E-mail Overview

Email

Email is a service which allows us to send the message in electronic mode over the internet. It offers an efficient, inexpensive and real time mean of distributing information among people.

E-Mail Address

Each user of email is assigned a unique name for his email account. This name is known as E-mail address. Different users can send and receive messages according to the e-mail address.

E-mail is generally of the form username@domainname. For example, webmaster@howcodex.com is an e-mail address where webmaster is username and howcodex.com is domain name.

• The username and the domain name are separated by @ (at) symbol.

• E-mail addresses are not case sensitive.

• Spaces are not allowed in e-mail address.

E-mail Message Components

E-mail message comprises of different components: E-mail Header, Greeting, Text, and Signature. These components are described in the following diagram:

E-mail Header

The first five lines of an E-mail message is called E-mail header. The header part comprises of following fields:

• From

• Date

• To

• Subject

• CC

• BCC

From

The From field indicates the sender’s address i.e. who sent the e-mail.

Date

The Date field indicates the date when the e-mail was sent.

To

The To field indicates the recipient’s address i.e. to whom the e-mail is sent.

Subject

The Subject field indicates the purpose of e-mail. It should be precise and to the point.

CC

CC stands for Carbon copy. It includes those recipient addresses whom we want to keep informed but not exactly the intended recipient.

BCC

BCC stands for Black Carbon Copy. It is used when we do not want one or more of the recipients to know that someone else was copied on the message.

Greeting

Greeting is the opening of the actual message. Eg. Hi Sir or Hi Guys etc.

Text

It represents the actual content of the message.

Signature

This is the final part of an e-mail message. It includes Name of Sender, Address, and Contact Number.

Advantages

E-mail has prooved to be powerful and reliable medium of commmunication. Here are the benefits of E-mail:

• Reliable

• Convenience

• Speed

• Inexpensive

• Printable

• Global

• Generality

Reliable

Many of the mail systems notify the sender if e-mail message was undeliverable.

Convenience

There is no requirement of stationary and stamps. One does not have to go to post office. But all these things are not required for sending or receiving an mail.

Speed

E-mail is very fast. However, the speed also depends upon the underlying network.

Inexpensive

The cost of sending e-mail is very low.

Printable

It is easy to obtain a hardcopy of an e-mail. Also an electronic copy of an e-mail can also be saved for records.

Global

E-mail can be sent and received by a person sitting across the globe.

Generality

It is also possible to send graphics, programs and sounds with an e-mail.

Disadvantages

Apart from several benefits of E-mail, there also exists some disadvantages as discussed below:

• Forgery

• Overload

• Misdirection

• Junk

• No response

Forgery

E-mail doesn’t prevent from forgery, that is, someone impersonating the sender, since sender is usually not authenticated in any way.

Overload

Convenience of E-mail may result in a flood of mail.

Misdirection

It is possible that you may send e-mail to an unintended recipient.

Junk

Junk emails are undesirable and inappropriate emails. Junk emails are sometimes referred to as spam.

No Response

It may be frustrating when the recipient does not read the e-mail and respond on a regular basis.