Email
How they work: a great wonder

by Chi Ajoku

 

Introduction

Email (electronic mail) is correspondence or interaction conducted between one or more users on a network. An e-mail system consist of hardware and software that subsequently collect and deliver mail. Mail of this sort may be in the form of a picture, sound or text. This data when recieved can be replied to, forwarded, stored in a mailbox or saved to a hard disk.

Email Systems

Email systems depend entirely on an electronic communication system of some sort, such as communication between network servers or the Internet. All e-mails are transmitted through traditional telephone lines or radio waves. These do so by transmitting data, a process similar to transmission in fax machines.

Email messages

All e-mail messages are stored on a server. When an e-mail message is requested the network server releases it. Because all messages are stored on a server, the server keeps these messages until the user is ready to read and delete them. If the e-mail messages are not deleted the messages still remain on the server, unless deleted before routing takes place.

Figure 1

It is very vital to realise that an e-mail message cannot be sent without the availability of a host (network sever) or without an e-mail system software such as microsoft outlook.

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