Subject: E-mail Services
From: Melody Murphy

More than 100 million people do it. They do it all over the world. Some get it for free, and some pay for it. But they all agree that they don't know how they could live without it. In fact, they do it a grand total of a billion times (at least) each month. And it's NOT what you're thinking (shame on you!).

It's e-mail.

E-mail, or electronic mail, has become an indispensable part of millions of people's lives in the past few years. These numbers are growing explosively as more and more people go online. However, not everyone wants the same online services. Some computer users are primarily interested in exploring the Internet, but many people only want to use e-mail. To accommodate the needs of this last group, dozens of e-mail providers have sprung up in the past decade. In fact, several of them are available just for University of Florida students, faculty and staff.

One of these providers is GatorLink, a group of computer services which include free e-mail and 15 hours of free Internet connection time per month.

There are several ways to create a GatorLink account. One way is through the CIRCA labs. You can create your account at a CIRCA lab as long as you know your Social Security number and PIN. Another option is creating your GatorLink account in person at the UF Computing Help Desk in CSE 520. Make sure you bring your UF Gator One card. You can also create your account online at www.gatorlink.ufl.edu.

Grove, an additional UF provider, features UNIX computer services, Web space, file storage and e-mail. Undergraduate students pay $15 per semester to use Grove, but graduate students and faculty members can use Grove for free. To add Grove to your GatorLink account, select Modify from the GatorLink Web page, log in and choose "Activate Grove account" from the menu. You will be billed by University Financial Services for Grove and other charged services beyond baseline GatorLink. If you live on campus, you also may be able to use DHNet, a direct Internet connection in your residence hall through the Division of Housing.

Outside of UF, there are many other e-mail providers to choose from. For students with limited budgets, a free e-mail provider is often the best choice. One of the most popular of these is Juno. All you need to use Juno is access to a personal computer, a modem and a copy of the free software available from Juno's Web page at www.home.juno.com. After the initial software download, Internet access is unnecessary to use Juno.

There are three levels of e-mail service with Juno: basic, Juno Gold, and Juno Web. Basic service is simply free, unlimited e-mail. With more than 1,000 local access phone numbers, about 95 percent of the U.S. population can use Juno without having to pay long-distance charges.

The next service level, Juno Gold, offers a popular feature: file attachments. For $2.95 a month, Juno Gold subscribers can attach photos, drawings, graphics files, sound and video clips to their e-mail. The premium service level, Juno Web, gives users e-mail and the file attachment option as well as access to the World Wide Web for $19.95 a month.

There are two ways to order Juno Gold or Juno Web. Those who are already Juno users can sign up either through advertisements on Juno or through Juno's Web page. Those who are not Juno users must first download the basic software from the Juno home page and then may sign up for the Gold or Web services.

Unlike Juno, most other free e-mail providers are Web-based. Yahoo is one of those providers. While it offers only one service level - free e-mail - Web access is already included because of Yahoo's Web-based nature. To sign up, just go to Yahoo's home page at www.yahoo.com.

Hotmail is another Web-based provider. However, Hotmail supports graphics and, like Juno Gold, is capable of sending file attachments. But unlike Juno Gold, Hotmail's file attachment option is free. Hotmail's home page address is www.hotmail.com.

While many people are satisfied with just their free basic e-mail or Internet access for low rates, there are those who are willing to pay more for a provider that offers a wider range of services. One of these providers is America Online, or AOL, the most popular e-mail and Internet service provider in the world. Besides e-mail and Internet access, AOL offers special features like private chat rooms, free Instant Messaging and free personal home pages.

AOL has several service plans based on user time. The least expensive costs $4.95 a month for three online hours and is primarily for those who only occasionally send and receive e-mail. Each additional hour on this plan is $2.95. The intermediate service plan costs $9.95 a month for unlimited use but is for those who already have an Internet service provider. The premium service plan costs $21.95 a month for unlimited e-mail and Internet access. You can also sign up on the AOL Web site at www.aol.com, and AOL will mail you a starter kit.

No matter what you want to do in your journey through cyberspace - surf the Net, create a Web page, send pictures of your apartment to Mom and Dad or just send e-mail - there are dozens of e-mail and Internet providers to choose from. Finding the provider that's right for you is the easy part. Dragging yourself away from the computer at 3 a.m. is where it gets tricky.