Electronic mail, often abbreviated as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages, designed primarily for human use. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail computer server systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the e-mail infrastructure, typically an e-mail server, with a network-enabled device (e.g., a personal computer) for the duration of message submission or retrieval. Rarely is e-mail transmitted directly from one user's device to another's.
An electronic mail message consists of two components, the message header, and the message body, which is the email's content. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually additional information is added, such as a subject header field.
Originally a text-only communications medium, email is extended to carry multi-media content attachments, which were standardized in with RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME).
The foundation for today's global Internet e-mail service was created in the early ARPANET and standards for encoding of messages were proposed as early as, for example, in 1973 (RFC 561). An e-mail sent in the early 1970s looked very similar to one sent on the Internet today. Conversion from the ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current service.
Network-based email was initially exchanged on the ARPANET in extensions to the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), but is today carried by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), first published as Internet Standard 10 (RFC 821) in 1982. In the process of transporting email messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters using a message envelope separately from the message (headers and body) itself.
For more information about E-mail, read the full article at
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News tagged with email
Bogus e-mails from FDIC link computer users to viruses, says computer forensics expert
Oct 27, 2009 |
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Cyber criminals are using fake messages claiming to be from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to deliver a virus capable of stealing unsuspecting victims' bank passwords and other sensitive ...
Facebook users protest home page changes
Oct 27, 2009 |
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Legions of Facebook users united in protest, demanding that the world's most popular social-networking service undo recent changes to its home page.
BlackBerry Storm 2 coming soon (w/ Video)
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Oct 20, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- RIM are soon to release their updated BlackBerry, the Storm 2 smart phone, with a more streamlined design and touch-sensitive buttons instead of the hardware buttons of the first version.
Google wooing Microsoft business customers
Oct 19, 2009 |
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Google on Monday ramped up a campaign to convert businesses worldwide into users of email, calendar, document and other software programs it offers online as services on the Internet.
Gmail tool catches misdirected messages
Oct 13, 2009 |
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Google on Tuesday added an embarrassment-avoidance tool that catches misdirected Gmail messages before they are fired off by users of the free Web-based email service.
Hackers expose slew of Hotmail acount passwords
Oct 05, 2009 |
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Microsoft on Monday blocked access to thousands of Hotmail accounts in response to hackers plundering password information and posting it online.
IBM undercuts Google with discount e-mail service
Oct 02, 2009 |
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(AP) -- IBM Corp. is trying to stymie Google Inc.'s expansion into the business software market.
Spanish security firm detects 'swine flu' computer virus
Sep 11, 2009 |
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Cyber criminals are taking advantage of swine flu fears with e-mails promising news on the illness which then infect computers with a virus, a Spanish computer security firm warned Friday.
Christian couples staying faithful online
Sep 06, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Lance Maggiacomo was out of work, bored and lonely when he started hiding his online relationships from his wife.
There was no affair, only chatting through e-mail, yet it felt like cheating just the same.
Officials warned about fake DHS intel e-mails
Aug 24, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Some e-mails purporting to be from the Homeland Security Department's intelligence division were fake and contained malicious software.
White House changes email rules
Aug 17, 2009 |
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The White House said Monday it will tighten its email sign-up rules after drawing fire from some recipients of a message about health care policies who complained they had not asked for such updates.
Judge rules in Palin e-mail case
Aug 12, 2009 |
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(AP) -- A judge ruled Wednesday that the Alaska governor's office can use private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, as former Gov. Sarah Palin sometimes did.
China hackers crash Aussie film festival website
Aug 01, 2009 |
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Chinese hackers crashed the website of Australia's biggest film festival, organisers said on Saturday, escalating tensions over a visit here by the exiled leader of the Uighur minority.
MySpace launches myspace.com email
Jul 31, 2009 |
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MySpace launched its own email service, MySpace Mail, for the 130 million users of the social network.
Yahoo! swoops for Xoopit email photo finding firm
Jul 23, 2009 |
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Yahoo! said Wednesday it would buy Xoopit, a San Francisco startup specializing in finding and organizing photos buried in email inboxes.
