Mastering the Internet,
XHTML, and JavaScript
Chapter 3
E-mail Tools
Outline
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Goals and Objectives
Chapter Headlines
Introduction
Communication
Protocols
Content, Attachments, and
Etiquette
Acronyms and Emoticons
E-mail clients and Web-based
E-mail
Eudora
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Outlook Express
Netscape messenger and
Mailer
Opera M2
Hotmail
Yahoo mail
S-mail
E-mail Activities
Managing E-mail
Wireless E-mail
Summary
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Goals and Objectives
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Goals
Understand and master the essentials of e-mail such as installation,
configuration, types of e-mail programs, and the effective use of email clients and web-based e-mail
Objectives
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Protocols : SMTP, POP3, IMAP, MIME
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Content, attachments, and etiquette
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Acronyms and emoticons
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E-mail clients versus web-based e-mail
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Software : Eudora, Outlook Express, Netscape, Opera,
Hotmail, and Yahoo
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E-mail activities : receive, send, read, reply, forward, delete,
organize
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Managing e-mails : signature files, vCards, stationary, address
book, mailing lists, spam
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Wireless e-mail
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Chapter Headlines
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3.1 Introduction
 E-mail is easy and intuitive to use
3.2 Communication
 The use of e-mail requires an e-mail account, ISP, and email program
3.3 Protocols
 SMTP, POP3, IMAP, MIME protocols are used
3.4 Content, Attachments, and Etiquette
 E-mail follows public and social etiquette and rules
3.5 Acronyms and Emoticons
 Acronyms save time, and emoticons express emotions and
moods through facial expression symbols
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Chapter Headlines
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3.6 E-mail Clients and Web-based E-mail
 There is a time and place to use either type of e-mail
program
3.7 Eudora
 Eudora is a stand-alone client, and also available as web
mail
3.8 Outlook Express
 Outlook Express comes built-in with Internet Explorer
3.9 Netscape messenger and mailer
 Netscape browsers have built-in e-mail clients
3.10 Opera M2
 Opera Hotlist has all the user needs for e-mail
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Chapter Headlines
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3.11 Hotmail
 Hotmail is free, easy to use, and popular
3.12 Yahoo mail
 Yahoo mail is web based, and is popular
3.13 S-mail
 Use s-mail for confidential, personal, or business
communication
3.14 E-mail Activities
 All you need to know about using e-mails
3.15 Managing E-mail
 It is all about saving time, control, and fighting spam
3.16 Wireless E-mail
 Wireless E-mail and browsing have a lot in common
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Introduction
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E-mail is a method of communication over the internet that
involves exchanging computer messages
E-mail is the most widely used tool of internet
Some advantages of e-mail are:
 Simple
 Intuitive
 Fast
Like Internet, e-mail also uses a client/server model
For using e-mail the user requires
 E-mail account on an e-mail server
 E-mail address
 E-mail software
 Internet connection
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Communication
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E-mail requires e-mail client and e-mail server
E-mail servers communicate with internet and e-mail
clients communicate with e-mail servers
E-mail system usually has separate servers for sending
and receiving
Mail servers are managed and maintained by ISPs
A client mail box typically has the following folders
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Inbox : to hold incoming mails
Outbox : to hold copies of outgoing mails
Draft : to hold to-send mails
Trash : to hold to-delete mails
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Communication
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Protocols
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The communication is accomplished using 3 protocols:
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SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol)
POP3 (post office protocol version 3)
IMAP (internet message access protocol)
SMTP is used for transferring e-mail over the internet
POP3 and IMAP are used with SMTP to overcome its
limited queuing ability
Usually a user has SMTP outgoing mail server and SMTP
and POP3 or SMTP and IMAP incoming mail server
IMAP allows the user to access mail from any client
computer connected to the internet, but with POP3, the
user must download mails and then read them
MIME protocol is related to e-mail content
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Protocols
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Contents, Attachments and Etiquette
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E-mail message has 4 parts:
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Header : includes From, To, Subject, and Date
Body : includes the message body
Signature : holds the senders information
Attachments : allows the user to attach files to be sent
E-mail messages can be sent to one or more persons
E-mail message body can be plain text or XHTML
E-mail message usually has an e-mail thread i.e.
sequence of related e-mail messages generated from
responses of the first new message
E-mail attachments are handled by MIME protocol
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Contents, Attachments and Etiquette
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Contents, Attachments and Etiquette
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Email Etiquette
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Be concise and short
Do not use too much punctuation
Limit number of characters per line to 80
Avoid too much formatting
Use salutations properly
Use e-mail quote symbol, “>”
Avoid flame
Do not respond to flame
Include all needed content in one message
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Acronyms and Emoticons
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An acronym is an abbreviation of a group of words
An emoticon is a facial expression generated using keyboard
characters
Avoid over-use of acronyms and emoticons
Examples of acronyms:
 2L8 – too late
 ASAP – as soon as possible
 BRB – be right back
 FYI – for your information
Examples of emoticons include:
 :-) – smiley
 ;-) – smiley with a wink
 ;-( – sad
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E-mail Clients and Web-based e-mail
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E-mail messages arrive at a server and then a client
accesses them
Client using POP3 protocol connects to internet,
downloads the mails and then reads them later on.
