Introduction to Electronic Mail

Introduction:
Electronic mail, commonly known as email, is a method of exchanging messages over the internet. Here are the basics of email:

1. An email address: This is a unique identifier for each user, typically in the format of name@domain.com.
2. An email client: This is a software program used to send, receive and manage emails, such as Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail.
3. An email server: This is a computer system responsible for storing and forwarding emails to their intended recipients.

To send an email:

1. Compose a new message in your email client.
2. Enter the recipient’s email address in the “To” field.
3. Add a subject line to summarize the content of the message.
4. Write the body of the message.
5. Attach any relevant files if needed.
6. Click “Send” to deliver the message to the recipient’s email server.
7. Emails can also include features such as cc (carbon copy) and bcc (blind carbon copy) to send copies of the message to multiple recipients, and reply, reply all, and forward options to manage the conversation.

Electronic Mail (e-mail) is one of most widely used services of Internet. This service allows an Internet user to send a message in formatted manner (mail) to the other Internet user in any part of world. Message in mail not only contain text, but it also contains images, audio and videos data. The person who is sending mail is called sender and person who receives mail is called recipient. It is just like postal mail service. Components of E-Mail System : The basic components of an email system are : User Agent (UA), Message Transfer Agent (MTA), Mail Box, and Spool file. These are explained as following below.

1. User Agent (UA) : The UA is normally a program which is used to send and receive mail. Sometimes, it is called as mail reader. It accepts variety of commands for composing, receiving and replying to messages as well as for manipulation of the mailboxes.
2. Message Transfer Agent (MTA) : MTA is actually responsible for transfer of mail from one system to another. To send a mail, a system must have client MTA and system MTA. It transfer mail to mailboxes of recipients if they are connected in the same machine. It delivers mail to peer MTA if destination mailbox is in another machine. The delivery from one MTA to another MTA is done by Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.

Services provided by E-mail system :

• Composition – The composition refer to process that creates messages and answers. For composition any kind of text editor can be used.
• Transfer – Transfer means sending procedure of mail i.e. from the sender to recipient.
• Reporting – Reporting refers to confirmation for delivery of mail. It help user to check whether their mail is delivered, lost or rejected.
• Displaying – It refers to present mail in form that is understand by the user.
• Disposition – This step concern with recipient that what will recipient do after receiving mail i.e save mail, delete before reading or delete after reading.