E-mail was adapted for ARPANET by Ray Tomlinson of BBN in 1972. He picked the @ symbol from the available symbols on his teletype to link the username and address.

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E-Mail Basics

E-Mail is "electronic" mail. It is can be plain text or html.

If e-mail is html based, it can contain images, video and sound. Html based e-mail is becoming more popular as more Internet users change to e-mail clients that can handle html in email.

Most e-mail clients (the program on your computer that handles your e-mail) give the user a choice of receiving and sending e-mail as either "plain-text" or as "html".

Plain text is simpler and easier to use. Html can be made more attractive. An e-mail can be made to look almost like a webpage.

It is basically free and it is fast. Two reasons that account for its wide use.

Your ISP (Internet Service Provider)

Your ISP provides you with e-mail service. It comes in two parts.

• Incoming email is handled through the POP (Post Office Protocol)
• Outgoing email is handled through the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

You will be allowed to choose a username and a password with which to access your email.

Your email address is a combination of your username and a domain name separated by the "at sign" symbol (@). Email addresses are NOT case-sensitive. me@mydomain.com is the same as Me@MyDomain.com

Incoming email can stay on the email server or it can be downloaded to your computer or both.

Your ISP should provide you with instructions for both sending and receiving your email.

Other Sources of Email Accounts

• Free E-Mail Accounts
• E-Mail accounts usually are a part of a web site hosting package.
• "E-mail Only" accounts through a web host.
• Special use e-mail accounts such as ZoeMail.net - which minimize your Spam.