Client using the IMAP protocol connects to the internet
and reads the messages while connected
An e-mail client is a stand-alone program
When the e-mail client is a web page it is web-based
email
User can configure an e-mail client to use POP3, or
IMAP, or both
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E-mail Clients and Web-based e-mail
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POP3 is viewed as an e-mail forwarding protocol
IMAP is viewed as on online e-mail reader
POP3 is suitable for users who always use the same
computer
IMAP is useful for users who access e-mails using
different computers
Any type of e-mail client provides ways to read and
manage e-mail activities
E-mail clients also provide an address book to store email addresses of other people
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E-mail Clients and Web-based e-mail
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Eudora
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Eudora is a stand-alone email program
It comes as and e-mail client or Web-based email
Eudora can be downloaded from
http://www.eudora.com
It is intuitive to use
One can customize Eudora by changing its settings
and specifying incoming and outgoing mail servers
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Outlook Express
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Outlook Express is a stand-alone e-mail client
provided by Microsoft
It is bundled with Internet Explorer 6.0
It is suitable for individual user for personal use
Users of Outlook Express should be aware of its
viruses and security problems
It can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com
A user can customize Outlook Express to change its
settings
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Netscape Messenger and Mailer
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Netscape browsers come with built-in stand-alone email clients
The e-mail client allows the user to configure one
POP3 server, but multiple IMAP servers
They do not permit configuring mixed types of
servers
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Opera M2
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Opera browser comes with its built-in M2 e-mail
client
M2 has a built-in mail database and a search engine
to search it
Opera also provides web-based e-mail
A user can sign up at http://www.operamail.com
The use of Opera’s web-based e-mail is easy and
intuitive
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Hotmail
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Hotmail is a popular web-based e-mail program
A user can get his account at http://www.hotmail.com
It is free and easy to use
It has virus and security problems
At peak times, it may be slow
It has a limited disk space and sizes of mail
attachments are restricted
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Yahoo Mail
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Yahoo mail is a popular web-based e-mail program
A user can sign up for a free account at
http://www.yahoomail.com
It is easy to use and good at blocking unwanted mails
It has disk space limitations
Users can set up POP3 accounts for a fee
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S-mail
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S-mail means Secure Mail
S-mail sends and receives mails over a secure
connection
Mails send using S-mail cannot be intercepted or
altered
The messages are encrypted and decrypted using
public and private keys
An e-mail client can be configured to provide S-mail
Two available protocols are:
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S/MIME
PGP/MIME
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E-mail Activities
E-mail activities include:
 Configuring e-mail clients
 Creating e-mail accounts
 Reading e-mails
 Sending e-mails to single or multiple recipients
 Sending e-mails with attachments
 Forwarding e-mails
 Downloading attachments
 Printing e-mails
 Setting up auto-reply option
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Managing E-mail
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Managing e-mail means to deal with incoming and
outgoing mails effectively
It is important to manage e-mails to avoid mail box
clutters
Incoming e-mail management involves:
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Organizing
Responding
Deleting
Archiving
Filtering
Spam, junk mail and bulk mail handling
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Managing E-mail
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Outgoing e-mail management involves:
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Electronic signatures
vCards
Stationeries
Mailing lists
Aliases
Address books
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Wireless E-mail
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IMAP is the ideal protocol to use for Wireless E-mail
There are three key concerns for wireless e-mail:
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Security – Internet connection must be secure
Single mail box integration – Syncing handheld device mail
box with desktop mail box
Push – e-mail is automatically delivered to the handheld
device
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Summary
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E-mail is a widely used method of communication over the
internet
E-mail is based on a client/server model
SMTP, POP3, IMAP, and MIME are important
communication protocols for e-mail model
A user must follow the e-mail etiquette guidelines and keep
content relevant
Acronyms and emoticons are useful but must be used wisely
E-mails can be accessed by e-mail clients and web-based
email
Managing e-mails is important to avoid mail box cluttering
Wireless e-mails have security and syncing issues
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