The Online World resources handbook

Electronic mail, telex, and fax http://home.eunet.no/~presno/bok/7.html
this cost.
If you live in Norway, and send the letter by ordinary mail to a recipient in
Norway, postage alone is US$0.63 (2001). The cost is seven times higher than when
using email through a commercial email host. Using the Internet, the postal charges are
ridiculously high.
To send the same letter from Norway to the United States by ordinary mail will
cost 11 times more than commercial email. The letter takes several days to reach the
destination, while email messages arrive almost instantly.
You can send email to several recipients in one operation without paying extra for
the pleasure. Compare with the costs of sending to several recipients by fax!
You do not have to buy envelopes and stamps, fold the sheet, put it into the
envelope, and bring it to a mailbox. Just let the computer send the letter.
The recipient does not have to sit by the computer waiting for your mail. It will be
automatically stored in his electronic mailbox. He can read it when he has time.
The recipient can print it locally. It will be a perfect document, no different to one
typed locally. He can correct, make comments, and email it onwards to a third party. In
this way several people can work jointly on a report. There is no need for you to re type
the text from scratch.
When you receive several messages, you can quickly create replies to them one at
the time at your keyboard, and send them in one go. No need to feed five different
pieces of paper into a fax machine or envelopes for five different people.
Where you can find a telephone, you can also read mail. In most countries,
communicating by email is easy and economical.
The simple but miraculous thing about email is that you can easily and exactly
quote the point to which you are replying. It is truly a revolution in communication.
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
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