This is a quick cheat sheet for those who are new to using the internet and email and are confused by terms people are using or are unfamiliar with email protocols or netiquite...
First... most important.... your new computer comes with virus programming, most likely mcafee or norton.... this is temporary. You need to buy or renew your virus program / subscription at least yearly and KEEP it updated.... the program sitting there won't do squat bit of good if it isn't updated and actively watching your computer. New virus's come out daily and the program doesn't automatically know that they exist. It's expensive, but which costs more? the forty to sixty a year (I need to look up prices) for the program or the 60 dollars an hour to get your computer fixed by a repair service? or the 3K to replace the machine entirely????
Second... the most annoying part of the internet involves Forwards.... don't contribute to this. One, virus's get passed quickly this way.... another, it compounds and takes up lots of space, both in bandwidth and people's computers. When a forward is sent it takes alot of room on the phone lines compared to a normal email.... when people get forwards it takes up more room than necessary in their computer... and 90% of the emails have been forwarded so much they are beyond annoying to a person, both in the fact that you have to "open" the email seven times to see the three lines of text buried in it that aren't funny by the time you get there because you are so frustrated.... or they've been around the internet so many times you can recite them from memory.

SO what to do? If you find something funny that you want to share, that is great... just take a few more steps to make sure everyone can enjoy it.... click at the top of what you want , and hold the mouse button, and drag it to the end, causing it to highlight..... release the mouse and use your copy command, hold the ctrl button and click the C button once on a IBM type (windows) or I believe the propellor / butterfly/ open apple... whatever you call the squiggle on the mac and the C button do the same. If not your menu will have a copy command , most likely under the edit menu in the menu bar above the email. once that is done open a new, fresh email and click inside the body of the message. Use ctrl and the V key to paste it into the new email... and then send it on to your friends.

there is another important note here that will help cut down on junk mail in the internet... when you send email to friends do a service to them and when you address the email put yourself in the TO box. Put all your friends emails in the BCC box. No one will be able to see their addresses and steal them. This is also how forwards do a disservice, since forwarding leaves everyone's emails in there for anyone to steal..... take a look at the next forward you get , scan down it and see all the emails in there that are easy pickin's for someone gathering up emails to spam....

On the email note, it is a very good idea to have more than one address.... even if you don't buy them, (your isp sells additional addresses, check into it) you can sign up for a freebie email address (just know that many may gather your information and sell it to their partners when you do this, it's in their fine print). Use your email through your ISP for anything legally binding, and for private / personal friends and family that you trust not to use it for forwards. Use your second email, or your freebie email through a free service publically... when you sign up on webpages use this email, when you sign guestbooks use this email... when you know a person sends you forwards and puts your email and computer at risk use this email... you get the idea. This is the junk email that you don't care how many people get and you can easily dump, like a fake identity ... only not for purposely misleading... just to catch junk emails....

DO NOT open emails that are suspicious... you can't go by the "if it's not from someone you know" trick anymore because newer virus's are designed to attack email, steal addresses and use the infected machine's email as a return address... so friends that get a virus may unwillingly be sending out infected emails to you from their address without knowing it. Your best protection here is to visit virus websites to keep up on newest virus's and read the descriptions telling you how the virus will act, what to look for, subject lines that it will use and so on.... if you watch the email for a bit you can start to tell which emails are fake and which aren't... the junk mails will use the same subject lines over and over.... and it's people who actually open these and click on them that encourage these places to keep annoying the rest of the world. For that matter become familiar with the same tricks on websites... that flashing bar at the top telling you that you have messages waiting.. FAKE... it's not for you.... the "You are Xth visitor and you WIN blah blah blah" are FAKE... they are just trying to get traffic to their website. The internet has grown from a few thousand websites to a few million.... it's getting to be a highly competative fight to get visitors to websites..... when people click on pop ups (you'll soon be annoyed by them) that encourages people to do more popups... DON"T CLICK ON THE THINGS!!!!!! and while I'm at it, the search engines are rigged now too... used to be you would get honest results based on a database of keywords that match whatever you put in.... now whomeever pays the most shows up magically in the top search results.... rely more on links from sites you trust, sites that review websites... and webrings that group like sites togther... these are still reliable ways to find sites you want.

Mailing Lists... this is one of the best ways to get information and find like minded people, or research things you are interested in... and depending on where you get a mailing list from a quick way to get junk mail, so get another spare email address for this.... I tested, I used a brand new email in my Yahoo based mailing lists and within a month was receiving junk mail... now as much as yahoo annoys the world... it may not of been then selling info, many not nice people will sign up for mailing lists with high memberships and gather up email addresses as the emails go by, or spam the list directly... after a while they have a nice new batch of emails gathered up to use to spam or to sell to spammers.... so it's good with the bad, I highly recommend mailing lists and message boards, but again, when your email is easily seen it is easily stolen... use a spare....

Bonus on using different emails... when you get the hang of your email program it will be very easy to use the different addresses to help you filter and sort your email for those who love to have things organized :)

SO ... the Internet is a great place, bringing the world to your feet and making it a small world after all, it's a place where you can learn infinate things and greatly suppliment school... but it is made up from humans... by and for humans... and so will reflect the varied humans on the planet... good and bad... keep the same mindset as you would taking a stroll in downtown big city wherever.... majority of the people are probably honest and nice, and will be great to meet... but odds are one of them are looking to steal your wallet when you are looking the other way :) if you have any questions ...... there are millions of places on the net that will answer them... or you can catch me online sometime :) I'd give you my email but it would be the public one and odds are it would get caught in the filter and trashed :) to start you off... I love :

http://www.about.com

http://www.webring.org

http://www.groups.yahoo.com

of course those are off the top of my head so I might of remembered the url's wrong....