E-mail

support@computerhope.com

The first portion all e-mail addresses is the alias, user, group, and/or department of a company. In our above example "Support" is the department at Computer Hope.

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

Finally, "computerhope.com" is the domain name of where the user belongs. Many times a user that owns their own domain name will also own their own web page and curious users can type the domain name in their browser to look at that user's or his or her company web page.

Users can send and receive e-mail messages either through an e-mail program such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird or through 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.

E-mail etiquette

Below is a short list of e-mail etiquette that should be followed when sending e-mails to others.

1. Always include a subject and make that subject descriptive to the message of the e-mail.
2. Always spell check your e-mail before sending it out.
3. Try your best to spell all words correctly and use proper punctuation.
4. Keep the message simple and as short as possible. Long and/or poorly written e-mails may not get as quick as a response or a response at all.
5. Do not WRITE IN ALL CAPS as it makes you appear as you're yelling.
6. Make the e-mail personal, e.g. write their name or alias and yours at the end.
7. Try to avoid company and/or personal confidential information in e-mails.
8. If you use an e-mail signature, be sure to read more about it and its etiquette on our signature definition.

In addition to the above etiquette when sending e-mail, below are some additional things that should be considered when forwarding and replying to e-mail.

1. Try to respond to e-mails as fast as possible.
2. Keep the e-mail thread (previous messages) in the body of the message and your response at the beginning of the message to allow readers to remember what the e-mail was about.
3. Only use the reply to all option if everyone really needs to see your reply.
4. Do not over use e-mail program options such as "high-priority", "out of office", "read receipts", etc.
5. Do not participate or forward chain e-mails to friends, family, and/or co-workers.
6. Don't reply to spam.

• See our e-mail questions and answers page for a listing of additional e-mail and Internet related questions.

Also see: AT, Attachment, BCC, Bounce, CC, Chain mail, Contact, E-, E-mail bomb, Exchange, FNEA, Header, Inbox, Internet, Joe Job, Mail exploder, Mail list, Mail merge, Mailbox, MAPI, Message body, MIME, Network definitions, Newsletter, Outbox, Phishing, Postmaster, Signature, SMTP, Snail mail, Spam, Subject, Thunderbird, Uuencode, X.400