When you look at an email address does it make sense to you?  Do you know what it means?

If you don’t, there’s a good chance you are using an email address that was given to you by the cable company or telephone company that you pay for your internet service.

You don’t have to use that address—you have other choices.

The problem with using the email address from your  internet service provider is that you someday you might want to change the company you use. If you stop the service, your address would stop working. (Or you would pay to have it forwarded.)  Why put yourself in that position? There are options, but first it will help if you understand the formatting of an email address.

Every email address has two parts. These parts are separated by the “@“ symbol. The first part of the address is personal – you can think of it as your name on the envelope. Many people do use a form of their name.

The second part after the @ symbol is the information about where the email should go. There are three types of addresses.

1)  Internet companies that manage email.  In this address:  “johndoe@yahoo.com.”  Yahoo is the company managing the email. In  “lovemylife@hotmail.com”  Hotmail is the company. In “sarah573@aol.com” AOL is the company. In “sallyann@icloud.com” Apple is the company that manages the email.  In “bob.backer@gmail.com“,  Gmail is the service that is owned by the company Google.  These companies manage these emails for free.

2) Businesses, schools, government workers, organizations and some people own their own addresses. The website name (also known as a domain name) can be used for an email address.  People in the organization will have a personal part followed by “@“ followed by the domain name. For example,  “Jdoe@xyx.com“, or “jane@xyz.edu“.

Some people rely on their work email address for personal correspondence. If you are absolutely sure you are never going to leave that job or organization, then there is no problem. For instance, some schools allow alums to use their addresses associated with the school.

3) Cable or telephone companies provide internet service and often set up addresses for customers as part of that service.  These addresses might look like:”Maryjane@comcast.net“, “johndoe@fairpoint.net“, “teddybear3@sover.net“, or “tom@earthlink.net“. Comcast, Fairpoint, Southern Vermont Cable and Earthlink manage these emails.

If you have one of these addresses what happens should you want to change your provider either because you are moving or you can get a better offer from a competitor?

It is safer to have an email address that is independent of your work or internet service provider. You can have a free one from an internet company. You could also buy a domain and use that address for a small price. In either case, if you move, change service providers, or change jobs you won’t lose your own email address!

It is relatively simple to get a new email address and set up your computer (tablet, smart phone)to use the new address.  Of course I’d be happy to do this for you. If you’d like help getting set up, please give me a call or contact me. I’d be delighted to help you.