Some online services have a limit on the size of your mailbox. If you receive a lot of mail, you must regularly read and make room for new. If your mailbox is full, new mail may be rejected without warning. You may never know that a person tried to reach you. Select a service that has room for all your mail!

A special warning to those with their email programs set to "Leave mail on server", and "Skip messages over xx K in size". Unless you regularly delete mail from server, your mailbox will become full without you even knowing the reason!

Email for free

Many services on the Internet will let you do email for free - or almost free - in exchange for the right to put an advertisement on every page you read. Here's some popular US providers: Hotmail , USA.NET , RocketMail, MailCity , Juno, MailExcite, iName.
They let you read mail using a standard web browser. All you need is access to the web, at a library, at school, at work, on an airport, an Internet cafe. Anywhere. You get email without having to pay for an account with an Internet Service provider!
HushMail uses a Java applet to encrypt (with 1,024-bit encryption) and decrypt messages sent between users with HushMail accounts.
Hint: Most these services require that you must be connected to the net while reading and replying . Those using a dial-up modem, may find this expensive. - Outlook Express as of version 5.0 lets you read and reply to mail offline ("web mail"). You dial up to send and receivel, then hang up your phone. Read and reply at your own pace, and reconnect to send and check new mail when ready.
If you insist on using a service where you must be connected to the net while reading and replying, select an international service if your main application is use while travelling abroad. Else, you will find it cheaper and easier to use a local service. To find a service, try the Free Email Providers Guide.
Beware: Many email-for-free services will give you more disk space for your mailbox, but it will cost you. "No need," you might thing. However, you should think again. If you get a lot of spam mail, then a few days absence from your mailbox might fill it up. When full, mail to you will be rejected. You wouldn't want that, right? One solution is to pay for more space...

How to send email?

Many users just "talk" with an email program to send and receive mail. Internet users of programs like Eudora (my favorite) and Pegasus Mail may compose mail before calling the access service. They click on a "write new mail" icon, enter an email address, a subject, write the text, and click at Send.
When all outgoing messages have been composed, they logon to the Internet. Their mail is sent in one batch, and incoming messages are simultaneously retrieved. Interaction with the online service is transparent to the user. Simple. Safe. Quick. Cheap. (see Chapter 16 about automatic email programs).
CompuServe users of programs like OzWin or TAPCIS do it in a similar way, but they can also do it manually. Other systems require different commands to send email.
On some Unix system, mail may be sent using the following type of commands:

1. Type "mail presno@eunet.no".
2. When the computer asks for "Subject:," enter "Hello, my friend!"
3. Type your message, or send a pre-prepared text.
4. When done, enter a period (.) in the beginning of a line, and the message is on its way.

Though commands for sending email differ by system, the principle is the same. All systems will ask for an address, and the text of your message. On some, the address is a code, on others a name (like ODD DE PRESNO). The same applies to the email programs.
Most systems and programs will ask for a Subject title, and let you send copies of your mail to other recipients (Cc:).
Some let you send binary files as email. Binary files contain codes based on the binary numeration system. Such codes are used in computer programs, graphics pictures, compressed spreadsheets, word processed text files, and sound files.
Some email programs let you send mail in web format (formatted in html). This lets you make your mails very beautiful, and you may include photos and clickable links to web pages in a practical way.
Make sure the person you are writing to can receive such emails, or risk confusion at the other end. Also, when including links to web pages, be careful about punctuation - especially periods - right after a web address. Include a space before the punctuation, or risk that the program at the other end thinks that that last period after the URL is part of the URL. Also, you should also include the http:// part of the web address.

Example: You want to write: "You are adviced to look up www.kidlink.org." Write: "Your are adviced to look up http://www.kidlink.org ."

To make sure everything comes across fine, always put URLs on a separate line. Some URLs are so long that they will get split into two lines in your message. To increase the chance that a long URL will be interpreted by the other person's program, it may help if you put the link in brackets (<>), as in <http://www.kidlink.org>.

Mail through the Internet

Internet's core network has gateways for electronic mail to systems on many other networks. When we include these systems and their connections, we call it the Matrix, or WorldNet (more at Appendix 1).
If you read this handbook, you probably already have access to the net. If you want to check your options, take a look at the links in the appendix "Services offering access to Internet".
If you are on the Matrix, you can send email to users on networks like UUCP, CompuServe, MCI Mail, EcoNet, PeaceNet, ConflicNet, GreenNet, Pegasus, AppleLink, Alternex, UUNET, PSI, Usenet, FidoNet and many others.
When people talk about this phenomenon, they often refer to it as "Internet mail," even if they are just using the Internet as kind of a telephone exchange.
Let us take a closer look at the art of addressing mail through the Internet and the Matrix.

Finding a friend's email address

The best method of finding a friend's email address is usually to call your friend and ask. Many people have several mailboxes. Only by asking will you find out which mailbox is being used!
So, you don't know the telephone number? Try http://www.contractjobs.com/tel/. This site offers links to online telephone, fax, and business directories around the world.
Sometimes, the information provided by a recipient is not enough. Maybe the address needs an extension for mail to be routed through gateways to the destination?
Typically, the syntax of the address is wrong. Perhaps you made a mistake, when you wrote it down (KIDCAFE-TOPICS became KIDSCAFE- TOPICS).
The return address in the received messages' mailer headers may be wrong. Yes, this happens surprisingly often. It may use a syntax that is illegal on your email system, or suggest a routing that is unknown to your system. When trying to send a reply to this address, the Mailer-Daemon complains: "This is a non-existent address."
Again, the first person to contact for help is your local postmaster. On many Internet hosts, this is simple. If you have a mailbox on the ULRIK computer at the University of Oslo, send your request to postmaster@ulrik.uio.no . If you are on COLNET in Buenos Aires, send to postmaster@colnetr.edu.ar .
POSTMASTER is also the address to turn to on BITNET. Users of FidoNet or RelayNet, write to SYSOP.
There are hundreds of "whois-servers" around the world. The systems whois.nic.ad.jp and whois.ripe.net cover Japan and Europe. Others provide information about local users. (For a list, see ftp://sipb.mit.edu/pub/whois/whois-servers.list.)
Note: You need to know the exact address of your recipient, and whether he is using this mailbox regularly. Many users have mailboxes that they use rarely or never. Also, think of the easiest way for a recipient to respond before sending a message to him or her.

