Electronic mail, or e-mail, is probably the most popular and widely used Internet function. E-mail, email, or just mail, is a fast and efficient way to communicate with friends or colleagues. You can communicate with one person at a time or thousands; you can receive and send files and other information. You can even subscribe to electronic journals and newsletters. You can send an e-mail message to a person in the same building or on the other side of the world.
How does E-mail Work?
E-mail is an asynchronous form of communication, meaning that the person whom you want to read your message doesn't have to be available at the precise moment you send your message. This is a great convenience for both you and the recipient.
On the other hand, the telephone, which is a synchronous communication medium, requires that both you and your listener be on the line at the same time in order for you to communicate (unless you leave a voice message). It will be impossible to discuss all the details of the many e-mail packages available to Internet users.
Fortunately, however, most of these programs share basic functionality which allow you to:
*send and receive mail messages
*save your messages in a file
*print mail messages
*reply to mail messages
*attach a file to a mail message
Reading an Internet Address:
To use Internet e-mail successfully, you must understand how the names and addresses for computers and people on the Internet are formatted. Mastering this technique is just as important as knowing how to use telephone numbers or postal addresses correctly.
Fortunately, after you get the hang of them, Internet addresses are usually no more complex than phone numbers and postal addresses.
And, like those methods of identifying a person, an organization, or a geographic location--usually by a telephone number or a street address--Internet addresses have rules and conventions for use.
Sample Internet Address: custcare@aucegypt.edu
The Internet address has three parts:
1.a user name [custcare in the example above]
2.an "at" sign (@)
3.the address of the user's mail server [aucegypt.edu in the example above] Sometimes it's useful to read an Internet address (like custcare@aucegypt.edu) or a domain name from right to left because it helps you determine information about the source of the address.
An address like 201B6DQF@asu.edu doesn't tell me much about the person who's sending me a message, but I can deduce that the sender is affiliated with an educational institution because of the suffix edu.
The right-most segment of domain names usually adhere to the naming conventions listed below:
EDU Educational sites in the United States
COM Commercial sites in the United States
GOV Government sites in the United States
NET Network administrative organizations
MIL Military sites in the United States
ORG Organizations in the U.S. not covered by the categories above (e.g., non-profit orginaizations).
.xx where xx is the country code (e.g., .eg for Egypt).
Introduction:
Once you've become adept at using e-mail, you may want to communicate with others on the Internet who share your interests. Newsgroups are one way to do this; the other is through an electronic discussion group. An electronic discussion is a group of persons who have come together to discuss a particular topic via e-mail. There are several methods that network users can use to participate in electronic discussions; however, the basic purpose is to bring together persons with similar interests to share information, ideas, problems, solutions, and opinions. Since an electronic discussion is conducted by e-mail, it's commonly called a mailing list.
If you find yourself interested in a topic, you can subscribe to a suitable mailing list. From then on, any message sent to the mailing list is automatically distributed as electronic mail to you--as well as to all previously subscribed members of that particular discussion. The beauty of a mailing list is that traffic (the mail generated by that list) covers a specific topic and the
mail it generates comes straight to your electronic mailbox, without any extra work on your part. There are thousands of mailing lists operating on the Internet, dedicated to myriad topics. Some are created to serve local needs only (i.e., a list for the members of a regional computer user group), while many are open to anyone on the network. There are discussions on professional topics, vocational subjects, and topics of personal interest. You can roughly separate the thousands of mailing lists available on the Internet into the following groups:
Moderated vs. Unmoderated Lists
Mailing lists can be moderated or unmoderated. The distinction is whether messages are automatically forwarded to all subscribers (unmoderated) or whether a moderator (a human being) first screens and perhaps combines similar messages before sending them to subscribers (moderated).
Open vs. Closed Lists
Electronic discussions can also be "open" or "closed." Anyone can subscribe to an open discussion, but a closed discussion is limited to a particular group of persons, for example, those in a particular professional field.