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Introduction
What is Email?
Email Addresses
Mailbox
POP Mail
Internet Mail
Attachments
Email Etiquette
Message Format

 


An email address is not just a jumble of words and symbols, it has a structure, and a meaning. Let's take these two examples ...

rob@microsoft.co.uk and rob@microsoft.com

...and split them up into their relevant parts.

Example 1   Example 2
A
B
C
D
E
rob @ microsoft .co .uk
A
B
C
D
rob @ microsoft .com

Address breakdown...

Both Examples...

Column A is you, or the identification of the person you are emailing.

Column B indicates that this is indeed an email address.

Column C is the name of the company, internet service provider or who ever hosts your email.

Example 1

Column E is called a Top Level Domain (TLD). This is country specific, and in this example means a UK domain.

Column D is determined be the country the TLD represents, in this case the UK. They have determined that .co will represent a company.

So, as .co.uk domain will indicate a UK company. Generally only UK companies will have a .co.uk domain.

Example 2

Column D in this address is what is called a generic Top Level Domain (gTLD), which is not country specific. So a .com address could be an American company, a UK company or any other company in the world.

 

The email address is closely tied in with the website address of the same company, using the example above, rob@microsoft.com the website address for the company Microsoft is www.microsoft.com . See the connection?

For descriptions of other TLDs, try here...

www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm

 
             
 

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