Directories of subscribers and services

While many hosts let you search lists of local users, no complete global directory of available electronic addresses exists!
Several services on the Internet offer help. My favorite is the Usenet address database . It is also accessible by email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu. To query, put the following in the body of your text:

    send usenet-addresses/[name searching for]

The "name" should be one or more space-separated words for which you want to search. Since the search is "fuzzy" (that is, all the words you specify do not have to match), you should list all words you think might appear in the address, including first and last name, possible username, and possible parts of the host name. The case and order of the words you list are ignored. (Send the command "send usenet-addresses/help" to this address for more information.) Example:

    send usenet-addresses/odd de presno

X.400 systems use an address directory according to ITU-TSS standard X.500 that connect several directories. The developers hoped that routing of X.400 messages may eventually be done automatically without the user needing to know the identity of the recipient's mailbox computer. However, it never became a big success.
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) was introduced as an alternative to X.500 to become "the comprehensive Internet wide e-mail address directories of the future". It is a subset of the Directory Access Protocol (DAP) used to build X500-based directories.
Information contained in LDAP databases include vital data such as name and e-mail address, and may include supplemental data including address, phone, fax, and even the person's public key which can be used to encrypt messages the user is sending them. For more information, see the LDAP home page.
Supplement by checking the "How to find people's E-mail addresses FAQ".

Domain name addressing

On the Internet, the general form of a person's email address is:

user-name@somewhere.domain

My main, international Internet mailbox address is:

presno@eunet.no

Read the address from left to right. First, the local name of the mailbox (my name abbreviated). Next, there is sometimes the name of the mailbox system or another identification code (previously, I had "login" in this position of my mail address), followed by the name of the institution or company (here "EUnet, a Norwegian Internet provider), and finally the country ("NO" for Norway).
People have sent mail to my mailbox from New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Peru, India, China, Greece, Iceland, and Armenia using this address.
Some of them had to send their mail through a gateway to the Internet, and the address sometimes had to be changed accordingly:
Users of AppleLink used presno@eunet.no@INTERNET# . Those on JANET used presno%login.eunet.no@eanrelay.ac.uk. On SprintMail, they used ("RFC-822": <presno(a)login.eunet.no>, SITE:INTERNET) . CompuServe subscribers used INTERNET:presno@eunet.no . (These procedures may have changed now!)
The core of these address formats is "presno@eunet.no," in one way or the other.
We call the core addressing format a Domain Naming System. "EUNET.NO" is a domain. The domain may also contain reference to the name of a company or organization, as in compuserve.com, twics.co.jp, or IGC.ORG. The .CO, .COM, and .ORG codes identify IGC, TWICS, and CompuServe as companies or organizations.
To send mail from the Internet to my CompuServe mailbox, use (do not expect a reply, as I'm rarely there!):

75755.1327@compuserve.com

Normally, a domain address can only contain one @- character. When an address has to be extended with gateway routing information, replace all @-characters to the LEFT in the address by %- characters. Here is an example:

USER%SYSTEM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

The rightmost @ in this address is maintained. The one to the LEFT has been replaced with a %. The term ".BITNET" tells the gateway machine where to forward the message.
The following used to happen with this address: First, the message was sent to system CUNYVM at the EDUcation site CUNY. CUNYVM investigated the address, and discovered that it was for BITNET. It cut off all text to the right of "USER," and replaced the % with an @. The message was forwarded to mailbox USER on the BITNET system SYSTEM. Replace USER and SYSTEM with your real addressing data.

How to get a personalized domain name?
If you're a small business, you may like to have a personalized domain name like the big ones. Microsoft uses microsoft.com, IBM uses ibm.com, HotBot uses hotbot.com, and it sure would be nice to have your own yourname.com.
For cost-efficient ways of getting a personalized domain name, check out the email-for-free services. USA.NET is one vendor.

Non-Latin characters

"Foreign" characters, they call it in some places. Internet experts call it Extended Character Sets. Those of us with a regularly need to write or read in other languages than English, might simply call them The Challenge.
In 1982, when email was defined, the decision was made to encode email in such a way that only 128 different characters - letters, numbers, punctuation, and so on - could be transmitted from one computer to another. We are still suffering from this decision! It means that many people have difficulty sending and receiving mails containing characters like ä, ç, and Ø, to mention a few.
The good news is that there is a way of encoding data so that 256 different characters can be represented, called "quoted-printable".
The bad news is that the underlying transport is still limited to 128 different characters, so the email gets converted to the more limited set, transmitted, then (hopefully) converted back on the other end. If the receiving software doesn't know how to do quoted-printable, the extended characters will show up as an equals-sign and two letter/digit code as in this Spanish language text:

Ah=ED van mis saludos y mis =E1nimos para ti y para todos los = argentinos. Sigo desde hace tiempo con preocupaci=F3n lo que pasa en = vuestro pa=EDs. Me sabe mal que tengais que pasar por =E9sto y me siento = impotente, sin saber qu=E9 hacer. No perdais la esperanza ni la = confianza en un futuro mejor.

Finally, even if your friends' email programs know how to convert codes back to extended characters, different computers have different symbols for the same codes. For example, the trademark symbol, bullet, and "curly" quotation marks are all legal characters in both Windows95 and MacOS, but are in different places in the character set. For example, Windows thinks that character number 241 is a ñ, while the Mac thinks that character number 241 is a Ò.

Anonymous mail

Some day, you may want to send a message anonymously. Try Hushmail, designed by hackers for total security. The mail message's headers are gone. Nobody knows where or who you are.
Internet's Anonymous re-mailers will also let you do that. Check http://anon.efga.org/~rlist/rlist.html for a list of servers and directions.
Then, visit the alt.privacy.anon-server and alt.anonymous newsgroups for more on anonymous email.

Things Take Time!

