Using E-mail

COMP1260 > Using the Internet

Introduction Blah blah blah

...by students Be carfeul if you decide to set up your own e-mail client. If you are using POP3, many clients will delete messages from the server by default. That means that the copy of the e-mail on your computer will be the only copy. If anything happens to it you can't get it back and you won't be able to download it from another computer. If you want to leave a copy on the server, find out how to turn that option on in the client you are using. Make sure you turn it on before you connect for the first time. </td> </tr> </table> E-mail Clients When accessing your e-mail you need to connect to an e-mail server. An e-mail client is a program that connects to your e-mail server and allows you to manage your messages. There a variety of e-mail clients available. Microsoft Office Outlook is an example of a retail client. There are also many open source clients available such as Mozilla Thunderbird. Webmail Webmail allows you to access your e-mail through a web browser. With webmail you can easily manage your e-mail from any computer with an internet connection, without having to install or configure an e-mail client. Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail are a few popular webmail services that are available for free. E-mail Servers For most people, your e-mail system will consist of two servers. Outgoing mail will be handled by a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server. Incoming mail is often handled by a Post Office Protocol (POP3) server or an Internet Mail Address Protocol (IMAP) server. Your incoming and outgoing mail servers will often be located on the same machine. SMTP When you send an e-mail your e-mail client will connect to your SMTP server. It will send your e-mail address, the recipients address and the message to this server. The SMTP server will split the recipients address into a user name and a domain name. The domain name will be used to find the incoming mail server that it should pass the message to. If your recipient is on the same domain as you, the server will likely not have to perform this look-up. The message is then passed along to the incoming mail server. If the SMTP is unable to send the message, it will be put in a queue. It will attempt to resend the message and will notify you if it is having difficulties. POP3 Post Office Protocol (POP3) is one of the common choices for incoming mail servers. POP3 was designed with temporary internet connections in mind. Rather than permanently store messages on the server, they are downloaded for local access. By default, messages are deleted from the server once they are downloaded, but you can set up your e-mail client to keep a copy on the server. The server stores all messages for a user in a text file. When a new message arrives it is simply appended to the bottom of the file. IMAP The Internet Mail Address Protocol (IMAP) allows you to store and manage all of your messages on the server. This makes it easier to access your e-mail from multiple locations. Messages are not deleted when downloaded and you can organize your messages in folders that will exist no matter where you access the server from. Message Format An e-mail message is divided into two main sections; the header and the body. The header consists of information about the message; things like the "To", "From" and "Subject" fields. The body of an e-mail is the content of the message. Message Header Blah blah blah Message Body Blah blah blah MIME MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. It is a message encoding standard that allows you to include things like special characters and non-text attachments with an e-mail. Plain Text and HTML Blah blah blah Further Readings How Stuff Works Learn how specific operating systems work, such as Windows Vista. Also find more information on the history and future of operating systems. Computer Hope Important definitions and news from Apple, Microsoft and Linux/Unix References Previous Page: Torrents Next Page: Other Forms of Communication