Attach box in the message header. To send the message, click the Send button and you're done.

Junk E-mail(Spam)

We all receive junk mail from the Post Office on an almost daily basis. So it should be no surprise to you that you will probably receive junk e-mail (spam) in your Inbox. Spam mail might include advertisements, get rich quick schemes, adult oriented material, and even legitimate offers. Since it is very inexpensive for marketers to send junk mail, there is a lot to go around.

Beware of Viruses

E-mail is a common way for computer virus creators to spread their malicious code. Always be careful when you receive mail from someone that you do not recognize, and never open an attachment from someone you do not know. You could be opening a virus or worm without knowing it. Some viruses are very clever and spread themselves by scanning your address book and sending themselves to all of the names in your address book. Your unsuspecting friends and family think they are getting something from you that is legitimate, but when they open it they become infected too. Always have a good antivirus application running and make sure it is scanning your e-mail as it comes in. This is very important.

Outlook Express has a "Blocked Senders" feature in the "Message" menu. If you receive any email from an advertiser or other source that you do not want, you can add the email address of the sender to this Blocked Senders list and all subsequent emails from that sender will be blocked from your Inbox.

To avoid spam, use caution when giving out your email address. Avoid publishing your real email address in newsgroups, on websites, or in other public areas of the Internet. Before giving your email address to a website, check the site's privacy statement to be sure it does not sell email addresses to other companies.

Do not reply to junk email messages. If you do, the sender will know that your email address is valid and might sell it to another company, in which case you will receive even more junk email.

As always, exercise caution when sending any personal information in an email. You never know who may be "listening".

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