How long does it take a message to get from Hyougo in Japan to Saltrod in Norway? To Dominique Christian in Paris?
Sometimes, mail travels from mailbox to mailbox in seconds. This is usually so with messages from my mailbox in Norway to Dan Wheeler in U.S.A. and Mike Burleigh in London.
Messages that must go through many gateways may take more time. How long it takes, depends on the degree of automation in the mail systems involved, and how these systems have been connected to the global matrix of networks.
Speed is high if the computers are interconnected with fixed, high-capacity lines. This was not so for my mails from Oslo to Dominique in Paris. Although the Paris is relatively close, mail was routed through a system in London, and then forwarded only once a day through a dial-up connection. My mails usually took at least one day to reach the destination.

Returned mail

Once you have learned the basics of Internet mail, it is relatively easy. However, be ready for some glitches and hiccups due to incompatibilities between email systems, gateways, protocols, clients, etc. While this is not an "Internet problem" by itself, it will look like one.
Returned mail is one of the results. When an email address is incorrect in some way, the mail system will bounce (route) the message back to the sender. Reasons may be that the system's name is wrong, the domain does not exist, or because there was some configuration problem on the receiver's end. This also happens if the receiver's mailbox is full.
The most common error is addressing mail to a non-existent account name or network address. For example, I have seen many users trying to send mail to LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU using LISTSERV@VML.NODAK.EDU. When the address is written in lower case letters, a user may easily interpret the number "1" in the address as the letter "l". Alas, the result is an error message.
Let us construct an error when sending to LISTSERV@VM1.NODAK.EDU. Let us send a mail to "pistserv@VM1.NODAK.EDU" instead, which is a wrong address.
The good news is that the returned message will include the reason for the bounce. Below, you will find the full text of the bounced message. It contains much technical information, and most lines have no interest. Also, the message is much larger than the original message, which contained three lines only.
When browsing the bounced message, note that it has three distinct parts: [1] The mailer header of the bounced message itself (here, the 13 first lines), [2] The text of the error report (from line 14 until the line "Original message follows:"), and [3] the mailer header and text of your original message (as received by computer reporting the error):

From MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU Fri Dec 18 12:54:03 1992
Return-Path: <MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
Received: from vm1.NoDak.edu by pat.uio.no with SMTP (PP)
id <07610-0@pat.uio.no>; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:54 +0100
Received: from NDSUVM1.BITNET by VM1.NoDak.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)
with BSMTP id 9295; Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:27 CST
Received: from NDSUVM1.BITNET by NDSUVM1.BITNET (Mailer R2.07)
with BSMTP id 3309; Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:26 CST
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:26 CST
From: Network Mailer <MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
To: presno@eunet.no
Subject: mail delivery error
Status: R

Batch SMTP transaction log follows:

220 NDSUVM1.BITNET Columbia MAILER R2.07 BSMTP service ready.
050 HELO NDSUVM1
250 NDSUVM1.BITNET Hello NDSUVM1
050 MAIL FROM:<presno@eunet.no>
250 <presno@eunet.no>... sender OK.
050 RCPT TO:<pistserv@NDSUVM1>
250 <pistserv@NDSUVM1>... recipient OK.
050 DATA
354 Start mail input. End with <crlf>.<crlf>
554-Mail not delivered to some or all recipients:
554 No such local user: PISTSERV
050 QUIT
221 NDSUVM1.BITNET Columbia MAILER BSMTP service done.

Original message follows:

Received: from NDSUVM1 by NDSUVM1.BITNET
(Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 3308;
Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:25 CST
Received: from pat.uio.no by VM1.NoDak.EDU
(IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP;
Fri, 18 Dec 92 05:53:23 CST
Received: from ulrik.uio.no by pat.uio.no with local-SMTP (PP)
id <07590-0@pat.uio.no>; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:24 +0100
Received: by ulrik.uio.no ; Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:18 +0100
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:53:18 +0100
From: presno@eunet.no
Message-Id: <9212181153.AAulrik20516@ulrik.uio.no>
To: pistserv@VM1.NODAK.EDU
Subject: test
index kidlink

The first part of the bounced message is usually of no interest. Hidden in the second part, you will find the following interesting line:

  554 No such local user: PISTSERV

Ah, a typo!

If your original message was long, you are likely to be pleased by having the complete text returned in the third part of the bounced message. This may allow you to solve the problem with a quick cut and paste, before resending to the corrected address.
The text and codes used in bounced messages vary depending on the type of mailbox system you are using, and the type of system that is bouncing your mail.
Above, MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU returned the full text of my bounced mail. Some systems just send the beginning of your original text, while others (in particular some X.400 systems) just send a short note telling the reason for the bounce.

Note: If you don't understand why a message bounces, contact your local postmaster for help. Send him a copy of the full text of the bounced message up to - and including - the line "Subject:" at the bottom. (There is no need to send him the TEXT of your original message! Just the header information.)

Returned due to error in contents

When you write a message to a real person, you may usually write your text any way you want. However, not so when the recipient is a computer program, like a LISTSERV, or a World Wide Web by email server.
Example: Often, users can fine tune the way they use electronic mailing lists by sending an email to some administering host computer. On LISTSERV-based lists, the command "set kidlink index" may help fight information overload. However, the command should be written starting in your mail's line 1, column 1, If the text starts with something else, chances are that you will get an error message rather than the requested change of setup.
Many users access the Internet through gateways from a company's internal mail system, and some of these mailers insist on adding extra information to the text, like in this Swedish example:

Microsoft Mail v3.0 IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note
Fr}n: Johan Svensson
Till: TOW
Ang}ende: Message headers
Datum: 1994-07-23 19:39
Prioritet:
Brev-ID: FE0257B9
Konversation-ID: FE0257B9

If the mail system's administrator is unable or unwilling to let you send Internet mail without extra headers, then you may have problems. To get around it, check if it is possible to send your message as a file.

How do I know my message is received?

On some networks, it is outright impossible. On others, you can request that an automatic acknowledgement be returned, when your mail has been received.
Internet users can often have their mailer add a Return-Receipt-To: <sender's email address> line to the mail headers.

Replace "sender's email address" by your real address.

Some mailers allow users to automate this. The final MTA (message transfer agent) will then send a "received" receipt to the specified address.

