THE COMPUTER FAMILY FOUR

The first order of business is to get the e mail up and working. If you are using Netscape they have their own mail system. When you signed on Netscape they have your mail system all ready set up so all you have to do is click on the mail icon and you are ready for your mail. It is the same thing with Internet Explorer. They have a mail program that is called Out look Express. This will handle all your mail needs and if you are using Internet Explorer it should all ready be set up for you and ready to go.

Tim, however, has heard of another mail program that he thinks would be better for the family. It is called E Mail 2000 and is put out by Parson's Technology. Tim has talked it over with his Dad and they have decided to down load the free trial copy of Email 2000 that is available on the Parson's Technology web site. So Tim types in the address: http://www.parsonstech.com.

From this site he is prompted by the computer to go to: http://new.shoptlc.com/. After looking around the site a bit he finally finds the place to download the free trial copy. That site is: http://new.shoptlc.com/freeproducts.asp. Once there, he hits the button to download and he is off and running. After reading through all the information, Tim finds out that they can use the E Mail 2000 program for free for thirty days and then they will automatically be switched to what is referred to as Email 2000 Lite. This is not as powerful as the Email 2000 program but will still do the job.

After he hits the download button the computer asks him if he wants to save the program to disk, or run it from where it is. Of course he wants to save the program to his computer so he clicks on save to disk. The prompt then asks him what disk to save it to and he saves it to the desktop. While this is downloading Tim is off in search of something else that he has heard about.

Now most sixteen year old boys want some privacy and that is only right. So Tim wants an E-mail that he alone can get into. There are several on line e mail programs and one of the best is Hotmail. So Tim (after he makes sure the download is coming along all right) types in the address box the words http://www.hotmail.com. He enters the address and finds himself at the Hotmail sign in box. Once there he completes the form to get his free E-mail account and picks his user name and his password. Now Tim has his own E-mail account where he can get private mail from his friends. His sister, and his younger brother will also sign up for their own accounts too when it is their turn on the computer. Free E mail services are available all over the web, Hotmail is just one of them.

Now the computer tells Tim that his download is finished. He clicks off of the Internet and goes to the Icon on the desktop to install the program. Here he clicks on the icon and the installation wizard comes on to help him through installing the program. It takes a little bit of time for all the files to open but before long there is the E-mail 2000 Icon on the desktop ready to be set up and used.

Now comes the set up part. Tim clicks on the E-mail 2000 Icon and gets ready to set up the mail box. First the computer wants to know what the E-mail address is. This would be the user name that the Internet Service Provider gave you. In this case we will use the name Jones24. So because they are using Prodigy Internet Service their e mail account name would be Jones24@Prodigy.net. Once that is entered along with the regular name in the E-mail 2000 program then you have the option of all kinds of other things. You can set the font to the style and size you want. You can arrange to have the computer go online every few minutes and check for mail, even if you aren't there. This is the advantage of this type of E-mail program. You can set up your address book the way that you want it, and even make special groups to send mailings to. Tim's family has many people that are all ready on the Internet. So Tim fills in the addresses of all of the family and groups them under a heading of Family. Now when they send a letter to one member of the family, all members will get the letter. It can also be set up where each member gets a different letter. E mail 2000 is a strong program.

Now, Tim after he gets done going to his own Hot mail account and making his own address book there, sending an E-mail to all of his friends with his new address in it, is ready to shut down the computer for the night.

How one does this is a matter of personal taste. Some shut down the whole machine, some just turn off the monitors. If you are going to shut down the whole machine make sure you do it from the start menu. It has a place for shut down and if possible this is where you should go every time you turn off the machine. As we get more involved with the computer family you will see that is not always possible but we will save that for another day.

I am still looking for those sites. If you have a good site or know of one, either personal or business, please give me a call at 719-372-6011 or 719-568-8397 or E-mail me at Espoir@rmi.net.

Gentle Readers, I have done a lot of work on the Florence.Com site. You might want to check it out. The address is https://www.angelfire.com/co2/florence. You will find the computer family articles and others that might help you get used to your machine. And please sign the guest book if you go and enjoy.