Internet Business
Tutorial
Section 6:
How
Email Clients Work
How Email Clients
Work
Just
as web browsing software provides a
graphical interface for navigating the
World Wide Web, electronic mail (e-mail)
software, often referred to as an e-mail
"client," provides an easy-to-use
interface for managing your e-mail
messages.
E-mail
is the most-popular use of the Internet.
Literally trillions of messages
are sent worldwide in a single year. To
participate in e-mail, you need a
client. It can be standalone software,
such as the popular Microsoft Outlook
(http://www.microsoft.com/windows/oe)
or Eudora (http://www.eudora.com).
Or, it can even be a web-based client,
such as the wildly popular free e-mail
services offered by Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com)
and MSN Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com).
The
basic features of all e-mail clients are
just variations on a theme. After you
have set up e-mail software and an
e-mail account (and your own e-mail
address), you can send, receive and
forward messages; send and receive files
attached to messages; and organize
messages into folders and maintain a
digital address book of names, e-mail
address and other contact information.
Some
clients offer more features than this,
such as calendars, scheduling and
sophisticated e-mail organizing and
message blocking tools, but all e-mail
software at its most basic lets you
perform the tasks described above.
E-mail
messages are transmitted from computer
to computer using protocols built into
the e-mail client and the e-mail servers
that route messages to the proper
recipients.
Here's
what happens after you address an e-mail
message, type its contents, then hit the
Send button.
-
The digital e-mail message uses SMTP
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to
communicate with a mail server. If
you are a working in a home office
and have an Internet connection
subscription with an Internet
service provider (ISP), the message
is first sent via SMTP to your ISP's
e-mail server.
-
The server, using Domain Name Server
(DNS), determines who the recipient
of the message should be and then
uses SMTP to deliver the message to
the e-mail server associated with
the designated e-mail account. A
failed delivery results in a message
reporting the problem that's sent
back to the e-mail's sender.
-
The recipient's e-mail client then
uses either POP3 (Post Office
Protocol 3) or IMAP (Internet Access
Mail Protocol, which is gradually
replacing the older POP3) to accept
the message into the e-mail client
from the recipients' e-mail server.
For
more about e-mail protocols, see the
How Protocols Work section.
by Robert H. Fraass on
Friday, March 11, 2005
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