Receiving email

Most users receive their email in a storage area at an Internet service provider, or some other kind of remote mailbox provider. To receive mail, they either ask their email programs to retrieve new mail, or have their systems set to receive new emails automatically once they arrive in their remote mailbox.
Some remote systems use special transfer methods, typically called POP or IMAP. Others require that you connect to a remote web site, like hotmail.com, where you may read your mail using a web browser.
If you are moving from computer to computer, or are not getting so much mail, then using a mail server on the web may be practical. If you receive a lot, using other methods may be more efficient.

Attachments

Many mail programs support "attachments", where you can specify a document to send through email. This allows you to share essentially any file in any format, it be Word documents, GIF-encoded images, JPEG-encoded images, Photoshop files, Excel spreadsheets, voice files, executable files, whatever.
Note that if your correspondent's email program doesn't understand attachments, and you send a non-text file (like a Word document or a photo), it will appear as long mail filled with garbage.
Your correspondence must have software to view the file you send, like a PDF viewer for PDF files. Even executable programs will not always be useful to your correspondent unless you both have the same kind of computer. She must have enough free space on her disk to receive your file, so ask first if it is huge. It is usually better to post large documents on the Web and send the web address instead of the file.
Personally, I am very cautious about running any executable program unless I'm able to firmly establish that it is from a reliable source. There are so many programs containing viruses being circulated these days.
Some email programs let you configure your system to receive emails using a variety of encoding schemes (MIME, BinHex, UUencode), and to put text attachments in the body of your text. Personally, I use MIME encoding, and have decided not to put text attachments in the body of the text for security reasons.

You may find the Email MIME Test Form useful when trying to find a way out of the maze.

Web links in messages

Some email programs will recognize web addresses in incoming messages and make them "live". They let you click at a link in your email program, your default browser will be opened, and show the page on your screen right away. Some programs, like Eudora, may be set to request confirmation before taking you there. This may be a time saver for those communicating by modem.
Some programs will automatically retrieve information and elements (like a photo or an illustration) from the web, include it in the body of your mail, and record the action in a database somewhere. Some email programs let you turn off this feature, something which may be useful for dial-up modem users.
The bad news is that when you allow information to be automatically included in the body of your mail, then you are also permitting a remote person to record your actions. It allows him to know if you opened his mail, and retrieve private data about you in the process.

Privacy

The level of online privacy differs by network, service, and application. Whatever a service may claim, always expect that someone, somewhere, can watch, even record.
All mailbox services have at least one person authorized to access your personal mailbox in case of an emergency. Most of the time, they do not have a right to read your mail without your permission, but they can.
In some countries, mailbox services may let outsiders (like the police) routinely read your private email to check for 'illegal' contents. Here, email is not safer than ordinary mail.
The good news is that most 'inspectors' and 'sysops' are good, honest people. On the other hand, it is useful to know the situation.
It is not safe to send sensitive information (like credit card details) by private electronic mail. True, the chance of an outsider getting hold of and take advantage of such information is very small, but it is not safe.
On the Internet, it is child's play for someone to intercept your mail. The typical email message travels through many computers. At each computer, people may access your personal and business correspondence.
On the other hand, with so much mail traveling the network, it is highly unlikely that they will, but they can.

Encrypt your email to protect sensitive information. Encryption will also guarantee the identity of the sender of a message, a most useful attribute when financial transactions are involved.

The PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software has become the Internet standard for encryption of email and files so snoops cannot read them. For more information on encryption, check

http://world.std.com/~franl
http://www.isoc.org/internet/issues/encrypton/
http://www.chem.swin.edu.au/~graeme/pgp.html

Sometimes, we need to be certain that a message was written by the sender quoted in the mail's message header. As it is child's play to send an Internet message carrying other people's return email address, and name, you may want to use PGP to make sure the correspondence is authentic.
For this reason, be very skeptical if you ever get a message purportedly from your Internet access provider telling you to change your password to "k00l/d00d!"

One simple trick to check if correspondence is authentic: If in doubt, investigate the mailer header. It shows step by step how an incoming mail has travelled through the net, with a time stamp at each level. If it seems to come from somewhere else, be sceptical. You will not be able to track all jokers in this way, just the more obious cases.

Privacy is also a concern when talking in the open. Always assume that someone is recording all that is being said in online conferences, chats, and other interactive social gatherings. In chats, anyone using a personal computer as a terminal can log the conversation, or use screen dump to capture 'interesting parts'.
Many PC users can scroll back the screen. They can wait and decide whether to save the conversation in a file until after the conversation has taken place. With these capabilities widely available, users of chats and talk should always assume that their conversations are being recorded.
Do not say indiscreet things in small, informal discussions. Others may record and repost it under embarrassing circumstances. An unauthorized forward of your private correspondence is extremely easy, and completely outside your control!
Some people routinely use anonymous remailers when sending email to Usenet newsgroups or persons to make sure that the recipient (and snoops) cannot tell their real name or email address. Personally, I never use these services, but note that some do. You may be at the receiving end. For more on anonymous mail, check out the alt.privacy.anon-server newsgroup.
The files RFC 1113 through 1115 are about 'Privacy enhancements for Internet electronic mail'.
Usenet has alt.privacy (Privacy issues in cyberspace), alt.security.pgp, comp.society.privacy, comp.security.pgp.announce, comp.security.pgp.tech, comp.security.pgp.discuss, comp.security.pgp.resources, and more.

