Email stands for electronic mail. This is a fast and easy way of
sending communication using an Internet connection.
Email is often called: e-mail, E-mail, email, and Email. Internet users often call
regular mail services snail mail. That's because email is nearly instantaneous.
It is the most used service on the Internet. You can use it to send text messages,
pictures, files and other electronic information to anyone who has an email address.
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What is an email address?
An email address is made up of two parts. The first is the name of user that the address
belongs to. The second part is the domain name of the web service that the user has
signed up with.
In the email address: marysmith@gte.net, marysmith is the user's name and gte.net is the
domain name. The @ symbol, which stands for at means exactly that. You read the
email address like this: marysmith at gte.net.
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How does email work?
The domain name part of the email address is used to find the web service for the
user so the email can be sent to the right service. The service then looks up
the user name and puts the message in that user's email directory. That's the simple
answer.
The technical answer is that each Internet domain name record has information that
that lists the Internet address (IP address) of the web hosting services's computer
that is currently handling all the email for that domain.
This computer will be running a software program called a mail server,
which defines exactly what to do with email as it comes in and goes out.
The mail server does all kinds of things such as delivering incoming email to a
user's mailbox so it can be read or picked up and sending outgoing emails
to the recipients.
Email services vary from one hosting company to another. Typical services include:
- Send automatic replies to incoming emails (autoresponders)
- Put incoming emails into specified folders.
- Redirect all incoming emails to another email address (forwarding)
- Keep a list of email addresses in an address book (also called a mailing list)
- Block certain email addresses.
- Compose messages in HTML so they'll look like a webpage.
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Can I use any email address with my website?
Yes. You can actually have as many email addresses as you want. Your web hosting service
should provide you with at least one email address that uses your domain name.
This is the best way to go for businesses, because your email address will match your
domain name. If you can have more than one email address on your domain name, you can
set up user names that will help you organize your email. For example, you could create
the following email addresses:
sales@yourdomain.com
info@yourdomain.com
webmaster@yourdomain.com
support@yourdomain.com
This helps you to quickly identify and prioritize your incoming emails.
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What is a mailing list?
This is a list of email addresses that you send email to. When the recipients agreed
to receive email from you, this is called bulk mail. When they didn't, it's called
spam.
Many Internet users HATE spam. They may do one of several things if you send them spam.
They may report you to your web hosting service and try to get you shut down. They may
send you hate mail, 30,000 messages at a time to try to kill your mail service. They
may just ignore you, deleting your email without opening it. One thing is certain though,
most will detest you for sending them spam and even if you are a legitimate business you could
lose a potential customer. Even worse, they may send out their own bulk mail and
tell everyone on their list that you are a spammer and to avoid you. Your best bet is
to just not spam at all.
The alternative is what is called opt-in mailing lists. People on an opt-in
mailing list have specifically and deliberately agreed to receive email from you or
through a service that offers opt-in subscriptions. You can build your own opt-in
mailing list by offering subscriptions, newsletters or some kind of membership service
on your website. You can also rent or buy opt-in email lists. Finally, you can
often piggyback with another websites mailer.
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