The INTERNET ADDRESSING Scheme

An Internet address consists of three parts:

1) The user name that your mail recipient uses on the other service\computer
system.  
This goes on the left side.

2)  The  @  symbol. This goes in the middle.

3) The Internet name of the service\computer system your mail recipient is
using.  These names are assigned by the Network Information Center and are
unique.  This goes on the right side.

The service or system name is followed by a suffix which tells what type of
site it is.  For example, commercial businesses use the suffix "com",
educational institutions use "edu", military sites use "mil", and government
offices use "gov".  

SOME REALLY, REALLY GOOD ADVICE  -  Be sure that you have verified the exact
address with the recipient before sending your email.

Here's some examples of properly formatted Internet addresses:

sarah_bloomer@igc.apc.org
joe@rutgers.edu
12345@halcyon.halcyon.com
r245B@heidelberg-emh11.army.mil
paul_smith@mcimail.com

Even though these addresses differ, all are properly formatted for the
Internet.  Some user names have underscores separating the first and
surnames; some names aren't really names, but numbers or an alphanumeric
sequence.  Some site names have 3 elements separated by periods, some have
only 2 elements separated by a period, and some have a dash in the name. 


A LITTLE SOMETHING MORE ABOUT INTERNET ADDRESSSES

1)  A period does not appear next to the   @  symbol.  Ever.

2)  The suffix or "domain identifier" is always at the end of the address and
it is always separated from the site name by a period.  Always.

3)  They are always spelled correctly.  Always.  To mistype an Internet
address means that the mail will be returned to you, undelivered (except in
the rare chance that an address does exist that matches the mistype - but it
will not be delivered to your intended recipient).

4)  No other formatting is required.  No quotation marks, no IN% or
>INTERNET:  or  SMTP% preceding the address.  Nothing else.

5)  No commas in the address.  NO commas.  Commas are used to separate one
address from another if you are sending to multiple recipients.

6)  No spaces.  Repeat, NO NO NO spaces can appear in the address.  Spaces,
like commas, are used to separate one address from another.  If you type a
space within an address, the software thinks you are trying to send to two
separate addresses instead of just one.  Result - that nasty Mailer Daemon
will return your mail with an awful uninterpretable message to let you know
you messed up.

INTERNET ADDRESSES ARE UNIQUE

So, as you can see, Internet addresses are unique for each individual who has
one.  No two addresses are ever, ever the same.  There are rules that you
must abide by when typing out the address.  These rules cannot be broken if
you wish to have your mail sent successfully.  This is because the software
programs that handle the mail aren't smart enough to know what you intended
to do, they can only respond to what you actually did.

GETTING SOMEONE'S EMAIL ADDRESS

Given that there are millions of email addresses, it is essential for you to
know the exact spelling and syntax of the address that you are sending your
mail to.  Although there are various "Internet Directories" in existence,
there is no widespread directory (like telephone directory assistance) that
you can access to find out someone's email address.  And even with the
directories that are available, you still have to have a starting point
(just like telephone directory assistance), like what school the person goes
to, what city the person is located in, or what company the person works for.
Check out the "Finding Internet addresses using Gopher" folder in this area.
However, the easiest, and usually only, way to get someone's email address is
to ask them what it is.