E-Mail for Students

Free e-mail accounts are ideal for Vernon College students. Here are some of the advantages:

• Your e-mail account does not depend on continued enrollment at Vernon College.
• You can set up an account whenever you choose. You can even set up multiple accounts.
• Your mail can be accessed from any computer with internet access. You can access it from the Vernon College library or classrooms, from your home computer, or from a friend's computer.
• You do not have to perform any setup on the computer where you want to access your mail.
• Free E-mail is very easy to use.
• Free E-mail accounts give you enough space to send and receive large files, complex graphics, etc.

The only complaint most people have about free e-mail is that sometimes it is slow. However, the companies providing this service continue to upgrade their equipment, and speed has improved over the last few months. Yahoo Mail appears to run as fast as any other part of Yahoo.

Many companies provide free e-mail accounts upon request. Here are the basic steps involved in getting a free e-mail account:

1. Decide where you want your account. A list of free e-mail sites is maintained on the Vernon College web site at http://www.vernoncollege.edu/freemail.html.
2. Read the policies at the site you select. Most discuss how their free e-mail site should be used. For instance, sending spam (bulk junk e-mail) is forbidden by most companies. The privacy of your e-mail should also be discussed.
3. Watch for hidden fees. Many sites have special features they will add to your basic e-mail account for a small fee. However, the basic free account is all most people need or want.
4. Decide on the name you want to use. Pick several alternates in case your first choice is taken. For instance, John Michael Bradley might find that jbradley@hotmail.com, jmbradley@hotmail.com and johnb@hotmail.com all belonged to someone else. He might finally discover that jmikeb@hotmail.com was still available.
5. Decide on a password. Good suggestions for passwords are combinations of upper and lower case letters with a number or two thrown in to make it even harder to guess.
6. Go to the web page of the site you selected and complete the online application to start your account.

last updated: April 17, 2001