A Presentation by Derek Southern May 20, 2010 To SIR Area 2 CAT group

What is ? is mail that's electronically transmitted by your computer. It is the killer app of the Internet because of its capability to send messages at any time, to anyone, for less money than mailing a letter or calling someone on the telephone. There are now more addresses than telephone numbers in the world, and more people have multiple addresses than multiple telephone numbers.

Forget the jargon! You thought was a simple concept, but you can be confronted with acronyms and jargon like POP, IMAP, WebMail, Aliases, Forwards, SMTP, Quota, SPAM, TLS, SSL, and more! I will describe the ins and outs of , explain the most important terms, and help you figure out which services and features you need from your service provider.

3 Fundamental Services Every provider supplies you with three fundamental services: A way to send A way to receive A way to store received , at least temporarily

How to get started? All you need to get started an account,account an online connection,connection an program.program for web-based a browser such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, or Opera and (of course) a computer (does not need to be high powered!)computer

Types of Accounts From your Internet service provider (ISP) e.g. Stand-alone program – you run an program on your computer. This is called an “ client”- messages can be downloaded to your own computer e.g. Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Windows Live Mail Web-based – you need a browser to read your mail. Messages (usually) stay on provider’s server. e.g. or or

ISP Accounts Everyone who signs up for Internet access from their local ISP (Internet Service Provider) can choose an address like for example. Some ISPs allow multiple addresses linked to your main account. Comcast allows six plus your main account. If you change ISP providers because you decide to move or find one with a lower price, you can't take your old address with you

The Comcast center

An message on Comcast

The ZIMBRA client

Windows Live mail

Add account to Win Live Mail

MS Office Outlook

CAPTCHA A CAPTCHA is a program that can generate and grade tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot. For example, humans can read distorted text as the one shown below, but current computer programs can't:

Web-based - 1 Normally FREE! Unless you need to buy a LOT of storage space. Popular versions from Google, Yahoo, MSN, and AOL Read your mail anywhere – from any computer with internet access and a modern browser

Web-based - 2 No Special Software - Beyond a modern web browser, which comes with most computers, no special software is required to use WebMail, and no time needs to be spent configuring software. Can Be Secure - Some WebMail applications run over a secure connection between your browser and the provider's servers

Disadvantages of Web-based Internet Required - You cannot view any of your unless you are connected to the Internet --- it can be slow or fast! Disk Space - Since your messages are stored on your provider's servers, they take up his disk space. Your provider may limit the amount of disk space you can use, or charge you a premium for additional disk space Features - Your WebMail program may not provide you with as many features as you would have if you used an Client for reading your .

Does your Web-based offer: sending attachments viewing attachments online viewing messages written in particular languages address books personalities spell checking read receipts SPAM filtering auto responders aliases etc.

Web-mail provider information AOLGmail Rackspace Windows Live MailYahoo Mail CostFree $1/m 10 user minFree basics StorageUnlimited >7 GB and counting10 GB5 GB and growingUnlimited Attachment limit25 MB 50 MB10 MB25 MB Browsers supportedAll All, but some issues with safari IE, Firefox, Chrome Automatic forwardingNoYes Partial Plus members only Client for other serverYesPOP3 only *

The AOL web page

Sign-up for a Yahoo account

Some Google apps…

Gmail message page

Gmail message area

Gmail Actions

Gmail message with attachment

Gmail with attached picture (640x479)

Google offers other goodies

Branch 8 Activity Calendar on website (956x670)

Compose a message in Gmail (429x366)

Creating an (687x417)

Adding an image using the icon (479x656)

as received (631x573)

How large an image? Image size = 200 pixels

Image size = 500 pixels

Image size = 800 pixels

Reference for jargon definitions

POP3 POP3: The POP method is the traditional way of accessing , where messages are downloaded directly to your computer. This is where you or your computer assistant sets up an account within an client such as Outlook, and from that point on every time you push the SEND/RECEIVE button, messages are downloaded into the inbox on your local computer while simultaneously removing the messages from the mail server.

IMAP The IMAP connection is somewhat of a cross between POP and the web mail interface where the local client synchronizes with the different storage folders that can be seen from the web interface (located on the server). For example, if you create a folder in the web mail interface and call it FUNNIES and then use the synchronize feature in your Outlook client using an IMAP connection method to the account, you can see messages in the FUNNIES folder. It works the same in reverse. If you add a folder named EVENTS to an account in Outlook using an IMAP connection, then the next time you log into the corresponding web interface, you will automatically see the same folder listed just underneath the Inbox!

Web-mail + IMAP By utilizing both the mail interface and an IMAP connection, a user can continue to use the resource intensive operations of an client side program (such as junk mail scrubbing, content filtering, contact management, and events), as well as sustaining the convenience of sharing messages online. Accessing messages online through the mail interface is like peering into a window of messages that are still located on the server. This way, messages can continue to be shared between computers having IMAP and the web interface connections. However, it is not logically compatible with a POP connection. Beware, once a POP connection is made, all of the messages that were in the Inbox to be viewed by an IMAP connection or the webmail interface will be removed. From that point, it can only be seen on the computer that has the POP account setup.

Web-mail, POP3, or IMAP? There are three available methods for accessing the web mail interface, a POP connection, or an IMAP connection. Each method offers a different way for you to connect to your that is hosted on our mail servers. We strongly recommend that you only choose one method of access, and not vary between them when connecting to the same account, which could result in moderate awkwardness during account interaction.