webmail

[David Graham]

Hi
Never had any cause to use webmail - always been pop3 via Outlook Express. I
have had a couple of contacts that are ending in @aol.com and another guy
who verbally gave me his details which I scribbled down on some scrap paper,
I think he said there was no @ in his email address because it is internet
based, it just ends in msn.com

1. Is the first email address above webmail? - it doesn't get through using
Outlook Express
2. Do I have to sign up somewhere with msn in order to email the second
address above and then do I do it via any browser?
3. If I sign up with msn do I then have the ability to email any type of
webmail? (incl. Hotmail, Yahoo, etc)


Sorry to ask such newbie type stuff but I'm sure there will be others out
there who don't know this webmail thingy very well either - internet fails
to give me a clear explanation about webmail - any good places to visit?

regards
David Graham

 

[Brian Cryer]

Hi
Never had any cause to use webmail - always been pop3 via Outlook Express.
I
have had a couple of contacts that are ending in @aol.com and another guy
who verbally gave me his details which I scribbled down on some scrap
paper,
I think he said there was no @ in his email address because it is internet
based, it just ends in msn.com

1. Is the first email address above webmail? - it doesn't get through
using
Outlook Express
2. Do I have to sign up somewhere with msn in order to email the second
address above and then do I do it via any browser?
3. If I sign up with msn do I then have the ability to email any type of
webmail? (incl. Hotmail, Yahoo, etc)

I've never seen an email address without an @ in it. Nor do I think this
could ever be valid - because the @ symbol separates the domain from the
username (username@domain). Without the @ symbol no email system would know
where to send the email.

What the chap probably meant is that he didn't know his email address. If
you work in an office and use exchange then internal emails are normally
sent with just the username specified. If he uses a web-mail account then
this might be just an extension to an office system and he doesn't know his
real email address. If you have his contact details (phone number for
instance) then ask him to email you - that way you will get his correct
email.

The other possibility is that he didn't know how to pronounce "@" - its
pronounced "at". If his email ends with "msn.com" then I suspect (but I
don't have an msn address so someone can correct me if I'm wrong) that this
email is (e-mail address removed). Hopefully from that you can make an educated
guess.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tina Peters]

Hi
Never had any cause to use webmail - always been pop3 via Outlook Express.
I
have had a couple of contacts that are ending in @aol.com and another guy
who verbally gave me his details which I scribbled down on some scrap
paper,
I think he said there was no @ in his email address because it is internet
based, it just ends in msn.com

1. Is the first email address above webmail? - it doesn't get through
using
Outlook Express
2. Do I have to sign up somewhere with msn in order to email the second
address above and then do I do it via any browser?
3. If I sign up with msn do I then have the ability to email any type of
webmail? (incl. Hotmail, Yahoo, etc)

Email is email, whether you use Outlook or Webmail. Webmail is just a
different way of sending/receiving. It all still works basically the same
way.

1. No, its AOL email and AOL is notorious for blocking incoming email they
deem "spam".
2. No.
3. No.

PS: ALL email addresses have an @ in them. The guy probably doesn't know
his email address. Ask him what his MSN username is and then stick an
@msn.com on the end. That's probably a decent guess as to what his email
address is. Another option would be to have him send you an email. Then
you could simply reply to his email (and you'd also then get to see what it
is).

--Tina

 

[Andy Dingley]

PS: ALL email addresses have an @ in them.

All RFC-822-based internet email addresses have a "@" in them. This
isn't all "email" though.

There are plenty of in-company email systems around that don't need or
use "@". You can even represent an internet email address (with a "@")
using an old format like X400 and represent it correctly without using
a "@" character. So the email address you need will almost certainly
have a "@" in it, but it's still possible (especially dealing with
European politicians, IMHE) that they can equally well have a business
card that doesn't show you this "@" character.

If you deal with inexperienced people who have only ever used AOL or
MSN (especially AOL) then they can be genuinely unaware of the
difference between the "internet" and AOL. They think their email
address is "fred123" when actually it's "(e-mail address removed)"