• WKU E-mail Accounts -- If you are a WKU student, you are required to maintain the email address assigned to you by the university. If you wish to use another email account rather than the WKU account, you should set your WKU account to "forward" all mail to your preferred account. If you have mail forwarded to your preferred account, be sure to select the option to "delete" mail off the WKU server once it is forwarded. If you don't, you may go "over quota" and all messages will be bounced back to the sender and not forwarded.
  
  
• Free E-mail Accounts -- There are several good free E-mail services available on the Internet. These services are typically very good and give you the same flexibility as a WKU account. Even if you currently have a WKU account, I would strongly encourage you to establish an account on one of these free services for online courses. A major benefit to one of these free E-mail accounts is that, when you graduate, you will lose your WKU E-mail address -- but you can always keep your free address and access it from anywhere in the world. Below are listed some suggestions with some of my personal comments:
  
  
  • Yahoo -- I have found Yahoo to be stable and I typically have very little problem obtaining my messages. Your E-mail address would be XXXXX@yahoo.com where XXXX is an identity you choose. Spammers tend to target Yahoo accounts. The URL to establish the account is: http://login.yahoo.com/config/login.
    
    
  • Hotmail -- Is a powerful package and is basically an equal to Yahoo. Your E-mail address would be XXXXX@hotmail.com where XXXX is an identity you choose. Spammers tend to target Hotmail accounts. The URL to establish an account with Hotmail is: http://login.passport.net/uilogin.srf?id=2.
    
    
  • Excite -- Also very good. Your E-mail address would be XXXXX@excite.com where XXXX is an identity you choose. The URL to establish an account with Excite is: http://registration.excite.com/excitereg/login.jsp
    
    
  • Netscape WebMail -- Very good. Your e-mail address would be XXXXX@netscape.net where XXXXX is an identity that you choose. The URL to establish an account with Netscape WebMail is: http://my.screenname.aol.com/_cqr/login/login.psp?siteId=nscpenusmail&authLev=2&mcState=initialized&triedAimAuth=y.
    
    
  • Gmail -- Gmail [Google Mail], is in my opinion the absolute best web-mail in the business. However, at this point in time, it is still in beta and hasn't gone completely public yet -- you have to know someone with a Gmail account to get an account. As of this writing, it gives more free storage [2.5 gb] and features than any of the others. Keep checking Google.com for its public launch or find a friend with a Gmail account and get him to "sponsor" you for an account.
    
    
• If you currently have an E-mail account at home through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as AOL, InsightBB, Comcast, etc. etc. these accounts are fine as well for online courses. They typically provide you with their software which works well.
  
  

• Don't forward chain letters. Never, ever send or forward a chain letter even if your best friend sends it to you and says it it legit!! As a corollary to this, big companies don't do business via chain letter. Bill Gates is not giving you $1000, and Disney is not giving you a free vacation. There is no baby food company issuing class-action checks. You can relax; there is no need to pass it on "just in case it's true."

• Don't forward virus warnings. You should never forward any email containing any virus warning unless you first confirm it at an actual site of an actual company that actually deals with virii. Try: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html And even then, don't forward it.

• Watch your words! You may think that what you say is easy to understand, but sometimes words can be misunderstood. Be concise and to the point.

• Don't "flame" people. If you send critical or unprofessional comments to someone [known as "flames"] it can cause you more problems than it is worth. If you have a problem with someone, deal with it in person.

• Very few people like "spam." Junk e-mail, known as "spam" is annoying at best. Most people just delete it without reading it.

• There is no such thing as a private e-mail. Before you click on "send," consider what may happen if the message is read by someone else - like the boss.

• Keep attachments to a minimum. Don't send unsolicited attachments especially if the attachment is an executable [.exe] file. A corolary to this is never open an executable file which is attached to an unsolicited e-mail message.

• Never assume anything. While you may be an Internet pro, and familiar with the lingo and various emoticons (like the popular smiley face :-) and others), don't assume the recipient is.

• Trim the headers on forwarded messages. If you absolutely MUST forward that 10th-generation message from a friend, at least have the decency to trim the eight miles of headers showing everyone else who's received it over the last 6 months. It sure wouldn't hurt to get rid of all the ">" that begin each line.

• Don't send a "wide load." Make sure that you are sending messages that have less than 80 characters in a line -- 60 is best. Otherwise the recipient must scroll from left to right so see the whole message. A lot of people get annoyed and just delete the message.

These terms are shorthand which are used in e-mail messages and chat groups. It is best to not use them unless you are sure the recipient knows what they mean.

Emoticons, sometimes know as "smileys", are meant to add emotion or tone to messages. Many people find them annoying and it is best to use them sparingly, if at all.