Introduction to Email
Email: One of the most popular uses of the Internet is sending e-mail. It's fast, free, allows you to send the same message to groups of people at once, and enables you to attach files to your emails such as pictures, documents, audio files, video clips, and many others. 

To take advantage of email you must first configure an e-mail program on your computer. The most commonly used email programs are "Outlook Express' that comes free with windows, or "Outlook" that comes as part of Microsoft Office. Other commonly used programs are Netscape Messenger, Eudora Lite and Mozilla, and for MAC users a variety of other options.

Yet before we discuss how that is done, let us first take a look at how e-mail actually works. Basically, we (your Internet Service Provider ISP) have a computer called a mail server. When you compose new messages, reply or forward messages and send them they are passed to our Email server, which then delivers them all over the world, FREE

In the other direction when an email arrives at our mail server for you it is placed in a mailbox we have set up specifically for your mail. It stays there until you log onto the net and check your email, whereupon it is transferred to a mailbox in the email program on your computer and deleted from ours.

Thus when you are sending email the person at the end does not need to be there or even be on line at the time, mail is transferred between mail servers at each ISP around the world and looked at by the receiver at a later time.
Basic email settings: When you go into the accounts section of your email program and run the wizard to set up an account your email program will need to know the following:
Your user name 
Your password 
The name of the incoming mail server (POP3) 
The name of the outgoing mail server (SMTP) 
The name you want to appear in emails
Your email address
Your reply address if different
The type of email server we have. (The default is POP, and that is what ours is)

When you sign up we will ask you to pick a user name. For dial up users, the user name that you choose will also be used for logging in and will become the first part of your e-mail address so choose wisely. For example: username@easy.com.au. 
Setting up your e-mail program: In the e-mail program of your choice, you need to enter all of the above-mentioned information in the appropriate place. This must be done so that the program knows how to log in to the e-mail server and send and receive your e-mail. Most programs will launch a wizard when you open them for the first time after installing them, and will guide you through setting up your first e-mail account. The steps below may be useful if you didn't get the wizard, you need to set up your account again, or just wish to set up an additional account.

In Outlook Express, go to Tools/Accounts/Mail/Add Mail to start the wizard. Note if your version of Outlook Express is version 5.4 or lower, do not use it until it is upgraded, as it cannot be protected from viruses.

In Netscape, go to Edit/Preferences, expand the Mail & News Groups section, select Mail Server, and enter your username and the mail server names. If you click on More Options, you can check a box to remember your password. 

In Eudora, go to Tools/Personalities, right-click in the Personalities window and select New to start the wizard. You can either let wizard walk you through the process by selecting to create a brand-new e-mail account, or select to skip to the advanced set-up to do it quicker.
Virus Protection: Unfortunately these days it is essential to have virus protection for your email, and for your general web surfing. It is also wise to have a firewall and other security.
Webmail: As well as being able to send and receive email using an email program with your account details set in it, it is possible to check your Easynet email box from any computer connected to the net anywhere in the world. We provide a web-based interface. Using any computer go to our web site www.easy.com.au, click on the webmail text and enter your username and password
Using Email: Easynet offers beginners and advanced one-on-one email training courses with our personal trainers. These are the best way to advance your email skills. Below is a summary of some of the basics.

Sending e-mail is easy: select to create a new message, enter the e-mail address of the recipient (be sure to enter the entire address, it should be in the following format: username@easy.com.au), type in a subject field, then type your message. When you're done, simply hit Send (sometimes this will only send mail to your Outbox, and you will need to hit Send/Receive to make sure that your message has been sent). If you're already online, the message will be sent automatically, otherwise you will be prompted to go online or it will dial automatically, depending on your set-up.  
Address Books: There is a lot more to e-mail, much of which you will discover after using it for a while. First, you can set up an address book where you store the e-mail addresses from all your friends and relatives. This lets you store them electronically and you can address a new e-mail with one click instead of having to type in the entire e-mail address every time. And when you receive an email from somebody not in your address book yet, you can add this person to your address book with just a click.
Mailing Lists: Then you can set up mailing lists or groups where you group a number of e-mail addresses, give the group a name, and then are able to send out one e-mail to all members in that group. You could create a group for your relatives, one for your friends, one for your co-workers, one for the people in your French basket weaving class, anything you want. 
Rules and Filters: Another neat feature is setting up automatic tasks. They are called rules or filters. This lets you automate certain tasks so you don't have to do them by hand every time. For example, you could set up several folders to stay organized, then set up rules that move e-mail automatically into a certain folder if the e-mail contains a certain subject, comes from a certain sender, etc. Or if you have received a junk message (SPAM), you can set up a rule that will automatically move any further e-mail you receive from the same sender into the trash. Or if you go on vacation, you could set up a rule that automatically replies to every email you receive with a message saying that you will get back to the sender after you come back from your vacation. The possibilities are endless. 
Attachments: Then you can send attachments via e-mail, a very handy feature. To do this is simply a matter of creating a new message, addressing it, entering your text, etc., and then click on Attachment (usually a button with a paperclip on it). A dialog will appear asking you that file you want to attach. Simply use this dialog to maneuver to the folder that contains the file(s) you want to attach and select it. If you want to attach multiple files, you probably have to repeat this process for every file. When you're done and hit Send, the e-mail program will make a copy of the selected file (the original file on your hard drive will remain there untouched, don't worry) and send it to the recipients. With this method you can send any type of file, text documents, spreadsheets, video clips, sound files, picture files, anything. The only caveat here is that most ISPs limit the size of attachments. Easynet limits are around 10 MB. If you have more than that to send, you might have to split it up and send multiple e-mails, or consider using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Provided that the addressee is capable of unzipping files, you should get into the habit of compressing large files with a utility such as Winzip (or other suitable compression software). This will help to reduce the size of the item, and enable it to be sent much more quickly

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