Terminology:
– Term “electronic mail” has been in use since 1975
– Variations of “E-mail” have been in use since 1979
– “Email” is the common form recommended by style guides and IETF RFCs
– “E-mail” is favored in American and British English writing
– “EMAIL” was popularized by CompuServe in 1981
History:
– Computer-based messaging started in the 1960s with MIT’s CTSS project
– ARPANET sent the first network mail in 1971
– Proprietary email systems emerged in the 1970s
– SMTP protocol was implemented on ARPANET in 1983
– Internet email protocols SMTP, POP3, and IMAP became standard in 1995
Operation:
– Sender uses MUA to format the email
– MSA determines the destination address
– DNS resolves domain names to mail servers
– Message is sent through MTAs to reach MDA
– Recipient picks up the message using POP3 or IMAP
Usage:
– Email is a widely used communication medium
– Email addresses are necessary in various aspects of life
– Email systems operate across computer networks
– MIME extensions allow multimedia content in emails
– International email standards use UTF-8 for addresses
Security:
– Email systems face security threats like phishing and malware
– Encryption methods like PGP and S/MIME secure email content
– Email authentication protocols like SPF and DKIM verify sender authenticity
– Spam filters help in reducing unwanted emails
– Regularly updating email clients and using strong passwords enhances security
Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving messages using electronic devices. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the digital version of, or counterpart to, mail (hence e- + mail). Email is a ubiquitous and very widely used communication medium; in current use, an email address is often treated as a basic and necessary part of many processes in business, commerce, government, education, entertainment, and other spheres of daily life in most countries.
Email operates across computer networks, primarily the Internet, and also local area networks. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to connect, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface to send or receive messages or download it.
Originally an ASCII text-only communications medium, Internet email was extended by Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) to carry text in other character sets and multimedia content attachments. International email, with internationalized email addresses using UTF-8, is standardized but not widely adopted.
