E-Mail and Internet Information

by Jeff Carrell, Electronic Communications Chairman

reprinted from Fort Worth Section Signals November 1995

I Need Your Help!

I am running out of things to talk about (as if you couldn't tell :-) in this column. So please, submit your ideas, questions and anything else concerning e-mail and/or the Internet to me for discussion in Signals. I would *love* to do a question/answer part each month, that way more people could get informed and get those nagging, but forgotten questions answered! Thanx in advance...

Magazine Update:

Back in the September issue of Signals, I told you about a couple of good, free, local newspaper style magazines that had articles on E-Mail and the 'Net. As of September, Texas Computing is no longer published. However, Computer Currents is still available, so check it out sometime - remember its free.

E-Mail to and from Different Systems:

Do you have a subscription to Prodigy, America Online (AOL) or Compuserve? If so, you too can send/receive e-mail from the 'Net (there may be a surcharge for this privilege, so check with your provider). The following chart shows the addressing scheme so that you can send or receive e-mail from others who use e-mail products from the 'Net: (example, user@domain = j.carrell@ieee.org)

From: To the Internet:

Prodigy user@domain (compose off-line using Mail Manager, hit alt-f, put dot in front of Internet email, hit OK button.

AOL user@domain

Compuserve internet:user@domain

From the 'Net:

to Prodigy userid@prodigy.com

to AOL userid@aol.com

Compuserve userid@compuserve.com (replace "," with a ".")

Remember, you can also get an IEEE alias id linked to one of these other services. One the benefits is always having the same e-mail id (assuming you maintain membership in IEEE), but having the flexibility to change service providers without having to inform the entire world of your new address. You simply inform the IEEE e-mail alias group of the new address and your e-mail still comes to you.

Internet Growth Statistics:

Domain July 1994 January 1995 Pct Change Domain Type

.com 774,735 1,316,966 70.0% commercial systems

.edu 856,234 1,133,502 32.4% education

.gov 169,238 209,345 23.7% government

.mil 130,176 175,961 35.2% military

.org 66,459 154,578 132.6% organizations

.net 30,993 150,299 384.9% network providers

General Info:

Have a question or want to know more details about e-mail, the Internet or related technologies? Send me a note and I'll cover it in a future article.

If your society, company or other technical organization would like an Internet presentation, demo, discussion, etc., let me know. I would be happy to give a talk (based on available time of course) to any interested group (no commercial pitch, just plain 'ole techie talk :-)

Gettin' ahold of me:

e-mail: j.carrell@ieee.org

snail-mail: Jeff Carrell POB 1593 Hurst TX 76053

phone/fax: 817.595.0343

Copyright 1995 Jeffrey L. Carrell. All Rights Reserved