Junk mail

Junk mail, also called spam, is one of the curses of modern society. Spam is email messages that you never asked for, unsolicited commercial mail distributed to many people simultaneously. Typically, they contain advertising of some product, service, business, scheme, Web-site, etc. Sometimes, such mail promote political ideas.
Junk mail takes time to retrieve, browse, and delete, one by one. It distracts. For some, it may grow out of proportions, and become a major nuisance. Most users must pay to receive it, to a local phone company or an Internet service provider.
What to do? If you get on someone's mailing list, you can ask the sender to take you off that list. This may help a little, but not much! There are too many spammers out there. Besides, now the unscrupulous sender will know that your address is valid, and you will undoubtedly received more of the same!
Personally, I delete them, and keep quiet. My communications costs are low, and it takes too much effort to get off that list.
Others go a long way to protect themselves by being wary of giving out their email addresses, and of subscribing to newsgroups and mailing lists. However, sadly enough, the only 100 percent effective method is to close your mail account, and open another one. Then you should safe, but only for a while...
If you're at all active on the net, your address will be picked up by spammers. It's so easy! Programs like Email Magnet can scan Web sites, newsgroups, and chat channels to retrieve any string looking like an email address.
When you buy online or ask for information about something, your email address usually ends up in a database. Many online vendors sell their collection of addresses to others with information about what browser you are using, the domain you are calling in from, etc. Others consolidate your data with information from hundreds of other databases, each having some other bits of information about your use of the net, preferences, buying habits, etc.
List brokers offer megabytes of lists or CD-ROMs full of addresses to anyone willing to pay. Organizations and individuals offer to send spam mail to names in their private databases. For a fee, of course.
Filtering is option. Most modern email programs have a filtering function that lets you automatically send spams to Trash. They'll filter out mail from given senders, and if they find certain strings in the subject title or the body of the text.

Example: Some dangerious virus distribution schemes are set to send dangerous code in seemingly empty messages. They exploit a hole in the way .html is being displayed in email messages.
To delete mails that are obiously hostile, I let my email program (Eudora Pro) search the body of the incoming mail for the string </iframe></BODY></HTML>, and send them directly to trash.
Another filter searches headers of incoming mails for aol.com (some hostile mails have this in common), and marks mails containing this string red in the list of incoming mails. In this way, it is easy for me to delete mails that are evidently unimportant, or if needed, to investigate their contents in a more careful way.
Finally, consider using non-Microsoft email programs like Pegasus Mail or Eudora Lite (both are free. This will make you less exposed to these risks. Don't open unlikely looking mail, like a message from the tax man with the subject "I love you". It almost certainly contains the infamous "I love you" virus. Don't forget that you can get viruses in attached Microsoft Word documents, too.

Spam stoppers are used to prevent hostile software to pick up your email address from Usenet newsgroup. A spam stopper is additional characters that makes your address invalid while making it possible for real users to find out what your real address looks like.

Example: One of my addresses used to be presno@grida.no. By instructing my news reader to show it as presno@remove-this-bit-for-my-real-address, the information is made useless for spam software.

Note: You are making it difficult for those you talk with when doing this. I wouldn't.

You can also buy mail-related utility programs, like MailJail, a mail filtering add-on for the Eudora email programs. It's first release came with 250 rules to help thwart spam mail.
Some users even join initiatives like the SPAM Filter, a free register of people who do not want to receive junk mail. It aims at using their list to filter their addresses against addresses collected by programs such as Floodgate (which automatically builds mailing lists from newsgroup ostings).
Others report the incident to the spammer's Internet service provider (ISP). If you do, make sure to save the original email message with all headers intact. The email header is the part of the message that shows where the message originated. While your email program may not be set to display email headers, most programs let you do it. Generally, ISPs will not take action against one of their accounts without proof of the origination of the spam. They often require the original spam message to be forwarded to them before they will take any action, with the email header included.
Then, there is HTML email. These permit inclusion of illustrations in messages, thus forcing a call to get them from a remote site when the mail is opened. When it does, the remote site will be able to record your email address, know if you have indeed opened (read?) the message, and your current IP address. The sender of the message may also be able to set a cookie in your browser, and thus identify you the next time you visit their site...
The good news is that some email clients, like Eudora Pro, allows you to prevent it from automatically downloading HTML graphics. Recommended, and in particular if you're using modem.
Finally, Whenever you subscribe to an email based mailing list, save the welcome message that the service returns on your disk. These messages usually contain information about how to get off the list if the volume should become too high. You may find it easier to consult these files than try to get off by writing the mailing list administrators.
There's a FAQ on spam, a SPAM-L mailing list, hints on reading email headers, and a tutorial for those in search for more.
Purportal.com lets you search five of the most well-known sites dedicated to setting the record straight: Snopes Urban Legends Archive, About.com Urban Legends, CIAC Hoax Database, CERT Computer Security Database, and Symantec (Real) Virus Encyclopedia. Last, but not least, there are a number of laws against spam.

Managing your mailbox

If you receive a large volumes of email, it becomes important to organize your mailbox to handle the most important mails first. Here are some hints:

• Consider using filters (message rules) to automatically move incoming mails to logical folders of your choice. For example, if you work in sales, you may move messages to folders called New opportunities, Follow-up, Internal, and Private. Then, consider how much time should be allocated to handling the mail in each folder. Spam and mail from new persons will not be moved, and thus easier to handle. In MS Outlook, you may do this by clicking at Organize, or by selecting Tools | Message rules.
• Another trick is to give each mail from a known sender an automatic color code. For example, mark all mails from customers with red, those from members of your family with green, and mails from your boss with blue. Mails from new persons will have no color, and easier to single out for handling.
• If your email program can handle it, consider making copies of all received mail to an archive mailbox of your choice. Personally, I keep all important mail on my disk dating back to 1990. It does not take much space, and allows you check history whenever needed.

Changing your email address

If you change your email address for any reason, you must take steps to ensure continued delivery of mail to your new address:

1. Before cancelling your old account, send a change of address mail to all regular correspondents. There are two reasons for this:
   • Some recipients use the filtering features of their email programs to block mail from unwanted addresses, and this may include all unknown people. Write immediately to make sure your mails are not discarded.
   • Maintaining two email accounts simultaneously, even for a short transitional period, may be a hassle - unless you use an email program that can deal with several accounts automatically (like Eudora Pro).
     Note: If you maintain two email accounts simultaneously, it is very important to set your client so that all new mail originates from your new address! So that people can send reply messages to the correct address.
2. Consider to send the change of address message at three different times:
   1. As soon as your new account is operational.
   2. A reminder to anyone who sends mail to your old address during the transition period..
   3. At the end of the transition period.
3. Attach a change of address message to your customized signature file (if you use one) at the end of all email that you send.
4. Before you cancel your old account, change your subscription to any automated mailing lists in accordance with the list's particular instructions.
   • Use your old account to send the SIGNOFF command to unsubscribe from the list. This will save you trouble. If it is too late, you may have to write to the moderator of the list and ask her to sign you off manually.
   • Use your new account to resubscribe to the mailing list.
5. Since some of the people who might want to send you email will not receive your change-of-address message, make sure that email address directories contain your new address.
6. Make sure that all web pages that contain your email address are being updated. If you are maintaining web pages, and have your email at the bottom of the page, don't forget that these entries must also be updated.
7. If you have ever sent a message to a Usenet newsgroup, send another one (to any newsgroup). This will add your new address to databases being used to find Internet user addresses.

