Net Terms 04-21-97 @ (At Sign or Address Sign) On the Internet, @ (pronounced "at" or "at sign" is the symbol in e-mail addresses that separates the name of the user from the user's domain server. Here is an example: dcedit@ibm.net. Nobody really knows why the @ was chosen as one of the special characters used in the ASCII set of characters. One suggestion is that because the @ was a standard character already in use on typewriters, it would be a logical choice for use in computer programs, keyboards, and for transmitting messages online. Either way, some non-alphanumeric character was needed to separate the user name from their address, and the @ may have seemed like a natural choice. Addresses On the Internet, an address can be defined several ways. An address can mean the unique location of either: (1) an Internet server; (2) a web page address; or (3) an e-mail user. An Internet address is a server location on the Internet, which is expressed either as a unique string of 4 numbers (e.g., 216.70.27.97), or its associated domain name (e.g., chiroweb.com). A web page address, also called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), is expressed as the defining directory path to a file on a particular server (e.g., http://www.chiroweb.com). An e-mail address is the location of an e-mail user, which is expressed by the user's e-mail name, followed by an "at" sign, followed by the user's server name (e.g., bonesaw@ix.netcom.com).