1. A brief guide to web-based email

2. What do you need? A computer, a tablet or a smartphone An internet connection (ethernet, wifi or 3G) An account with an email service provider, such as google, yahoo or hotmail

3. What does it cost? Nothing for the basic email service Just the cost of the internet connection

4. Benefits? Fast communication with other email users Required in order to register for and use many web services Can send files as attachments

5. Drawbacks Not secure Risk of malware Junk mail (spam)

6. How it works lucy@gmail.com brenda@hotmail.co.uk

7. Google’s email servers Gmail had 425 million active users in mid-2012

8. Where are Google data centres? Google has 19 data centres in the US,12 in Europe, one in Russia, one in South America, and three in Asia.

9. Main functions Compose new message Send message Receive message Reply Forward Attachments Address/contacts list

10. The email address

11. Setting up an account Go to www.yahoo.co.uk, or www.google.co.uk, or www.hotmail.co.uk, and click on the sign up linkwww.yahoo.co.uk www.google.co.ukwww.hotmail.co.uk Fill in the form Make a record of your user name and password!

12. Logging in Go to the sign in page, and enter your user name and password

13. Checking mail If the Inbox link has a number beside it, you have that number of messages waiting to be read

14. Happy emailing!