HELP WITH USING E-MAIL

ELECTRONIC MAIL SYSTEM

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Sending E-mail
• sending email outside the Freenet
• Receiving E-mail
• A Guide to The Eudora Mail Package (for popmail)

The Alachua Free-Net e-mail system allows you to exchange electronic mail with members of the Free-Net or any of the millions of people with accounts on the Internet, a worldwide computer network linking thousands of locations around the world electronically.

The Internet connects most colleges and universities, many major corporations, and even lets you send mail to the "commercial" computer networks outside the Internet like Compuserve and MCI Mail. These services charge people to use their networks, but there is no charge for any service on the Free-Net.

Best of all, you can contact anyone on the Internet as much as you like without paying a dime--even when mailing to pay services like Compuserve.

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Sending Mail

To mail to people at Free-Net, first find out the name they use here either by asking them or looking for their name on the list of users. If you know John Smith uses Free-Net and uses the name jsmith, simply type jsmith on the TO: line and it will be waiting for him the next time he calls the Free-Net.

Mailing outside the Freenet

• To Bitnet
• To Compuserve
• To MCI, ATT, AOL, etc

Mailing to people outside Free-Net is a little different, but still no more complicated than addressing a regular letter. For example, a university student's Internet e-mail address might look something like: smith@math.ufl.edu

The part of the address to the left of the @ is usually called a username and the part to the right is called the domain because it tells where the person is.

Tips for mailing to other Nets

• To mail to people on Bitnet, a smaller network that connects to the Internet for e-mail, just take the person's Bitnet address and add bitnet onto the end of it. For example, to mail to the Bitnet address smith@node you would address your e-mail to smith@node.bitnet

• Compuserve members use a numerical system, so to e-mail a person with account number 12345,678 on Compuserve, you would substitute a period for the comma and address your mail to 12345.678@compuserve.com

• To contact to MCI Mail member John-Smith, remove the hyphen and address your mail to johnsmith@mcimail.com

Some other similar systems are:

• ATT Mail:jsmith@attmail.com
• America Online:jsmith@aol.com etc.
• Fidonet, an international network of private computer bulletin boards.
  Ask the Free-Net POSTMASTER if you'd like help doing this.

Also keep in mind that e-mail is superior to regular mail not just because it's free, but because it's also immediate. Just a few seconds after you send a piece of e-mail, it appears on the recipient's computer system ready to be read and replied to.

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Receiving mail

You can also be reached by others if they know your Free-Net address. Your address is made up of the name you use to log on here followed by the Free-Net's address:

Just replace jsmith with the name you use on Free-Net. Once you're adept at e-mail, you'll want to give out your address just as you would a phone number.

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Go for it

The best way to get comfortable with e-mail is to go to the Free-Net mail menu and try it out. You might start by sending mail to someone here on Free-Net by choosing a name from the list of users. The mail system is very simple and has a help feature if you need it, so it shouldn't take you long to get up to speed.

If you have any questions about mailing or anything else on the Free-Net, address your questions to postmaster.

Remember:
To quit the mail system, press q and be sure to type ? if you need help at any time.

If you have any questions that the online help doesn't answer, ask the postmaster.

Have fun ...

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