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E-mail

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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 Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with email

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BlackBerry e-mail restored for some after outage (AP)

BlackBerry e-mail restored for some after outage

Technology / Software

created Dec 23, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- BlackBerry e-mail service in North America was restored for some users Wednesday morning following its second outage in less than a week.


Science not faked, but not pretty (AP)

Science not faked, but not pretty

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 12, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (57) | comments 93

(AP) -- E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data - but the messages don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an ...


Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Google has joined Twitter

Google CEO joins Twitter

Technology / Internet

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who took some flak earlier this year for calling Twitter a "poor man's email system," has joined the hot micro-blogging service.


AppJet launched in December of 2007

Google buys online collaboration startup

Technology / Internet

created Dec 05, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Online collaboration startup AppJet said that Google is buying the San Francisco firm and merging its technology with an innovation Wave communication platform the Internet giant is creating.


United Nations to probe climate e-mail leak (AP)

United Nations to probe climate e-mail leak

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 04, 2009 | popularity 3.1 / 5 (9) | comments 20

(AP) -- The United Nations will conduct its own investigation into e-mails leaked from a leading British climate science center in addition to the probe by the University of East Anglia, a senior U.N. climate ...


End of the e-mail era? I'm not buying it

Technology / Internet

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

I don't know about you, but I'm overwhelmed by e-mail. Yes, I know. The Wall Street Journal has declared that e-mail's reign is over. It's supposedly being replaced by technologies such as instant messaging, social networking ...


Web-based e-mail features come to desktop software

Technology / Internet

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- E-mail has taken a full circle. Over the years, Web-based e-mail services have gotten much better, sporting many features once available only with the e-mail programs that reside on the computer desktop.


Is neighbor's Wi-Fi signal free for me to use?

Technology / Telecom

created Nov 11, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 4

Q. The other day, my Internet service went down as it does from time to time. But this particular time, I needed to check my e-mail for an important reply I was expecting. After some frustrating time passed, I happened to ...


Computer scientists work to strengthen online security

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

If you forget your password when logging into an e-mail or online shopping Web site, the site will likely ask you a security question: What is your mother's maiden name? Where were you born?


Bogus e-mails from FDIC link computer users to viruses, says computer forensics expert

Bogus e-mails from FDIC link computer users to viruses, says computer forensics expert

Technology / Internet

created Oct 27, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

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 ...


Some Facebook users are demanding that the social-networking service undo recent changes to its home page

Facebook users protest home page changes

Technology / Internet

created Oct 27, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

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

BlackBerry Storm 2 coming soon (w/ Video)

Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets

created Oct 20, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

(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.


A sign is displayed outside of the Google headquarters in 2008 in Mountain View, California

Google wooing Microsoft business customers

Technology / Internet

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

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

Gmail tool catches misdirected messages

Technology / Internet

created Oct 13, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

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.


hotmail

Hackers expose slew of Hotmail acount passwords

Technology / Internet

created Oct 05, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Microsoft on Monday blocked access to thousands of Hotmail accounts in response to hackers plundering password information and posting it online.