What is Email?
Electronic mail (email) is the term given to an electronic message, usually a form of simple text message, that a user types at a computer system and is transmitted over some form of computer network to another user, who can read it. Email once consisted of a number of proprietary email systems. Originally these email systems could only send and receive email in an office where every person was equipped with the same software. With the expansion of the Internet, some manufacturers of these proprietary email systems introduced the capability of connecting to the Internet for the transfer of messages outside of the local network. This can take the form of a software interface that converts the local messages into a recognized standard form suitable for transfer over the Internet. These systems are more common in establishments that have used email for longer than most, and are renowned for minor problems with access to global Internet email, (e.g. problems with sending or receiving attac
Electronic mail or email is an inexpensive way to send written messages to anyone with an email address. Using email is an excellent way to provide customer services, such as answering questions and disseminating information without tying up phone lines or sticking to an eight to five timeframe for exchanging information. Having an email address gives the public, staff, and volunteers an additional medium in which to contact you or your organization.
Email is simply the shortened form of electronic mail, a protocol for receiving, sending and storing electronic messages. Email has gained popularity with the spread of the Internet. In many cases, email has become the preferred method of communication. Though there is some degree of uncertainty as to when e-mail was invented, the father of the modern version is generally regarded to be American Ray Tomlinson. Before Tomlinson, messages could be sent between users but only those connected to the same computer. They could not be targeted to a particular individual. Tomlinson devised a way to address email to certain users and thus was credited for one of the most important communication inventions in the 20th century. Tomlinson’s idea was to identify the name of the user and the computer at which they were located. As a result, the basic formula for addressing an email was username@usercomputer. This standard has not changed over the years, other than the user computer now commonly bein
Electronic mail is just one of the facilities available from the Internet. Other Internet facilities include accessing information on the World Wide Web, news services, remote login (for example, Secure Shell Client or telnet), and file retrieval. For further background information about the Internet and Web see document net-r1 (link below).
