Email

1
Email
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• OBJECTIVES
• Identify what protocols are used by email
• List the parts of an email message and what
  elements are included within each part

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Key terms Attachments Domain name Email Email
address Header Message body MIME Signature
file User name
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Email is mail sent electronically from one person
to another via the Internet. It can reside on
your personal computer or it can be web-based
(accessible from any computer connected to the
Internet). As mentioned previously, the standard
email protocol is SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol). Email follows the same TCP/IP process
discussed in Unit 1, Lesson 2. This means that it
is broken down into packets, forwarded via
gateways, and reassembled by the recipients mail
server.
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• Everyone who communicates via email must have an
  email address, whether the email client resides
  on a local computer or is web-based. An email
  address is divided into two sections separated by
  an axon symbol, also called the atsign (_at_)
• The username is a name or combination of
  letters and numbers either chosen by the user of
  the account or assigned by someone else. This
  name refers to a specific mailbox on the mail
  server.
• An example of an email address is
  redfish_at_bluetank.com
• In the above example, redfish is the user name.
  The user name must be unique to that mail server.
  For instance, there cannot be two individuals
  assigned the user name redfish on the same mail
  server.
• The domain name refers to the mail server. In the
  above example, bluetank.com is the domain name.
  Notice that the top-level domain is a required
  part of the email address. In this case, the
  top-level domain is .com.

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• An email message can be broken up into several
  different parts
• The header includes the following
• Recipients email address
• Senders email address
• Additional addressees
• Carbon copy addressee (cc)an addressee that is
  not the main recipient of the message
• Blind carbon copy addressee (bcc)this addressee
  is unknown to the main recipient and the carbon
  copy addressee
• Date message was written (based on the computer
  clock of the sender)
• Subject (A subject should always be included and
  should describe the message.) The message body
  consists of the actual message to be sent, that
  is, the content itself.
• The signature file is a short text file that can
  be added to the end of outgoing email messages.

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Attachments are a very common email component.
Sending attachments requires that the sending and
receiving computers have a common encoding
protocol. MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extension) is a standard protocol that allows
files such as graphics, sound files, video files,
photos, and formatted documents to be sent as
attachments via email. MIME encodes the files
into a text-based file on the sending computer
and then decodes the text-based file into its
original form. Note Another common encoding
scheme is UUencode.
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• ACTIVITY
• Write a short message in TextEdit or in another
  word-processing program indicating why you are
  interested in learning about web design and HTML
  coding. Attach the file to an email message and
  send it to me at dtaylor_at_cghs.dadeschools.net,
  cc you, the student, and bcc you, the student.
• Answer these questions
• How many messages did you receive?
• What does that tell you?