In order to be able to send e-mail you'll need a personal e-mail address. (My address is p.r.white@bham.ac.uk). The internet uses this address to identify you and to direct e-mail from other people to the computer which collects and stores your e-mail. To send e-mail to other people on the internet you need to know their e-mail address. When you write an e-mail to deliver on the e-mail, your e-mail software will provide a place for you to insert the address of your intended recipient or recipients.
If you already have your own internet connection through an Internet Service Provider you will have your own e-mail address. If you plan to use the university machines for your internet access there are two ways to acquire an e-mail address. You can register with Information Services who will provide you with a university based address. You can do so online via the WEB through the following link http://www.is.bham.ac.uk/helpdesk/registering.htm. It should not take more than a few days for you to receive your address. Alternatively, it is now possible to operate with WEB-based e-mail. This means you don't need to have your own personal internet account or e-mail specific software, just access to the WEB via a browser.
To set up such a WEB-based e-mail account do the following.
Use your WEB browser to access the following page - http://www.mailexcite.com (it's a free e-mail service provided by the excite search site.) Below the spaces for a User Name and Password (for people who already have an account) you'll see a link for people who want to set up a new account (under the New Account heading). Click here and follow the instructions to set up your account. This will enable you to access and send e-mail from any machine linked to the WEB. The same sort of service is provided by other companies. Microsoft's hotmail (www.hotmail.com), for example, is also very popular. I personally prefer the excite service because it allows for attachments of up to 2 megabytes, as opposed to hotmail's 1 megabyte limit.
To contact me with any problems, questions or comments, please e-mail me at p.r.white@bham.ac.uk
