Using email

Email is the most popular form of electronic communication and the biggest use of the internet. It is easy to use, personal, and usually free. You can reach people anywhere in the world, instantly, and even send and receive emails directly from your mobile or tablet while you are on the move. You can email family and friends, or send mass emails to lists of contacts.

An email address is made up of two parts: a Username and a Domain. When you register with an email provider you will be asked to create a Username, for example Bob760. The domain is determined by the provider you decide to set up an account with. For instance, if you sign up with Yahoo their domain is yahoo.co.uk. The username and the domain are connected with the @ (at) symbol to create your email address – Bob760@yahoo.co.uk.

Once you have your email account set up, you will be able to receive emails from other email account holders from any internet provider, so if someone you know has an AOL account and you have Yahoo! it is okay you will still receive emails to and from them. Just pass your email address to those you want to have it. Be careful of submitting your email address to different websites to avoid them selling it to spammers (spam is unwanted mail; similar to junk mail you get in your post).