An electronic mail or more appropriately e-mail as known to us is basically a form of communication that takes place between people via the Internet. Mail is circulated across the Internet by SMPT or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It still stands to be the common standard used to date, despite it’s frequent modifications since it’s launch in the 80′s. An email address is normally identified by the SMPT. However, when it is not able to find an address it will notify the sender that the email address does not exist.

An e-mail is generally opened and read via an email client which is stored in a computer. You can gain access to your emails from your personal computer by simply logging on to the email client where you can check, receive, compose and send emails from. Web mail is a simpler option of sending emails; this is down to the fact that it is placed at a central point on the internet, can be accessed through a specific web application and is far easier to use. Web mail service is accessible from anywhere assuming you have a browser facility and internet connection.

Free email services are provided from the many web mail services out there today, although you could select a paid-for service if you so wish. Whether it is paid for or free, if you wish to exchange messages through this medium then you will firstly need an email address. The delivery of the message is established by the email address used. This is like any postal address, it identifies the area. You can send messages as well as receiving them from this address. Various servers and networks can easily identify a specific location as the email address displays this information.

Emails have an attribute that is common in all email addresses across the web. Email addresses all have a set format. See the example shown; susie@Yahoo.co.uk. The example shows your first name, followed by the ‘@’ (at) symbol, then the host name, which can be Google, Yahoo, Hotmail etc, and then lastly a three letter abbreviation which usually is co.uk. or com, or ac.uk .com, .gov, .edu, .com and so on. This makes it easy for you to form an email address for yourself as the features more or less remain unchanged.

However there are certain limitations as to what you can do while creating an email address for yourself. It is more common for lower case letters to be used than upper case, but because it is not case sensitive upper charactes can be used. Users should be aware however, that this must not exceed sixty-five characters. You can also include various other characters but it is advisable not to use these, as they are hard to identify. The ‘at’ symbol sets the user name and the domain name apart. Due to the fact you can only use letters, numbers and the hyphen symbol, the domain name is a bit more limited.

Having learnt the basics of how to create a new email account, you are now ready to start using your new email addresses to begin communicating with your family and friends.