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Banner "Internet Course Guide," by Richard E. Gordon
Lesson 9A > Lesson 9B > Lesson 9C

Lesson 9A: E-mail -- Be sure to go on to Lesson 9B next.

Setting up your free e-mail account

Free e-mail services like Yahoo, Excite, and Hotmail, allow you to send and receive e-mail from just about any place around the world even if you don't own a computer or have an account with an Internet service provider (ISP). You get access to these free e-mail services by sending and receiving e-mail when you visit their Websites. For example, to use Yahoo's free e-mail service, you have to go to www.Yahoo.com, click on the E-mail icon, and then give your user ID and password -- which you get when you first sign up with Yahoo.

graphic Yahoo email

From just about anywhere

As long as you can get to a computer with Internet access -- a computer in a friend's house, a library, a classroom, an Internet cafe -- you can use your own free Yahoo e-mail account to communicate with people around the world. And if you already have access to e-mail through an Internet service provider like AOL, MSN, Earthlink -- or a local provider like Internet Junction -- you can get another e-mail account, and this one for free, that will allow you to have a second mailbox to send and receive special messages that you prefer not to go through your main account.

Advantages of secondary e-mail account

  • Newsgroups. Such an account will especially come in handy if you participate in newsgroups which will be covered in a future lesson. Newsgroups often bring lots of spam or junk messages, and it's better to have a secondary account attracting such messages rather than your primary e-mail account.
  • Special groups. You can also use your secondary free e-mail account for messages related to an organization or other special group. Teachers, for example, can give students their Yahoo or Hotmail address rather than their primary address. Similarly, the officer of an condo association or a scout troop could benefit from a secondary e-mail account. A tour guide can use a Yahoo or a Hotmail address to pick up and send messages while traveling through Europe.
  • Preserves primary. A friend preserves his primary Earthlink e-mail address only for close friends and relatives, and to all others he gives out his Hotmail address.
  • Allows library access. Another friend uses Excite because he does not own a computer but still wants to send and receive messages from his grandchildren when he goes to the local library. Many libraries have computers available with Internet access, and with a Web based e-mail account from Yahoo, Excite, or Hotmail, you can send and receive e-mail messages at libraries even when traveling far away from home.
  • Permanent address. Every time you change your Internet Service Provider (ISP), you end up with a new e-mail address. For example, if you go from AOL to Internet Junction, your address changes. Then you will have to notify all your friends of the address change. However, if you use a Yahoo e-mail address, it will remain valid even if you change your ISP.
  • Can easily delete. Whatever your situation, the chances are having a free e-mail account will come in handy. Besides, signing up for a free Yahoo account for this class will gives us the chance, during class time, to practice using e-mail, including sending attachments. And if at the end of class, you no longer want this Yahoo account, you can delete it by following the directions at http://brimbi.blogspot.com/2006/02/deleting-yahoo-account.html.

Signing up

If you already have a Yahoo account, then you won't have to go through the sign-up process. You are set already to send and receive messages in class. But for the rest of us, let's sign up by going to https://login.yahoo.com/. Click on Sign Up.
graphic Yahoo email sign-up

Once you click on Sign me up, you will be taken to a Web page that will guide you through the sign up procedure.

Careful about User ID

You'll be asked to select a User ID and a password. Just remember that your user name will become part of your e-mail address. So, for example, if you select lucky506 as your User ID, your e-mail address will be lucky506@yahoo.com.

Stick with lower case

Suggestion: Use only lower case (small letters) and numbers in both your User ID and password. Avoid using capital letters. Now finish the sign up steps. And once you have your User ID and password, move on to Lesson 9B in which you will send and receive messages using your Yahoo account. If you have trouble signing up with Yahoo, then try Excite, Hotmail, or AOL free email.

Resources

Here you will find additional information related to this lesson at these Internet sites. Other sources for the all the lessons are found in the Links page.

Question Bank

Answer the Question Bank questions to make sure you have learned this lesson. Remember that your final exam will be made up of questions selected from this Question Bank.

Exercises

Be sure to do the Exercises for each lesson.
The next lesson is Lesson 9B.


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Last updated: July 4, 2006