Changing your email address is bothersome, so some users prefer to hunt for a permanent email address. The traditional means is to reserve your own domain name. Once done, your email address can move to whatever Internet server hosts your domain.
A cheaper alternative is provided by mail-forwarding services like Pobox and NetBox. An even greater bargain may be the services providing email for free..

Using two or more mailboxes

Many users have one mailbox for work and one or several mailboses for private use. Often, these resides on different Internet Service Providers' (ISPs) machines.
Modern email software, like Outlook Express and Eudora, let you automatically check mail in all mailboxes in one go. All it takes is to dial into the net through one of your ISPs, and hit "Check new mail." You do not have to dial up each ISP individually.
While this is easy, special attention must be paid to how you send mail. If you set the properties for your second email account as instructed by your ISP, you risk receiving error messages saying "Relay not permitted." This happens when an ISP (quite commonly) refuses to send mail from you if you are logged on to a different ISP. Only messages logged on to the ISP that owns the server will be allowed through. They do this to prevent nonsubscribers from using their servers, e.g. to send spam mail.
The solve this problem, specifiy in the Properties dialog for the second email account that it is to use the first account's outgoing server (smtp server). (In Outlook Express, do this in Tools|Accounts|Properties.)
Example: Usually, I use four different mailboxes for outgoing mail. When at home, I might be sending all mail from all mailboxes through the smtp server of the Tele2 ISP. When travelling, I often change to the smtp server of my Eunet Traveller account.
Thus, the mail you receive from presno@eunet.no might have been sent from the Tele2 server. The fact will be recorded in the small details of the mailer header of my mail to you.
Warning: You can do this because most outgoing mail servers (SMTP) do not require that you identify yourself by password when sending mail. Therefore, you can even send mail using a fake address, like Michael.Jackson@heavens.org. Also, it means that others can send mail using your name. So, if in doubt about mail you're receiving, check the mailer header to see where it comes from. If it comes from a different server, you may return a request for confirmation. As receipt of mail is password protected, the fake sender will not be able to reply.

The Traveller's Dream

Email-for-free services may appear to be the traveller's dream. They let you get to your email while travelling without the hassle of finding a local access point for your Internet provider, or buying from a local service.
An even better solution is MailStart. Like the email-for-free services, everything is done by Web browser. Enter your email address (as in "presno@eunet.no"), and your login password (the one you normally use to get your mail when at home). MailStart will get your mail for you, and let you handle it in a safe way.
You do not have to be concerned about using several email addresses for your mail. Replies to your mails will go to your main account, and not to an account that you may forget to check for incoming mail later.

Check Xmail for an alternative.

Replying

On the Internet, electronic messages have a structure that is common across the network. On most systems, you can reply using a reply command. If this feature is not available, use the sender's address as given in the mail header.

Note: Exercise caution when replying to a message sent by a mailing list (also called a distribution list). If you wish to respond to the author only, make sure that the only address you are replying to is that person's email address. If you are not careful, your mail will go to the entire list!

A bounced message contains two mail headers: the header of your original message (in part three), and the header of the bounced message (in part one).
The 'good' reply address is laid out in the 'From:' header. Thus, the message showed above contains the following two 'good' addresses:

From: Network Mailer <MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
From: presno@eunet.no

The Network Mailer located the second address line in the original message, and used this address when sending the bounced message.

Note: there is no point in sending a message back to the service that sent you the bounced message, like MAILER@VM1.NoDak.EDU above. This is the address of an automatic mail handling program. Write to Postmaster@VM1.NoDak.EDU if you want to talk to a "real person" at this computer center.

The exact order of a message's header may vary from system to system, but it will always contain the vital 'From:' line.

Email: When everything fails

Communications is simple - when you master it. Occasionally, however, you WILL lose data. You may even experience the worst of all: losing unread mail on your hard disk.
A while ago, this happened to my sister. She logged on to her mailbox service using the communications program Procomm.
After capturing all mail, she tried to send a message. For some reason, the computer froze. It was impossible to close the capture file. She had to switch the power OFF/ON to continue. All retrieved mail was obviously lost.
One day, I had a similar experience. After having written a long and difficult letter, something went wrong. The outfile was closed without warning. The resulting file size was 0 bytes.
Both problems were solved by the MS-DOS program CHKDSK run with the /F option. If you ever get this problem, and have an MS-DOS computer, try CHKDSK or Scandisk. This may save your day.

Hints

Web by email

Read about how to receive web pages by email in chapter 12. Chapter 11 presents some neat ways of receiving notifications by email about changes in web pages out there (including news).

Some old tricks

Bang addressing

"Bang" is American for "exclamation point" (!). The UUCP network uses it in their variation of the domain addressing scheme.
Example: User Jill Small on Econet in San Francisco used to have the address pyramid!cdp!jsmall . Read this address from right to left. The name of her mailbox is to the right. The name of the organization is in the middle. "Pyramid" is the name of the network.

Note: The ! character has a special function on Unix computers. You may have to type the address as pyramid\!cdp\!jsmall to avoid unwanted error messages. The \ character tells Unix to regard the next character as a character, and not as a system command. You can also precede other problematic characters with \ in case of problems.

