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Communication

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Communication
Internet is a great alternative to the conventional methods of communication. Using Internet you can:

send an e-mail

 fast - your e-mail will arrive usually within 15 minutes and often within seconds 
cheap - your e-mail will cost either nothing or the cost of a local phone call 
responsive - it's easy to reply to an e-mail, encouraging a rapid response. 
If you don't have your own e-mail address, then there are lots of organizations who are only too willing to give you one for free or for a very low charge. 

send a fax by e-mail

 Using a web browser you can send a fax without having to pay long distance rates. It even works for International faxes to many countries. Find the service at http://www.burnham-on-sea.co.uk/fax.html

receive fax by e-mail

 If you haven't got a fax machine, there is a company we recommend called e-Fax. With their basic plan, e-Fax free will give you, free of charge, your own fax number to which up to 20 faxes per month may be sent. e-Fax will then e-mail the fax to you. You'll need a special viewer, which they provide, again,  free of charge. Oh, and by the way, the fax number they provide is one covered by the free fax service above. 

chat to an individual

 using one of the many chatting programs you can conduct a typed conversation in real time. A good place to start is Yahoo Chat.
 

instant messages

Half way between chatting and e-mail, comes instant messaging. You type a message and the recipient gets the message immediately (provided he/she/they are logged on). If they're not logged on, they will get the message the next time they log on. We still like ICQ, which not only allows you to send instant messages, but also allows chatting, group chatting, voice chatting, file transfer, url transfer, paging and a host of other neat options. Get ICQ here and when you've got the software, send us a message using ICQ number 2928991.

The Microsoft equivalent is MSN Messenger .

If you only need to chat by text or voice then you might find Google Talk a better option. It's less obtrusive but has fewer bells and whistles. Unlike MSN and ICQ there are no adverts. To use it you'll need a Gmail account - but that's worth having anyway.
 

chat to a group

 you are not limited to an individual, if you wish you can invite several people to join your chat or join a group chat and get to know people all over the world. It's free and very easy.
 

talk by voice (Internet Telephony)

There are lots of voice chatting programs available, some are free some are shareware. If the person at the other end of the system has a computer then your conversation will most likely be free even if you are talking to someone at the other side of the world.

If the person you want to talk to does not have a computer, then it is still possible to speak to them on their telephone. The advantage being that an international call will cost only a tiny fraction of the normal telephone cost, for example, a call to the USA from England will cost less than (£0.02) per minute including taxes. Quality used to vary depending on Internet traffic, modem speed, software used and the sound card in your computer. Now it's usually the same as a normal Trans-Atlantic phone call! After a £500 bill for one month's phone charges I tried lots of different companies, and in the end, decided that Internet Phone produced the best results. My phone bill dropped to a fifth of its previous amount.  Today, using Skype it would be free!

 
video
conferencing		 If you have a fast enough Internet connection then it's possible to talk and see the person at the other end in real time. All you need is a video camera connected to your computer, speakers, a microphone and your video conferencing software. MSN, ICQ and Skype allow video conferencing. Some software is free others are shareware. Your conversation will usually be free or at the cost of a local phone call. Don't expect miracles however and the image you see will be small in most cases.

E-mail
When you open an account with an Information Service Provider (ISP), you will be given at least one e-mail address (some offer 5, some offer unlimited e-mail addresses). Using this account offers speed, privacy, and the full features of your e-mail software. However there are some disadvantages - you may get a very long e-mail address, your e-mail address may not be very easy to remember, if you're away from your computer you may find it difficult to get your e-mail at another computer. To get round the problems it's a good idea to take advantage of some of the 'free e-mail' accounts offered. Most of them allow you to access your e-mail using a browser. It's possible to get a much easier to remember e-mail address, some offer to redirect e-mail to your ISP e-mail account, some offer to collect mail from your ISP account.

Useful free e-mail links
Best of all free e-mail is, I think, Google mail (gmail) followed by - yahoo - excite - hotmail - usa net - You can also try a search for 'free e-mail' as there are many we have not listed here)

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