Don't use the "free" email from your broadband supplier. If you depend on your broadband provider's email service -- such as @comcast.net, @sbcglobal.net, @verizon.net, @att.net, etc. -- you will probably lose your email address if you move to a new area or change broadband supplier. Unless you are using POP-based email (where all your email is downloaded to a program running on your own computer, such as Outlook) you will probably lose your address book and all your old emails. Another issue is that ISP-based email addresses don't last forever. For example, a terrible mess ensued when the Houston cable franchise was sold.

In a few minutes, you can get a free advertising-supported Internet email account (accessible via any Internet-connected computer -- whether at work, at home, or at a library) from Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, or Apple. With some suppliers, you can pay a nominal amount for ad-free email.

Choosing a professional email username

If available, get a username that incorporates your name -- like john_smith@yahoo.com or john.smith@gmail.com .

Cute email addresses or ones related to your spouse, business, pet, hobby, politics, former employer, age, birth year, or retired status can be a problem later -- and tend to get wearisome over time. You need a name that will work for many years and that works for both personal and professional use.

If your name is already taken, experiment with your middle name, your initial, or add a word -- something like "john_robert_smith."

Some people use their zip code as a differentiator, but that's hard for people to remember, a privacy issue -- and a problem if you move. Using your birth-year as a suffix telegraphs your age.

If you wish, you can have your personal email address forwarded to your email address at your employer. But company email systems often have crude anti-spam mechanisms that reject email newsletters you signed up for -- and you still have the privacy and data-loss issues.  

Questions or comments to: info@hpalumni.org