Some email systems can use bang addresses directly. If your system is unable to handle them, then you must send these messages through a gateway. The American host UUNET is a frequently used gateway. If routing through UUNET, you may write the address like this:

pyramid!cdp!jsmall@uunet.uu.net

If your system refuses to accept exclamation points in addresses, try converting the address into a standard Internet address. Write the address elements in the Internet sequence (left to right). Replace the exclamation points with %-s, like this:

jsmall%cdp%pyramid@uunet.uu.net

This method works most of the time. If it works, use this addressing form. Bang paths may fail if an intermediate site in the path happens to be down. (Most UUCP sites are registering Internet domain names now. This helps lessen the problem of path failures.)
Some messages must be routed through many gateways to reach their destination. This is the longest address that I have used:

hpda!hplabs!hpscdc!hp-lsd.cos.hp.com!oldcolo!dave@uunet.uu.net

It used to be the address of a user in Colorado, U.S.A.. Today, he can be reached using a much shorter address.
If you are on UUCP/EUnet, you may use the following address to send email to Odd de Presno:

eunet.no!presno

Addressing international electronic mail sometimes looks like black magic. To learn more, read some of the books listed in Appendix 5.

cc:Mail gateways

Many Local Area Networks have been connected to the global Matrix of networks. CompuServe offers a cc:Mail gateway. Lotus cc:Mail is a PC Lan based email system used in corporate, government and other organizations.
When sending from CompuServe Mail to a cc:Mail user through this gateway, a typical address may look like this:

>mhs:pt-support@performa

To send to this user from the Internet through CompuServe's MHS gateway, write the address like this:

pt-support@performa.mhs.compuserve.com

Other vendors of LAN gateways use different addressing methods.

Email to Fax

Some services let you send messages to fax machines, as telex, and as ordinary paper mail.
On CompuServe, we replaced "Odd de Presno 75755,1327" with "FAX: 4737030193". My fax number is +47 370 30193. Services and user interfaces change regularly, so it may not work like this today...
The "How can I send a fax from the Internet?" FAQ is posted regularly to alt.internet.services, alt.online-service, alt.bbs.internet, alt.answers and news.answers on Usenet.

Email to Telex

To send a telex, you'll need the recipient's telex number, an answerback code, and the code of the recipient's country. If the message is meant for telex number 871161147, answerback ZETO, and country Russia (country code 871), enter "TLX:871161147 ZETO" at CompuServe.

When the recipient is using another mailbox system

When the recipient is using your mailbox service, writing addresses is simple. Not so when your email has to be forwarded to mailboxes on other online services through the Internet, X.400, or similar.
A typical inter-system email address consists of a user name, a mailbox system code, and sometimes also routing information. The problem is that there is no universal addressing format. Finding out how to write a given address may be surprisingly difficult.
Some services are not set up for exchange of email with other services.
If your favorite system lets you send mail to other services, make a note about the following:

• You may need to know how to rewrite the recipient's address to fit your system. For example, you may have to use a domain address to send through Internet, and a different form when sending through an X.400 network.
• The recipient's mailbox system may not be on a network that has an email exchange agreement with your system's network(s). Sometimes, you may have to use a commercial email relay service to get your mail across (see Chapter 9).
• You may need to know how to route a message through other systems to arrive at its destination. For example, mail from the Ulrik computer in Oslo for Dominique Christian on the Difer system in Paris (France) used to be routed through a center in London.
• Example: If you have problems sending email to me at the address presno@eunet.no, you may succeed by rewriting it as presno%login.eunet.no@listserv.nodak.edu . The message will go to listserv.nodak.edu, which will turn it into presno@eunet.no and forward it there. (More under Domain Name addressing.)
• While it may be easy to enclose binary files when sending to someone on your system, this may be impossible when sending across mailbox system boundaries.
• While it may be possible to send text containing embedded control codes and special language characters to users of your system, they may disappear when sent to people elsewhere. Your safest bet is to send your text as standard 7-bit ASCII text (see Appendix 4). It is the lowest common denominator between computers, software, networks, and users.
• Example: A user in Norway tried to send the Norwegian language line: "Jeg bor på Karlsøy i Troms, Norge." The text was stored using Windows Latin1. The receiver got: "Jeg bor pe Kalsxy i Troms, Norge." Another user received the word "på" as "p=E5."
• If you are using WordPerfect or Word for Windows on an MS-DOS computer, consider storing your text as DOS text before sending.

X.400 addressing

X.400 is a standard for electronic mail developed by ITU-TSS. It is used on some large private and public networks throughout the world.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) uses X.400 as a transport mechanism for coordination of electronic part ordering, stock control and payment. X.400 is used to connect EDI systems between companies and suppliers.
The X.400 addressing syntax is very different from domain addressing. To send a message from an X.400 mailbox to my address (presno@eunet.no), you may have to write it like this:

(C:NO,ADMD:uninett,PRMD:uninett,O:eunet,OU:login,S:presno)

Alas, it's not so standard as the domain addressing schemes. On other X.400 networks, the address must be written in one of the following formats - or in yet other ways:

(C:US,A:Telemail,P:Internet,"RFC-822":<presno(a)login.eunet.no>)

("RFC-822": <presno(a)login.eunet.no>, SITE:INTERNET)

'(C:USA,A:TELEMAIL,P:INTERNET,"RFC-822":<presno<a>login.eunet.no>) DEL'

(site: INTERNET,ID: <presno<a>login.eunet.no>)

"RFC-822=presno(a)login.eunet.no @ GATEWAY]INTERNET/TELEMAIL/US"

S=presno/OU=login/ORG=eunet/P=uninett/C=no

To send from the Internet to a mailbox I once had on a Norwegian X.400 host (Telemax), I had to use this address:

/I=D/G=ODD/S=PRESNO/O=KUD.DATASEKR/@PCMAX.telemax.no

To send from the Internet to Telemail in the US, I have used this (on one long line):

/PN=TELEMAIL.T.SUPPORT/O=TELENET.MAIL/ADMD
=TELEMAIL/C=US/@sprint.com

If you must route your message through gateways, complexity increases. One Norwegian UUCP user had to use the following address to get through to me (on one long line):

nuug!extern.uio.no!"pcmax.telemax.no!
/I=D/G=ODD/S=PRESNO/O=KUD.DATASEKR/"

To send from an X.400 system to my CompuServe mailbox, I have used the following address elements:

Country = US
ADMD = CompuServe
PRMD = CSMail
DDA = 75755.1327

The addressing methods used on X.400 systems vary. Example: Some use the code C:USA rather than the ISO country code C:US. MCI Mail uses C:NORWAY, C:USA, and C:SWEDEN.

