What is and How Does it Work?  Electronic mail ( ) is the most popular use of the Internet. It is a fast and inexpensive way of sending messages and data to each other.  When you send an message it is sent to a mail server which is a system that determines from the recipients address a route to send the message

Protocols are rules that determine how the Internet transmits messages:  SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) decides which paths your message takes on the Internet  POP (Post Office Protocol) takes care of incoming messages  IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is for retrieving mail messages from a server  MIME specifies how to encode nontext data so it can travel over the Internet

 When you receive a message, it is held on the server until you check for new messages. The software that downloads your mail to your computer is called mail client software.

Anatomy of an Message  An message consists of two major parts:  The message header contains the information about the message.  The message body contains the message.  The To line designates where to type the address of the message recipient. You must type this correctly or the message will not be delivered. You can send the same message to several addresses by typing a comma between multiple addresses.

Anatomy of an Message (cont.)  The From line holds the senders address.  The Subject line allows the reader to have a hint of the message's contents and importance.  You can use Cc (carbon copy) and Bcc (blind carbon copy) to send copies of the message to people other than the recipient.

An attachment  An attachment is encoded so that it can "tag along" to a message and be carried safely over the Internet. You can attach more than one file to an message. To open an attachment click on the icon representing the attached file.

Signatures  An optional signature identifies more detailed information about the sender. A signature file contains the information you usually type at the end of your messages.

A formal signature contains:  sender's name  title  company name  company address  telephone and fax numbers  address

An informal signature contains:  senders name  address  graphics  quotations  other casual information  Addresses

An Internet Protocol address  An Internet Protocol address (IP address) identifies the computer at the o rganization you want to contact. The address must identify the recipient's user name followed by the (at) sign followed by the host name. An example is  When mail cannot be delivered, a message to that effect will be delivered to the sender.

Programs  Several programs for managing are available today.  Some programs are clients that run on your computer and receive mail from the mail server  Other programs run on a server machine you access from your personal computer  A dumb terminal is a computer that passes all your keystrokes to another computer to which you are connected.

Free  Examples of free programs that you access online with your browser include excite, hotmail, and newportweb.  To apply for an account, visit the companies web site and click on e- mail. Then fill out a form, choose a user name and password and you will receive the service.  The advantage of web based is that you can receive your from anywhere you have access to the Internet.

Setting Up and Using Your E- Mail Client  After typing the content of your message check your typing then click send. Most clients have a spell check program included.  is held on the server until you start your client on your PC. Most clients allow you to store messages in several folders on your PC.  You can usually print a message by clicking the Print button on the toolbar.

Forward/Reply  You can forward any message to one or more recipients by clicking the forward button. A quoted message (copy of the original message) is usually included in a forward or reply and is marked with a > symbol.  When you reply to a message the client formats a new, blank message and addresses it to the sender of the message you are replying to. You can choose to respond to all the original recipients or just the sender (Be careful; there may be blind carbon copy recipients who you are replying to).

To delete a message  To delete a message, select it and click the delete button. To permantly delete the message, just delete it f rom the trash or deleted folder.

Maintaining an Address Book  You can save addresses and nicknames to remember them by in the address book. Each entry can contain the individuals , real name, complete contact information, and other information. A group mailing list can be created which is a single nickname representing more than one individual address.