"What does the term 'ISP' mean?"
These letters stand for Internet Service Provider. It is the organisation who you currently dial up from your computer in order to connect to the Internet. Once you are connected to the Internet via your ISP you are able to perform e-mail functions or visit various websites anywhere in the world.

I'd like all my staff to have e-mail addresses related to our company name."
Once we register your domain name and set up the hosting arrangements we can also set up just what you require. For example if your domain name was www.footwear.com  you could have multiple e-mail addresses such as john@footwear.com  and  sales@footwear.com  etc etc. Does this give you the general picture?

"If my e-mail mailboxes are part of my domain do I still need an ISP?"
Yes you do. Your Internet Service Provider provides the method by which you physically connect to the internet. You can only send or receive your e-mails after you are connected to the internet, regardless of whether your mailboxes are located on your own domain's mailserver or on your ISP's mailserver.

"Are there advantages to having my mailboxes at my domain?"
Yes, very important ones. It means that you can change your ISP in future without having to change your e-mail address at the same time. Imagine all the hassles this avoids. Think of all the office stationery and brochures which won't have to be changed. And consider the other problems you would have faced otherwise. There's no way you can advise a new e-mail address to absolutely everyone who has your old one.

"Can I send and receive my mail from another computer?"
Yes, provided you have an email address "@" your domain name. You can travel the world and still use your regular address to send or receive your mail. This has heaps of advantages over using a Hotmail account or similar because you can use your regular email address. Nobody even needs to know you're away from your office....it's business as normal. Furthermore, your mail is sent or received in seconds instead of being delayed for an hour or more in a Hotmail or Yahoo queue!! Want to send or receive office mail whilst working at home on nights or weekends. No problem....now it's easy.

"I want the best of both worlds"
We kind of knew you would!  Ok, you want to have an email address "@" your domain name as your official email address. In future you will give this address to contacts rather than the old email address which is "@" your ISP.

However perhaps you still wish to utilise your old email address to receive announcements from your ISP and anything else which may arrive at your old mailbox. Don't worry about it. We can easily arrange for you to automatically receive messages from both the old and the new mailboxes. Alternatively we could set up a a "re-direct facility" for you as described below.

"What is an 'email re-direct' facility?"
Redirecting mail is quite easy if your email address is "@" your own domain. We can set it up so that mail sent to you@your-domain.com gets automatically and instantly on-forwarded to any other mailbox you might care to nominate. Then, whenever you collect your mail from the second mailbox you will receive everything which was sent to both addresss.

"What is the best email program for me to use"
In our opinion your best bet is to use "Outlook Express" from Microsoft. It came bundled in with your Windows system and is probably already installed on your PC computer. Furthermore, it is a very good program with a probable market share of  70% or more.

There's no doubt that Netscape Messenger is a also good solid email program but for reasons we won't bother to explore here, our preference is to use Outlook or Outlook Express instead.