Email FAQ
Here are some of the most common FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) that I come
across on my website and when training. The FAQs are general email related and not just
outlook express or Incredimail.
Catch-All Email Addresses -A catch all address is a special case of email forwarding. With a catch all
email address then all email sent to anyone@yourdomain.com will be forwarded to
a single mailbox.
info@yourdomain.com-----> Mailbox1
sales@yourdomain.com -----> Mailbox1
admin@yourdomain.com -----> Mailbox1
When retrieving email you only need to connect to mailbox1 to retrieve email
sent to any of the addresses.
Email Address - Email addresses are often
confused with Mailboxes. However an Email addresses is not the same as a
Mailbox. The address is simply a label that is usually attached to a mailbox.
(see the email addresses
page for more detail)
All email addresses have the form name@domain-name. The domain-name is a name
that is registered on the Internet, by yourself or by another company.
Email forwarding - A technique for
transferring an email from one address to another. For example an email
addressed originally to
steve@flasedomain.com can be sent to
steve@gooddomain.com by this technique.
The technique is the same as used with normal mail when moving house. You
arrange with the post office to send all mail addresses to your old address to
your new one.
Email forwarding can be either manual (done by the person receiving them email)
or automatic (the email server forwards the email without any user
intervention).
See email forwarding for more details.
Email Address Verification -
Email Address Verification is the process of establishing the validity of an
address. Used by mailing list owners to prune out old invalid email addresses. See Email address Verification for more details.
Email Client
An Email Client is a software program designed to send and receive email. Email clients connect to an email server to perform this job. If you compare email to standard postal mail then en email
client performs a similar job to a postman.
Popular email clients are Outlook Express, IncrediMail, Eudora
Email Server
An email server is a computer just like the one you have at home that is programmed to relay email messages to other email servers. If you compare email to standard postal mail then en email server
performs the same job as a sorting office.
Email Signatures - Email signatures are repetitive messages that are added to the bottom of your emails. Signatures
can be simple text signatures or HTML signatures containing graphics and even
sound. They tend to be used for adding company details like phone number ,
address etc. With HTML signatures you can even add a location map.
Ecards- Ecards are electronic greeting cards sent
via email. many people confuse them with Email stationary. Ecards are not
normally sent with the email but are stored on a web server. The Ecard recipient
receives a link to the Ecard and when he clicks the link the Ecard opens.
Email Stationary- When writing a normal
letter you can write it on a standard white paper or custom designed stationary.
The stationary in simply pre-printed paper. When writing an email most people
use the default white background.
With the advent of HTML email it became possible to create different and
varied backgrounds and this became the electronic equivalent.
Some email providers use the term letters rather than stationary- They are the
same thing.
HTML Email - This described the formatting of
the email. Originally email was always formatted in plain text like your see
with tools like Notepad). The problem with plain text is that you can't have
graphics or different colour fonts etc.
HTML email is email formatted like a web page such that anything that you see on
a web page can also be sent as an email. This enables you to send/receive much
fancier/colourful emails.
HTML email does however have some drawbacks: - It is normally much larger than
plain text and can contain viruses and tracking code. It is also not universally
supported.
Having said that most people today send and receive HTML email. It is usually a
email client option.
To configure this in Outlook express see
sending/receiving html
email in Outllook Express tips.
Mailbox or Inbox ? - One of the most
common questions I get from people new to email is: what is the difference
between a mailbox and the inbox ? A mailbox is a collection of folders for
storing email messages. It consists of several folders like sent mail, inbox,
drafts, Outbox etc. New folders can normally be added to the mailbox for
organising email.
The Inbox is just one of the folders contained in the mailbox and is the default
location for all received email. Message rules
can be configured to move email automatically from the inbox to other folders.
Universal Inbox- Most current email clients
(including Outlook Express and IncrediMail) are capable of receiving email from
multiple email accounts. The email is placed in the same inbox (universal inbox)
regardless of which email account received it.
Message rules- Rules that are applied to
incoming messages usually for organisational purposes. Examples are a rule to
move all messages from sender A to folder A or to generate an auto reply to all
incoming messages. See also Outlook
Express Message Rules .
The sophistication of the rules depends on the email client in question. Both
Outlook Express and IncrediMail offer very flexible and powerful rules.
Rules can be applied to the message on the email server or the email client. Features like out of office response/reply are applied at the server as it is
always connected to the Internet.
Out of Office Replies/Reply
A message rule applied to an incoming message to notify the sender that the recipient is away from the office and are generally used in large companies. The message rule is required to run on the
email server as it requires a permanent Network connection to work. Out of office replies are generally restricted to Internal email . There are security implications to configuring this type
of automated reply on the Internet.
POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3)- The Internet
standard for receiving email. POP3 is a receive only protocol designed to
retrieve email from a mailbox on an email server and transfer it to a client
machine (PC). In the default configuration the email is then deleted from the
email server (This can be changed).
POP3 was meant to be replaced by the more modern IMAP4 protocol
but never was.
IMAP4 - Designed as a replacement for POP3. It like
POP3 is a receive only protocol designed to access email
from a mailbox on an email server and transfer it to a client machine (PC).
Unlike POP3 in the default configuration the email is not deleted from the email
server (This can be changed).
The main advantages of IMAP4 is that it give access to multiple folders (not
just the mailbox) and allows message preview without downloading.
A more detailed discussion is contained in SMTP
Overview.
Lifetime Email addresses - This is
an email address that you keep (permanently). In order to have lifetime email
address it is necessary to own your own domain name. This is covered in much
more detail in the three series article on
lifetime email addresses.
An ISP (internet service provider) provides physical dialup or broadband
connection to the Internet. ISP also generally provide other web services like
email accounts and web space. e.g.. BT, Cable and Wireless.
A Web portal doesn't provide Internet access but Internet services like email,
web hosting e.g. Yahoo. To use these you need first to connect to the Internet
using an ISP.
Some providers actually provide both e.g. AOL.
SMTP - The
SMTP Protocol ( simple mail transfer protocol) and is the protocol used
for sending email and receiving email between email servers on the Internet. It
is also used by email clients like Outlook Express for sending Email (
POP3 or IMAP4 is used for receiving).
Spam - Email that the recipient doesn't want usually
sent to many people (bulk). For a more technical definition see-http://www.spamhaus.org/definition.html
UBE (unsolicited Bulk Email)- As
Spam
WebMail- The term given to email access via a web
browser. This type of access was made popular by hotmail and has the advantage
that you don't need to configure the client machine in order to use it. It is
therefore ideal for people who access their email from a variety of machines and
from varied locations. -see Web based email
for more details.
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