E-Mail

= = = __E-mail__ = E-mail stands for 'Electronic Mail'. The electronic transmission of mail allows you to send formatted text and images to someone else with an email address. Each E-mail user has a 'mailbox' with a unique address into which messages can be sent ready for the recipient to 'collect' and read. If you have an account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as AOL, BTinternet or Yahoo then they will provide you with an email address and let you use their email service for no extra cost. You can also get an email address from one of the many free providers such as Hotmail or Gmail. Email is now one of the most common methods of communication - ask most people that you know, they will probably have an email address. Without email, most businesses would not be able to operate. = __Advantages of E-mail__ = - Sending an email to someone is very easy, people need little training to learn how to do this - Emails are free to send -so long as you have an email account and a connection to the Internet. - Emails are usually received fairly quickly, most of the time a couple of seconds after they are sent - People don't have to be present to receive the email - Emails can be sent any time of the day or night, 365 days a year - Files and images can be attached to an email - Multiple copies of a message can be sent to a group of people - A carbon copy of an email can be sent to other people - You can request proof of receipt or proof of the email being opened - Messages can be prepared in advance and saved until you are ready to send them. - Messages can be encrypted making it possible to send confidential information = __Disadvantages of E-mail__ = - Both you and the person receiving the email must have an email address and access to a computer and the Internet - If you don't know the email address of the other person then you can't send them a message - Some people change their email addresses fairly often as they switch ISPs or jobs - Spam is a big problem, up to two-thirds of mails sent are spam - People can waste company time at work by sending emails to friends instead of working - When you are on holiday, your email box can become full and extra messages might not get stored - You may have to wait a long time to get a reply. - Email attachments can contain viruses - Some companies won't allow email attachments to be received - There are a lot of email scams and it is easy to get fooled by them