Learn
about email functions and terminology, such as, Internet Addresses,
User IDs, Domain Names, the Finger command, and Address Books
Internet
Addresses
Exchanging electronic
mail (e-mail) is the most widely used Internet service. Each person
sending or receiving mail via the Internet has an Internet mail
address.
An Internet mail address has two parts, separated by "@" (the at
sign). The part before the "@" is the mailbox, which is your personal
name or user id. The part after the "@"
is the domain,
which is the mail server address or host.
Internet addresses are written in lower case letters, generally.
The form of an Internet address is: your-name@domain-name.
Some mail server programs limit the number of characters
used in the "yourname" portion of the address. A standard way of identifying
"yourname" or "user id" is to use the first letter of your first name
followed by your last name up to a total of eight (8) characters.
The President of the United States might have a "user id" consisting
of the first initial - last name combination or it could appear as
the more generic, "president".
The president's Internet e-mail would be "president@domain-name".
The domain address portion of the Internet address
is based on an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Each mail server connected
to the Internet has a distinct numerical IP address. Internet domain
names are written using letters. The computer translates the domain
name to a numerical address that identifies the host computer to which
mail is being sent.
The domain name portion of the Internet address is a sequence of letters
separated by dots (for example, techtrainteam.com
or aol.com or xyz.k12.mi.us).
Countries where the domain is located are identified by two (2) characters
at the extreme right of the Internet address.
Some examples include:
ca = Canada
fr = France
au = Australia
Domain name types are identified by the letters located at the extreme
right of the Internet address if there is no country identifier. If
a country is identified the type designator is to the left of country
identifier.
The standard types of domain names are:
edu = Educational sites
com = Commercial sites
gov = U.S. government sites
net = Network organizations
mil = Military sites
org = Organizations that don't belong to other categories
The President of the United States has an Internet name of "president".
The President's Internet mailing address is president@whitehouse.gov.
Reading a domain name right to left identifies the sub-domains that
locate the mail server of the person being sent mail. In the example
of the President, his/her mail server is used in government and it
is located in the Whitehouse.
If you need to write to the administrator of a mail server at a specific
site, you would address the mail to "postmaster":
postmaster@domain-name.
The Internet mailing addresses
of people you communicate with regularly can be placed in your personal
electronic Address Book.
You have automatic access to your Address Book whenever you send mail
or forward a mail message or news article. Thus, you do not have to
type individual addresses. Just select the appropriate address from
your Address Book.
If you frequently send mail to the same group of people, you can group
them in your Address Book and give the group a name. When you address
a message to the group name, everyone you identified in your Address
Book as a group member will receive the message.
Learn
to Send a new message, Reply to a message, Forward a message. Also,
learn how to send attachments.
Send a Message
Now you must determine if you are sending a new message,
replying to a message you have received, or forwarding a message you
received to another party.
Send a New Message
To send a message,
Click the "New Message" icon on the toolbar.
The New Message window appears.
The Internet address of the recipient must be
typed after To:.
Example, jdoe@aol.com
Your Internet address goes after From:.
Example, techtrain@techtrainteam.com
Type a subject after the subject line.
Example, Meeting of Committee
If "carbon" copies are being sent, type the Internet
address(es) of those recipients after Cc:.
If "blind carbon" copies are being sent, type
the Internet address(es) of those recipients after Bcc:.
If attachments, such as wordprocessing or spreadsheet
files, data, music, video files, are being sent specify after
Attachments:.
Example, "c:\documents\minutesjanuary.doc"
Learn about Emoticons,
Netiquette, and what to do about Objectionable Material on the Internet.
Emoticons
Emoticons (produced with keyboard
characters) were developed to reduce the on-line misunderstandings
that arise through e-mail and newsgroup messages. You can use these
characters to represent your real intentions in your messages. Emoticons
can be used to express a grin, a smile, a frown, a grimace, and
more.
Emoticons help to diminish misunderstandings in online communication.
With emoticons, you can express hundreds of emotions:
a wink (just kidding) ;-)
a frowny face (displeasure) :-(
A surprised look (shock) :-o
An impassive face (unimpressed) :-|
and hundreds more
Below are some of the commonly used emoticons (smiley
and frowney faces).
Tilt your head 90 degrees to the left to read the emoticon.
Netiquette (Network etiquette)
is the term describing a general set of guidelines that define proper
use of the Internet. Some of these guidelines are:
Treat people with respect and courtesy.
Remember that your electronic correspondence
reaches a broad audience of people with different perspectives
on your ideas.
Use emoticons to illustrate emotions. Just your
words may not be enough to convey your message to everyone in
such a diversified audience. (However, some people find emoticons
very irritating -- so use them sparingly.)
Maintain an open and forgiving attitude towards
the ideas of others.
Make your correspondence as brief and to the
point as possible to keep Internet traffic as low as possible.
This saves disk space and time of your readers.
Use FAQs (the Frequently Asked Question and answer
section of various facets of the Internet) before you distribute
your questions to thousands of people. (Probably the question
has been asked and answered previously.)
Where appropriate, respond to an individual Internet
user concerning highly specific information rather than to thousands
of people who may not care about your personal response to a question.
Include just enough relevant material of a previous
posting to aid your response.
Limit the line length of your message to 70 characters.
Some e-mail editors or newsreaders cannot handle more than 70
characters per line.
Treat people with respect and courtesy. (This is repeated for emphasis.)
Spamming
Spamming is sending messages to everyone on the Internet.
This is very wasteful.
It is possible to get a list of every accessible Listserv list. With
that information you could send a message to thousands of groups involving
hundreds of thousands or millions of people. Occasionally messages
will appear which foretell the end of the world, for example. This
activity is objected to by Internet users and has been given the unpleasant
descriptor "spamming".
Do not SPAM on the Internet!!
Flaming
Flaming is the Internet term for an electronic shouting
match. Flaming is :-( upon.
Newsgroup members sometimes anonymously post extreme, differing opinions
on the same topic. At times, postings could develop into electronic
shouting matches. This is called flaming.
Likewise, angry responses posted to lists or angry e-mail responses
are called flaming.
Do not give out personal information,
such as address, phone number, work address or phone number, without
parent's permission.
Inform a parent (teacher) if you come across
any information that makes you feel uncomfortable.
Never agree to meet with someone personally that
you met on-line, unless your parent (teacher) is informed.
Never send anyone your picture or other personal
information without your parent's (teacher's) permission.
Do not respond to any message that makes you
feel uncomfortable. Inform your parents (teachers).
Follow the rules for on-line use defined by your
parents (teachers) pertaining to time of day, length of time,
and appropriate Net places to investigate.
Although free investigation of all Internet services
is one of the strong features of the Net that enhances educational
opportunities, it may be necessary to limit, to some degree, childrens'
access to some Net activities or areas.
For example,
if you wanted to discard the message, 
