Self Help

E-mail is electronic mail that has become to most widely form of communication today, both for personal use and business use. For speed of delivery, e-mail is the quickest way to go. Correspondence gets from one place to another in a matter of minutes. Once you decide to connect to the Internet, your connection provides you with e-mail services and an e-mail address which will look something like this: YourName@someplace.com

Everything listed in your e-mail address means something. @ simply means at, and corn indicates the domain, in this case, a company. Other domains are:

1. edu - educational institution; for example, nickname@nyu.edu for someone at New York University.

2. gov - government site; for example, nickname@nasa.gov for someone at NASA.

3. mil - military site; for example, nickname@af.mil for someone in the Air Force.

4. net - network site, for providers and hosts, for example: nickname@li.net for someone at Long Island Net.

5. org - organization sites that do not fit the other classification; for example, nickname@AAG.org. for someone at the Association of American Geographers.

You will also receive an STMP or Simple Mail Protocol server which you to send and receive mail. Once you familiarize yourself with he Internet, you will choose the e-mail program that is best suited to your needs.

Most programs are activated with a click of your mail icon. This clicks you into your mailbox. With another click, you can open and read mail. Or, click a different menu option and print out the hard copy. You can forward the mail to as many people as you want anywhere in the world, just by typing their e-mail addresses and clicking another icon. You can send carbon copies that list the names of all the people you are sending it to, or you can send them without the list. You can attach minutes of Friday’s meeting or a copy of last year’s budget report. You can attach any file that is in your computer.

Suppose you need to rent a car. You can do this through your e-mail. Fill out an electronic form and e-mail it to a special address. From there it is sent though the correct signature chain to get approval. The end product of this sequence is a rental car order. Or suppose your company is in the market to buy a thousand personal computers. Send your request via e-mail to contractors who, in turn, can send engagement letters back to you stating their terms. While it is not a legal contract, everything can be spelled out in the most efficient, time-saving way.