Email Overview
To send and receive email you will need
an email client and you will need to be connected to an email
network.
Email Clients
There are two popular types of email
client they are:
-
Client/desktop based often called POP3 email
-
Web Based email
Client based or POP3 email
This is a dedicated email client; examples are:
-
Outlook express
-
Outlook (98,2000,2003,2007)
-
Incredimail
-
Thunderbird
-
and many others
One of these clients needs to be installed on the
computer you are using, and needs to be correctly configured before you can send
and receive email.
The term POP3 client arises because the protocol
they use to receive email is usually POP3 (post Office Protocol version 3).
These types of client have been around since the
birth of email when they were command line based, and they are still the type
that most people use.
Web Based Email Clients
These clients are simply web browsers with the work
all being done on the web server. Hotmail was the first well known example and
was purchased by Microsoft January 1998.
The advantage of this type of client is that no
software other than a web browser needs to be installed on the user's computer.
This means that access to email can be accomplished at any computer that has a
web browser (almost 100% have).
Almost all email providers now provide access to
email via a web based client..
The main disadvantage of this type of access is you
need to be connected to the Internet in order to read/write emails.
There are three main providers of free email
services that provide access primarily through a web browser. They are:
-
Hotmail
-
Yahoo Email
-
Google Gmail
Email Address and Email Account and Email Network
Connection
In order to send and receive emails you need to
connect to and email network. The mail network in our case is the Internet but
it could also be an internal stand alone office email system as the
technology used is the same. In order to send and receive
emails you will need an email
account on the network.
You can get an email account from a variety of
sources and you can have many different accounts.
Network Accounts and Email Accounts
Yahoo, MSN (Microsoft) and Google provide Internet services other
than email. to access the service you need to have a network id
(user name) and password.
However because the initial service offered by these providers
was email then the account name used to access the other services
tends to be an email address or in some cases part of the email
address.
In the case of MSN and Yahoo this email address is provided by
them i.e. it has the form
user@yahoo.com or
user@hotmail.com. However in the case of Google the mail address
can be from any provider.
For an example; I use many of the Google services but my primary
logon id is an email address from a totally different ISP (i.e. not
Google).
Email Addresses and Mailboxes
A mailbox is a location where email is stored. It is the electronic equivalent
of a post office box. In order to receive email you need to have a mailbox.
When you sign up for an email account you are assigned a mailbox and normally an
email address. The email address and mailbox are linked such that any email sent
to the email address will be placed in the mailbox.
It is possible to link (associate) multiple email addresses to a single mailbox.
Mailbox Locations
Mailboxes need to receive email from the email network and hence need to be
available to receive email. Therefore they are located on the email network (In
our case this is the Internet).
If you have a Yahoo email account your mailbox will be on a Yahoo maintained
email server.
Mailbox Access
To access your email you will need to connect your email client outlook express
etc or your web browser to your email providers email server.
Once connected to your mailbox you can send, receive and manage your emails.
Access via desktop based client like outlook Express is very different to access
using a web browser and is covered in Email Setup.
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