Some important X.400 codes:

C		the ISO country code (on most services)
ADMD		domain code for public system (abbreviation A)
PRMD		domain code for connected private system (abbreviation P)
O		organization name
OU		organization unit
S		surname (last name)
G		given name (first name)
I		initials (in the name)
DDA		domain-defined attributes, keywords defined and used by the individual systems to specify mailboxes (user name, list, station, user code, etc.), direct delivery devices (attention name, telex addresses, facsimile, etc.)
PN		personal name
(a)		the character @ cannot be used when routing messages from X.400 to Internet. Try (a) instead.
(p)		the character % cannot be used when routing messages from X.400 to Internet. Try (p) instead.
(b)		the character ! (used in "bang" addresses).
(q)		the character " used in email addresses.
RFC-822		this code tells X.400 that an Internet domain address follows. Does not work on all X.400 systems. (See http://info.internet.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc/files/rfc822.txt)

The space character (ascii 032) is a special challenge. Some services let you replace it with an '_' character. If the X.400 gateway supports MIME, you may use the hexadecimal code (=20) as specified in RFC1341 (see "quoted-printable"). If you do, remember to replace the '=' character with =3D, as in '/S=3DPRESNO' (instead of '/S=PRESNO').
Addressing mail from the Internet to/from X.400 is difficult, unless the mailer header of a received message gives the senders address in the proper addressing format.
To set up an email link between an Internet and an X.400 mailbox, start by trying to send an email from either mailbox to the other. If one of them succeeds, then the mailer header of the received message may explain how to send a reply.
Example: This is a typical Internet mailer header on a message received from an X.400 service:

From MSGSUPPORT@smc-tm22.sprint.com Thu Oct 27 02:44:55 1994
Return-Path: <MSGSUPPORT@smc-tm22.sprint.com>
Received: from sprintf.merit.edu (sprint.com) by grida.no with SMTP
id <AA02280>; Thu, 27 Oct 1994 02:44:52 +0100
Received: from sprint.com by sprintf.merit.edu (8.6.5/merit-1.0)
id VAA01624; Wed, 26 Oct 1994 21:45:12 -0400
X400-Received: by mta merit in /PRMD=internet/ADMD=telemail/C=US/;
Relayed; Wed, 26 Oct 1994 21:44:54 -0400
X400-Received: by /ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/; Relayed; Wed, 26 Oct 1994
21:41:29 -0400
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 1994 21:41:29 -0400
X400-Originator: MSGSUPPORT@smc-tm22.sprint.com
X400-Recipients: non-disclosure:;
X400-Mts-Identifier: [/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/;UGJE-6721-7167/27]
X400-Content-Type: P2-1984 (2)
Content-Identifier: VL72373 27
From: MSGSUPPORT@smc-tm22.sprint.com
Message-Id: <UGJE-6721- 7167/27*/S=MSGSUPPORT/O=
SMC.MSG.TM22/ADMD=TELEMAIL/C=US/@MHS>
To: PRESNO@GRIDA.NO
Subject: RE: HELP

Here, it is simple. Both the Return-Path line and the From: line have the correct Internet address.
If the mailer header does not contain such information, converting the X.400 addresses into a RFC-822 addresses may well be regarded as a black art. Also, note that you cannot send email from the Internet to all X.400 users on the globe. Some gateways are only accessible from commercial services.
For example, continued attempts to send from an Internet mailbox in Norway to an X.400 address in a Nigerian company failed, while mail to/from CompuServe worked well.

FidoNet

Users of this network can send and receive mail to/from the Internet. For example, a FidoNet user may use the following method to send to my Internet address:

Send the message to user UUCP at 1:105/42. The first line of the TEXT of the message should contain:

To: presno@eunet.no

Add a blank line after the address before entering the text of your message.

FidoNet addresses are composed by three or four numbers;

zone:net/node
or
zone:net/node.point

The FidoNet address 1:105/42 has three elements. "1:" tells that the recipient lives in Zone number 1 (North America). 105/42 refers to Node number 42, which receives mail through Net number 105. This node has an automatic gateway to the Internet.
Another example: Jan Stozek is sysop of "Home of PCQ" in Warsaw, Poland. The Node number of his BBS is 10. He receives mail through Net number 480. Poland is a country in Europe, Zone number 2. The address to his system is: 2:480/10. His user name is Jan Stozek.
You can send an Internet message to anyone in FidoNet by using the following template (on one long line):

<firstname>.<lastname>@
p<point>.f<node>.n<net>.z<zone>.fidonet.org

Where <firstname> is the person's first name

<lastname> is the person's last name

To send a message from the Internet to Jan, use this address:

Jan.Stozek@f10.n480.z2.fidonet.org

One final example: Ola Garstad in Oslo has the FidoNet address 2:502/15. Use the address Ola.Garstad@f15.n502.z2.fidonet.org , when sending mail to him through the Internet.
An updated list of global FidoNet nodes can be retrieved from most connected BBS systems. (More in Appendix 1.)

For more information

Start with the E-Mail Resources, Reviews and Books page, then check the Beginner's Guide to Effective Email.
The Inter-Network Mail Guide describes how to send mail between mail systems like AppleLink, BITNET, CompuServe, Connect-USA, EasyNet, Envoy, FidoNet, GeoNet, Internet, MCI, MFENET, NasaMail, PeaceNet, Sinet, Span, SprintMail, and others.
It is posted monthly to the Usenet newsgroups comp.mail.misc and news.newusers.questions.
Search it at http://alabanza.com/kabacoff/Inter-Links/cgi/inmgq.cgi . It is also available by anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.csd.uwm.edu/pub/internetwork-mail-guide.
The "Frequently Asked Questions: How to find people's E-mail addresses" document is regularly posted to news.answers. (Retrieval information is given under FAQ in Appendix 6.)