E-mail Addresses

The established system of e-mail addresses is called is the Domain Name System or DNS. An address always has a standard layout, arranged as follows:

[User ID] at [site] [service provider] [type] [country]

Using this formula, you can ascertain what any Internet address means. Let's look at a sample e-mail address:

owen.phillips@swancoll.ac.uk

  • to the left of the @ is the User Identification or UserID - in this case, Owen Phillips
  • to the right of the @, the site/service provider (Swancoll), the type of site (.ac for academic) and the country (.uk)

Other types of Domain Name suffix include:

.ac or .edu Academic or educational institutions
.com Commercial site
.co.uk UK commercial site
.gov Governmental body
.mil Military
.net Networks
.org Non-profit organisations

Contents: E-mail

Skill Check: E-mail