How to Work e-mail

How to Work E-mail

It can take days to send a letter across the country and weeks to go around the world. To save time and money, more and more people are relying on electronic mail. It's fast, easy and much cheaper than the using the postal service.

What is e-mail? In its simplest form, e-mail is an electronic message sent from one device to another. While most messages go from computer to computer, e-mail can also be sent and received by mobile phones, PDAs and other portable devices. With e-mail, you can send and receive personal and business-related messages with attachments, such as photos or formatted documents. You can also send music, video clips and software programs.

Let's say you have a small business with sales reps working around the country. How do you communicate without running up a huge phone bill? Or what about keeping in touch with far-flung family members? E-mail is the way to go. It's no wonder e-mail has become the Internet’s most popular service.

Just as a letter makes stops at different postal stations along the way to its final destination, e-mail passes from one computer, known as a mail server, to another as it travels over the Internet. Once it arrives at the destination mail server, it's stored in an electronic mailbox until the recipient retrieves it. This whole process can take seconds, allowing you to quickly communicate with people around the world at any time of the day or night.

Sending and Receiving Messages

To receive e-mail, you need an account on a mail server. This is similar to having a postal box where you receive letters. One advantage over regular mail is that you can retrieve your e-mail from any location on earth, provide that you have Internet access. Once you connect to your mail server, you download your messages to your computer or wireless device, or read them online

To send e-mail, you need a connection to the Internet and access to a mail server that forwards your mail. The standard protocol used for sending Internet e-mail is called SMTP, short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It works in conjunction with POP--Post Office Protocol--servers. Almost all Internet service providers and all major online services offer at least one e-mail address with every account.

When you send an e-mail message, your computer routes it to an SMTP server. The server looks at the e-mail address (similar to the address on an envelope), then forwards it to the recipient's mail server, where it's stored until the addressee retrieves it. You can send e-mail anywhere in the world to anyone who has an e-mail address.