Parts of an Email Address

Due to the limitations imposed by older UNIX systems, many names are truncated or "mangled" into something unrecognizable as a human name. Most modern systems have the ability to use "aliases" for these accounts, to provide a more normal interface. For example, Dr. Stevenson's email alias is "Robert_Stevenson@unc.edu," which is automatically aliased by the EMAIL.UNC.EDU system into his actual email account name.

The second part of the address is the "@" sign. In Internet jargon, this is referred to as the "at sign." The @ symbol is used by the computers on the Internet to tell the difference between who a message is addressed to, and where it should be delivered.

The last part of the address tells the system where to send the email. The "email.unc.edu" in the address is the name of the computer where the "rlstev" account is maintained.

When a true Net native talks about email addresses, they say something like this: "My email address is daikat at email dot unc dot edu."

A more technical explanation of email addresses follows this example of a fictitious email address at UNC-CH:

jhndoe@ruby.ils.unc.edu

This example is constructed according to the following format:
 

USERID@NODE.SITE.DOMAIN.CC

An email address works just like a normal postal address. From left to right, it moves from most specific component to the most general. Postal addresses do the same listing specific persons, street address, city, state and country.

 The parts of an email address are:

 

• the userid (also known as username, login, loginID, handle or account) is the unique network "name" of an individual at a particular location.

 

• the node is the name of the computer or computer system on which an individual has an account. (For example, "email" and "ruby" are just two of many nodes at UNC-CH).

 

• the site is usually the name of the organization that manages the computer or node. In your case the site is UNC.
• the domain is an abbreviation for the kind of organization that maintains the computer. UNC's domain is edu, as are all educational institutions. Other domains are mil (military), gov (governmental), and com (commercial).

 

• the cc is the country code. Unless you're sending messages to another country you'll probably never use or see this.

 
 
Examples of some campus e-mail addresses are:
 
daikat@email.unc.edu

hught@ruby.ils.unc.edu

pattillo.davis@mhs.unc.edu

hallman@imap.unc.edu

sienfeld@unc.edu

gogan@hermes.oit.unc.edu

 
Your Internet address should be similar to hught@ruby.ils.unc.edu, where hught is a userid, ruby is the node, unc is the site, and edu is the domain. "ils" is an abbreviation for the School of Information and Library Science, which maintains the computer named "ruby." Addresses that end in "email.unc.edu" also follow this format; "email" is actually an alias for "login01.isis.unc.edu," where login01.isis.unc.edu" is the node. Often there will be more than one part to the site. Notice that nowhere in an email address are there any blank spaces; it is one continuous string of characters.

You may occasionally need to send e-mail to someone who is on BITNET, a network separate from the Internet. Although you have an Internet address, you can exchange email with people who have BITNET addresses. To send mail to BITNET sites, all you need to include is the person's userid and node, followed by the word BITNET. For example,
rkaputnik@mvs.bitnet
 

 
Go to: Anatomy of an Email Message