Mr. Ellsworth

Introduction to (electronic mail) is a major component of the Internet and can be used to participate in nearly every available online activity. Beyond its pure Internet use, you may find that can replace other forms of communication for you. It's faster than the U.S. Mail (or snail mail, as it's called on the Internet) yet has all the positive factors of a written note. Unlike faxes or phone calls, you can't get tied up with a busy signal or an answering machine. Your message goes through and can be read by its receiver in its full length prose form. Of course, the reading habits of the person you're ing makes a huge difference in how quickly they receive the message. (We’ll talk about this later).

What does this address mean? You should now have an Internet address. My address is Login Name, At Domain Login Name = mellsworth At (simple enough) spectrumhighschool.org is my domain What the heck is a domain? In an address, a domain is the information after symbol.

Domain Names Domain Names - An identification label; strings of letters and numbers (separated by periods) that are used to name organizations, computers, and addresses on the Internet. What do the following domain name examples tell us about this address? Example: “ellsworm” is the login name “edu” tells us that the account is at an educational institution. “augsburg” tells us the name of the institution where the address is located.

Subdomains refer to each segment of information in a domain address; separated by a period. It is most common today for addresses to have only two subdomains (maybe three). This example has four subdomains: This address tells us we're sending to a person (mason) at an educational institution, which is the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, who is attached to the University of Tennessee Computing Center, and whose account is on a computer called “utkvx.”

Domains The “original” domains commonly used in the United States, and what they mean: com - commercial organization edu - educational institution gov - government agency int - international organization mil - military group or agency net - networking organization org - nonprofit organization

Using Basics Begin your Spectrum High School session by logging into your spectrumhighschool.org account. NOTE: If you already have an external web-based account, you may be able to consolidate your accounts into one by forwarding your other account to your Augsburg account (or vice versa). Check your external account to see if this is an available option. Then you'll only have to check for your mail at one place. Keep your other account for the day when you (sniff, sniff, sigh :-( ) leave Spectrum.

Sending, Receiving, Forwarding, and Replying While most clients adhere to the same basic rules, we are going to focus on your “spectrumhighschool.org” mail client for this lesson. By default, your page will check to see if you have any new . Unread messages will be bold. Messages you've seen before will be in normal text. In order to file or delete an item in the list view, first select the message by clicking in the checkbox next to that item's subject. Then click the button from the left-hand column that corresponds to your intended task.

To open a message, click on the message title text. When you open a message, more buttons will appear which include options such as reply and forward. Click the button which corresponds to your intended task. Forwarding Messages - Sending a received message to a new recipient. While you will need to address forwarded messages, simple reply messages are automatically addressed to the sender of the current message. Reply - Will send your reply to the person who sent the message Reply All - Sends your reply to the person who sent the message, and to everyone else who received the message (in the To: or Cc: fields).

Compose - A new message can be started by clicking on the "Compose" button. Delete - Will purge your inbox of the selected messages. Note: Deleted messages are usually not permanently deleted; they are stored in a “trash” folder.

Composing messages “To:” refers to who the recipient of your message is. “Cc:” refers to other recipients of the same message. Cc stands for carbon copy. “Bcc:” refers to other recipients of the same message, but the other recipients will not know who the “blind recipient” is, or that there is one. Bcc stands for blind carbon copy. Most clients are HTML based. A full set of text formatting tools are usually available, including bolding, underlining, colors, etc.

Spam Spam Spam Spam... No, not the canned meat. No, not the Monty Python song. Spam is the “junk mail” of your inbox, and is a constant problem for users. Some estimate as much as 70% of all sent is spam. What a waste of resources! While I know of no reliable way to rid yourself of all spam, using your spam filter is one good way to trap much of it.

Spam In general, spam filters are sets of rules used by your program or your provider's delivery system that look for certain sets of words, phrases, senders, and punctuation to detect messages that are most likely to be junk. Spammers like to use multiple exclamation points!!!!!!!! Spammers like to use words like free, win, claim your prize, etc. Today, clients are equipped with effective spam filters, so you don’t have to do much with it.

Spam Before clients had reliable and effective spam filters, it was up to you to maintain your own spam filter... Each time you reject or accept an trapped by your spam filter, you are teaching your spam filter for what to look. It's as if each time you reject a message you "vote" that this kind of is actually spam. Over time, you train your spam filter to become ever more skilled at detecting the good and bad messages. Be spam savvy and use your spam filter!

Attachments Attachments are other computer files, such as pictures or word processing documents, that can be affixed to your outgoing mail. This is done by clicking the "Attachments" button. A new window appears which displays a "Browse... " button. Click the button--this will return a dialogue box used to navigate to the file you want to attach. Browse your storage device (hard disk drive, network storage drive, etc.) to locate the file you intend to attach. The selected file will be copied and attached to your message. When the process is finished, the name and size of your file will be displayed in the lower part of the Attachments utility.

Repeat if desired. If you want to attach more files to the same message, go through steps 1 and 2 again to add the additional files. As you add them, their names and sizes will be added to the listing in the lower part of the Attachments utility. Click "Done" to dismiss the Attachments utility. When you send this message, the attached file(s) will also be sent.

Be Forewarned: Attachments often don't work if the intended recipient doesn't have the appropriate software to read the attachment. Good etiquette suggests you clearly indicate to your correspondent with what program they can open your attachment. Example: “John, I am attaching a Microsoft Word document of my final paper.” or “Jill, attached is the final design; it is a Photoshop document. If you do not have Photoshop, let me know and I will send it in another format.”

Signatures An signature is a small piece of text which is appended to outgoing messages. This saves you from having to manually finish your s with your name and information. If you want your recipients to know the many ways you can be reached, this information is stored here. It is professional and follows proper etiquette (which we will discuss later).

Signatures Your signature footer should include your name, position, affiliation and Internet addresses and should not exceed more than 10 lines. Optional information could include your address, phone number and URL for a WWW homepage. My signature is: Matthew Ellsworth English, Literature, Communication Arts and Media Spectrum High School Elk River, Minnesota m m eeee llll llll ssss wwww oooo rrrr tttt hhhh ssss pppp eeee cccc tttt rrrr uuuu mmmm hhhh iiii gggg hhhh ssss cccc hhhh oooo oooo llll.... oooo rrrr gggg