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The Internet and Email For The Over 50s: Internet and email for the over 50s

by Bob Reeves

The internet is a global collection of computers all connected together. The connections between the computers are made down the phone lines and via satellites which means that computers can be connected anywhere in the world. The internet has actually been around since the 1960s although not in the form we know it today.

The world wide web (www) is all of the information and services that are available on the internet. This was invented more recently at the end of the 1980s and has experienced exponential growth ever since. So the internet is all the computers and physical connections and the www is all of the information that is passed around on the internet.

One of the services you can use is email or electronic mail. Essentially email is the same as normal mail except it is all done electronically. Everyone who uses email has to have an email address and email software. Email is available for free and you can choose from a wide range of email providers such as hotmail and googlemail.

Armed with these you can write messages and send them anywhere in the world. You can also attach things to your email such as photographs making it a really good way to keep in touch with people who you might not get chance to see that often.


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