Business Operations Lesson on Email Day 2– Mr. Davis 8-25-2014
Objective:
How does email get processed?
Standard 14.0, Perform email functions
What is Email?
Email is a tool used to send and receive messages through a computer over a network. There are two kinds of email that are often integrated together.
LocalEmail
An electronic mail system restricted to the computers connected to a local area network (including dial-in connections). These local email systems are used by organizations for messaging between its members.
InternetEmail
Two kinds of email systems are often integrated together. That is, most local email systems are also connected to the Internet in such a way that messages can be sent out from the local system to mailboxes on other networks as well as receive messages from other email systems.
One of the most impressive attributes of email is the short amount of time it takes to get an email from the sender to the recipient.
Email Functions and Operations
The basic operations of email include:
sendinga message
receivingand readinga message
includingattachments(i.e. files that were created with other applications) with email messages
forwardingand email on to another recipient
replyingto an email that has been received
Each of these operations will be fully discussed in this course.
The Email Client
In order to use email, you must run a program on your computer that gives you access to your electronic mailbox as well as giving you the tools needed to implement each of the above mentioned functions and operations. Such a program is called anemail client. NOTE: You are the "user." The software is the "client."
The Email Server
Email is a type of "Client/Server" system. The "client" refers to the software used to access the information through the user's computer. The "server" is the software that manages the system and controls the flow of information to and from the clients. Sometimes the computer that this software is running on is also referred to as a server. Note that the "server" is NOT a company that owns and runs the system. The company is known as the "provider."
In an email system, theservercan be thought of as the "post office." When you go to a post office,
SMTP: Short forSimple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol (i.e. the rules) forsendingemail messages between servers. Most email systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another; the messages can then be retrieved with an email client using either POP or IMAP (see below). In addition, SMTP is generally used to send messages from a mail client to a mail server. This is why you need to specify both the POP or IMAP server and the SMTP server when you configure your email application.
POP: Short forPost Office Protocol, a protocol (i.e. the rules) used toretrieveemail from a mail server. Most email client programs use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (see below). The newer version, POP3, can be used with or without SMTP.
IMAP: Short forInternet Message Access Protocol, a protocol (i.e. the rules) forretrievingemail messages from a mail server. The latest version, IMAP4, is similar to POP3 but supports some additional features. For example, with IMAP4, you can search through your email messages for keywords while the messages are still on the mail server. You can then choose which messages to download to your machine. Like POP, IMAP uses SMTP for communication between the email client and server.
In most cases, when you setup your email client program, you will need to provide it with information about the type of server used to send and receive email. This information, if necessary, will be provided to you by the network administrator or your provider.
Where is the email?
When an email message is sent, where does it end up? Does it go to the recipient's computer, or somewhere else?
When you send an email, the first place it goes is to your server's computer that acts like the local post office. If necessary, the email is then sent via the Internet to the server that handles the recipient's email. Finally, the email is placed in the recipient's "mail box" (on a storage device of the mail server's computer). Therefore, email only has "post office boxes."
To get your email, you essentially have to "go to the post office." That is, using your email client program, you must connect to the server and check you mailbox. If you have mail, then (depending on the type of email you are using) you either open and read the email directly from the server or the mail is downloaded to (i.e. copied to) your computer allowing you to read your email without staying connected to the server. When email is downloaded to your computer, it may or may not be deleted from the server (depending on how the client is setup).
Email Addresses
As with ground mail, in order for an email to get to its destination, it must be properly addressed. There are generally two types of email addresses used by different systems.
Local Address: If email is being sent within a local email system, all that's generally needed is the recipient's name. This may be the recipient's actual name or a user name (the name they use to when they log on to their network).
Internet Address: An email address for a message that is intended to be sent via the Internet consists of two parts which are separated by the @-symbol. To the left of the @-symbol is the recipient's user name (i.e. the name of their mailbox). To the right of the @-symbol is the email server name (i.e. the name of their "post office"). The server name is also called the domain name.
Mailing Lists
Amailing listis a group of email addresses identified by a single name. When an email message is sent to the mailing list name, it is automatically sent to all the addresses in the list. There are two types of mailing lists.
Emailclientssupport address books that enable you to define your own lists (aka: groups). These lists will be covered later in lesson 4.
Email listserversmanage centralized mailing lists for groups of users. Whenever someone sends an
Bell Work – Take out a sheet of paper (use day before if possible)
Objective:
How does email get processed?
- What does email stand for?
- What is snail mail?
- What does CC stand for?