Most e-mail users on the Internet have one e-mail address, like

bsmith@connection.com

With @valley.net addresses there is also the option of adding additional nicknames on an e-mail account. Here's how this works.

If a user's ValleyNet e-mail address is William.Smith@valley.net then mail sent to that address ends up in his ValleyNet e-mail box. Mail sent to smith@valley.net would be rejected by the ValleyNet mail server, because there are other users with the word "smith" in their e-mail addresses; the address would be rejected because it is ambiguous.

William.Smith@valley.net is this user's complete ValleyNet e-mail address, mail sent to William.Smith@valley.net will always be delivered to him; there will never be any ambiguity.

If this user decided that some people might think of him as Bill instead of William, he could add a nickname on his account. If he set his nickname to Bill, then mail sent to Bill.Smith@valley.net would be sent to him provided there was no ValleyNet user whose real e-mail address was Bill.Smith@valley.net, and provided no other user named Smith had a nickname of Bill on his or her account.

For a full discussion, visit our Using Nicknames on ValleyNet page.

ValleyNet

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