Short for electronic mail, e-mail or email is text messages that may contain files, images
or other attachments sent 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.
support@computerhope.com
The first portion all e-mail addresses is the alias, user, group, or department of a company. In our above example support is the Technical Support department at Computer Hope.
Next, the @ (at sign) 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.
To send and receive e-mail messages you can use an e-mail program, also known as a e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird 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.
- E-mail tips.
- Should I capitalize the "i" in Internet and use a hyphen in e-mail?
- All e-mail questions and answers.
- Information about the Linux mail command can be found on our mail command page.
Also see: Attachment, BCC, Bounce, CC, Chain mail, Distribution list, E-mail bomb, Exchange, FNEA, Header, Inbox, Internet definitions, Joe Job, Mail exploder, Mail list, Mail merge, Mailbox, MAPI, Message body, MIME, Network definitions, Newsletter, Outbox, Phishing, Postmaster, Return address, Signature, SMTP, Snail mail, Spam, Subject, Thunderbird, Uuencode, X.400