To use email, you need three main things: an email account, a piece of software specifically used to create, send and receive email, and a computer connected to the Internet.

Email Accounts Think of an email account as a post-office box at the local post office. An email account consists of a "mailbox" on a server at some email company somewhere (the post office). To get access to the mailbox, you must have two things: the name or "login" of the mailbox (like the P.O. number that identifies your mailbox as yours and no one else's) and the password (or key) to allow you and only you into the box to get your mail.

Email Software Now, the thing is, we're talking about electronic mail, so you need a computer program (a.k.a. software) to do the work of checking to see if you have any new mail by locating your mailbox and unlocking it, as opposed to you hustling down to check your P.O. box at the post office on your own two legs. This software is commonly referred to as an "email client." You can have an email client permanently loaded on your computer, set up just for your mailbox, or you can have one that you access with a Web page, which means nothing stays on that computer permanently unless you download it.
Most of the popular email clients out there are available free of charge and come already loaded onto most new computers being shipped today. If you've bought a computer recently, you could have programs named "Outlook Express," or "Eudora" loaded on your computer. Even computers bought within the last few years (ancient in computer years!) could have an email client bundled with the Web browser (like Internet Explorer or Netscape).

Internet-ready Computers Obviously, you need to have a computer to use email. You also need that computer to be connected to the Internet, however, you generally only need that connection to be 'live' when you are sending or receiving messages. Those processes need that open connection to be able to shove your email in or out through your phone cord to the greater Internet.

An email address has two main parts. The user name, or login, and the host, or domain name. The user name is a unique name that identifies that person on their service provider's network.

Example: Our support email address is "support@cruzio.com". This address directs mail to our support team. In this case, "support" is the user name. The host name is the address of the server on which the mailbox resides.

Below is an example of an email message header:

From: someone@somehost.com
To: support@cruzio.com
CC: someone@someotherhost.com, someoneelse@somehost.com
Date: August 1, 2002

This is what each section means:

From: The sender's name (optional) and email address
To: The email address of the recipient
CC: The addresses of people that will receive a copy of the email message (CC stands for 'carbon copy', some programs also have BCC, which stands for 'blind carbon copy' meaning that the addresses of those recipients won't appear in the email header).
Date: The date the message was sent.

An email address ends with a certain type of domain identifier. These can be used to figure out what type of service provider the person uses. The following are explanations of the most common domains:

.com - commercial business
.edu - educational institution
.gov - government entity
.mil - military entity
.net - network provider
.org - non-profit organization
.us - United States

When a message originates outside the US, an abbreviation for the name of the country is contained in the email address. Here are a few examples:

.ca - Canada
.de - Germany
.nz - New Zealand
.il - Israel
.uk - United Kingdom
.jp - Japan
.fr - France

Put simply, the answer is yes. You can include any file that you would like in your email messages as an attachment.

Note: Cruzio does not limit the size of email messages at this time, but some Internet service providers do. It's recommended that you do not send a file larger than 1-2MB.

If you do not already have antivirus software installed on your computer, you should buy a downloadable version of an antivirus software and install it immediately. If you do currently have antivirus software, you should update your virus definitions immediately and run the program to check for new viruses. The longer you wait to clean your system of a virus, the more damage can be done in the form of your own files or system being compromised and by your system propagating the virus even further across the Internet.

Sites such as Symantec.com and McAfee.com have loads of late-breaking information about viruses. You should also see the Cruzio Virus Info page for virus protection suggestions.