E-mail Basic

Short for electronic mail, e-mail or email is text messages that may contain files, images or other attachmentssent through a network to a specified individual or group of individuals. The first e-mail was sent by by Ray Tomlinson in 1971. By 1996 more electronic mail was being sent than postal mail. Below is an example and breakdown of an Internet e-mail address.

The first portion all e-mail addresses is the alias, user, group, or department of a company.

Next, the @ (at sign) is used as a divider in the e-mail address and is always required for all SMTP e-mail addresses.

To send and receive e-mail messages you can use an e-mail program such as Microsoft Outlook or MozillaThunderbird or an online e-mail service or webmail such as .Mac, Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Many of the online e-mail services including the one's listed above are 100% free or have a free account option.