Internet Fundamentals/Email

Gmail

iOS Mail

Mozilla Thunderbird

Electronic mail (email) is a method of exchanging messages between people using electronics. This lesson introduces email.

Objectives and Skills

Objectives and skills for this lesson include:

• Use e-mail clients to send simple messages and files to other Internet users.
• Use email for communications
  • Open email application package, create new email message and add addressees
  • Compose text of an email message according to organisational guidelines, and spell check and edit text as required
  • Create and add an automatic signature for the user
  • Attach files to email message where required
  • Determine and set priority and send email message
  • Reply to and forward a received message using available features
  • Open and save an attachment to the relevant folder
  • Search for, sort and save email message using available settings
  • Adjust email accounts to restrict and quarantine possible email security problems
  • Print email message as required

Readings

1. Wikipedia: Email
2. Wikipedia: Webmail
3. Wikipedia: Email client
4. Wikipedia: Electronic mailing list

Multimedia

1. YouTube: Gmail: Sending Email.
2. YouTube: Gmail: Responding to Email with Gmail.
3. YouTube: How Email Works
4. YouTube: How to know if an email is real

Student Presentations

1. YouTube: Email Safety

Activities

1. Complete the following tutorials:
   • GCF Global: Email Basics
   • TutorialsPoint: E-mail Overview
2. Send, receive, and respond to email.
   • If you don't already have an email account, consider signing up for a Google Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, or Yahoo! Mail account.
   • Complete the GCF Global: Gmail: Sending Email tutorial.
   • Use your email account to send an email message.
   • Reply to an email message you receive from someone else.
3. Use an email client program.
   • Review Wikipedia: Mozilla Thunderbird.
   • Review InMotion: How to Setup your Email Account in Thunderbird.
   • Download and install Mozilla: Thunderbird.
   • Complete the tutorial Thunderbirdː Email Setup
   • Configure Thunderbird to connect to your email account.
   • Use Thunderbird to send and receive email.
4. View email message headers.
   • Review Wikipedia: Email spoofing.
   • Review Google: Message headers or Livewire: How to View the Source of a Message in Mozilla Thunderbird to learn how to view email headers in your webmail service or email client.
   • Follow the instructions to view message headers for a message you received. Verify that the message was sent by the displayed From: address rather than being spoofed.
5. Use Internet mailing lists.
   • Research popular Internet mailing lists. Consider signing up for any that interest you.
   • Research bulk email restrictions and identify appropriate ways to send bulk email messages.

Lesson Summary

• Electronic mail (email) is a method of exchanging messages between people using electronics.
• Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages.
• Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) carry text in other character sets and support multimedia content attachments.
• The typical sequence of events in transmitting a message is:
  1. A mail user agent (email program) sends the message to its outbound mail server using SMTP.
  2. The mail server determines the destination mail server based on the domain name of the email address and corresponding DNS MX record.
  3. The mail server sends the message to the destination mail server using SMTP.
  4. The destination mail server delivers the message to the recipient's mailbox.
  5. The recipient's mail user agent retrieves the message from the server using either POP or IMAP.
• Message headers include fields for Date:, From:, To:, Subject:, Cc:, and Bcc:.
• Most modern graphic email clients allow the use of either plain text or HTML for the message body at the option of the user.
• Messages are exchanged between hosts using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol with software programs called mail transfer agents (MTAs); and delivered to a mail store by programs called mail delivery agents (MDAs).
• Accepting a message obliges an MTA to deliver it, and when a message cannot be delivered, that MTA must send a bounce message back to the sender, indicating the problem.
• Users can retrieve their messages from servers using standard protocols such as POP or IMAP, or with a proprietary protocol specific to Novell Groupwise, Lotus Notes, or Microsoft Exchange Servers.
• Programs used by users for retrieving, reading, and managing email are called mail user agents (MUAs).
• Mail can be stored on the client, on the server side, or in both places.
• Many current email users do not run MTA, MDA or MUA programs themselves, but use a web-based email platform instead.
• A URL beginning with mailto: may be used to create a hyperlink to an email address, such as:
      mailto:recipient@example.com?subject=Email%20Example
• The Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) is a mail access protocol used by a client application to read messages from the mail server. Received messages are often deleted from the server.
• The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) provides features to manage a mailbox from multiple devices. IMAP shows the headers of messages, the sender and the subject and the device needs to request to download specific messages. Usually mail is left in folders on the mail server.
• An electronic mailing list or email list is a special use of email that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users.
• Electronic mailing lists usually are fully or partially automated through the use of special mailing list software and a reflector address set up on a server capable of receiving email.
• Incoming messages sent to the reflector address are processed by the software, and, depending on their content, are acted upon internally (in the case of messages containing commands directed at the software itself) or are distributed to all email addresses subscribed to the mailing list.
• Electronic mailing list servers may be set to forward messages to subscribers of a particular mailing list either individually as they are received by the list server, or in digest form in which all messages received on a particular day by the list server are combined into one email that is sent once per day to subscribers.

Key Terms

attachment

A computer file sent along with an email message.

BCC

Allows the sender of a message to conceal the person entered in the BCC field from the other recipients.

CC

Indicates those who are to receive a copy of a message addressed primarily to another recipient.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)

An Internet standard protocol used by e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail messages from a mail server.

Mail Delivery Agent (MDA)

A computer software component that is responsible for the delivery of e-mail messages to a local recipient's mailbox.

Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)

Software that transfers electronic mail messages from one computer to another using a client–server application architecture.

Mail User Agent (MUA)

A computer program used to access and manage a user's email.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)

An Internet standard that extends the format of email to support attachments and non-ASCII character sets.

netiquette

The rules of etiquette that apply when communicating over the Internet or social networks or devices.

open relay

An SMTP server configured in such a way that it allows anyone on the Internet to send e-mail through it, not just mail destined to or originating from known users.

opt-in email

Describes when someone is given the option to receive email, typically for some sort of mailing list, newsletter, or advertising.

Personal Information Management (PIM)

The activities people perform in order to acquire, organize, maintain, retrieve and use personal information items.

Post Office Protocol (POP)

An application-layer Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connection.

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

A program used for signing, encrypting, and decrypting e-mail messages and to increase the security of e-mail communications.

Secure MIME (S/MIME)

A standard for public key encryption and signing of MIME data.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

An Internet standard for electronic mail (email) transmission.

snail mail

Refers to letters and missives carried by conventional postal delivery services.

spam

The use of electronic messaging systems to send an unsolicited message.

spam filter

Processing of email to organize or block it according to specified criteria.

Assessments

• Flashcards: Quizlet: CIW IBA Lesson 7
• Quiz: Quizlet: CIW IBA Lesson 7

See Also

• Email
• Computer Skills/Basic/Email
• Computer Skills/Intermediate/Email
• Web 2.0 for Professional Use/E-Mail

References

← Search Engines

Internet Fundamentals

Social Media →