Email

Composing & Sending Email

Before sending an email, we need to compose a message.When we are composing an email

message, we specify the following things:

 Sender’s addressinTofield

 Cc(ifrequired)

 Bcc(if required)

 Subjectofemailmessage

 Text

 Signature

Youshouldspecifythecorrectemail address;otherwiseitwill
sendanerrorbacktothe sender.

Once you have specified all the above parameters, It’s time to send the email. The mailer
programprovides a Send button to send email, when you click Send, itis sent to the mail server
and a message mail sent successfully is shown at the above.

Reading Email

Every email program offers you an interface to access email messages. Like in Gmail, emails are
stored under different tabs such as primary, social, and promotion. When you click one of tab, it
displays a list of emails under that tab.

In order to read an email,you just have to click on that email.Once you click a particular email, it
gets opened.

The opened email may have some file attached with it. The attachments are shown at the bottom
of the opened email with an option called download attachment.

Replying Email

After reading an email,you may have to reply that email.To reply an email, click Reply option
shown at the bottom of the opened email.

Once you click on Reply, it will automatically copy the sender’s address in to the To field.
Below the To field, there is a text box where you can type the message.

Once you are done with entering message, click Send button. It’s that easy. Your email is sent.
Forwarding Email

It is also possible to send a copy of the message that you have received along with your own
comments if you want. This can be done using forward button available in mail client software.

The difference between replying and forwarding an email is that when you reply a message to a
person who has send the mail but while forwarding you can send it to anyone.

When you receive a forwarded message, the message is marked with a > character in front of
each line and Subject: field is prefixed with Fw.

Deleting Email

If you don’t want to keep email into your inbox, you can delete it by simply selecting the
message from the message list and clicking delete or pressing the appropriate command.

Some mail clientsoffersthedeletedmailstobestoredinafoldercalleddeleteditemsor trash from where

you can recover a deleted email.

Now a day, the mail client comes with enhanced features such as attachment, address book, and
MIMEsupport. Hereinthischapterwe will discuss all of thesefeatures which will give you a better
understanding of added feature of a mail client program.

Attachment

Ability to attach file(s) along with the message is one of the most useful features of email. The
attachment may be a word document, PowerPoint presentation, audio/video files, or images.

 In order to attach file(s) to an email, click the attach button. As a result, a dialog box
appears asking for specifying the name and location of the file you want to attach.

 Onceyouhaveselectedtheappropriatefile,itisattachedto themail.

 Usually a paper clip icon appears in the email which indicates that it has an attachment.

 When adding an attachment it is better to compress the attached files so as to reduce the
file size and save transmission time as sending and downloading large files consumes a
lot of space and time.
AddressBook

Address book feature of a mail program allows the users to store information about the people
whomthey communicate regularly by sending emails. Here are some of the key features of an
Address book:

 Address book includes the nick names, email addresses, phone number etc. of the people.

 Using address book allows us not to memorize email of address of a person, you just have
to select recipient name from the list.

 When you select aparticular name fromthe list, the corresponding email address link
automatically get inserted in to the To: field.

 Address book also allows creating a group so that you can send a email to very
memberofthegroupatonceinsteadofgivingeachpersonemail addressoneby one.

Mailer Features

Mailer Features: Most mailers provide common features which provide

functionalityformanipulatingyourmailboxcontents,composingmessagesand saving
messages to the disk. The features are:

Compose,File and Reply:AComposebuttonprovidesfollowingfeatures:

New–Composea messagefromscratch.Reply –Replytothecurrent message.

Forward–Passthemessageon.
Vacation–Youaregoingawayandwantautomaticresponsestobe generated, and have
email saved.

A File button has the following functionality:

 Save–Save the current message into a file on disk.

 Insert– Include a file in the body of the message being composed.

 Exit– Leavethemailer.
 Open – Opena filefromthe disk.
 Attach– Appendafiletoamessage.

A Reply button consists of following items:

 To sender.
 Include
 Include
 Include bracketed

E-mail Inner Working:

If we split the mailing of a letter into three phases:

 Inphaseone,thestepsneededtoperformarecompose,address, package,
stamp and deposit the letter in a suitable place for pick up.
 In phase two, a mail person, ona fixed schedule,retrieves theletter
fromitsplaceofdeposit.Thentheletter,ifcorrectlyaddressedandwiththe proper
postage, is routed to its final destination mailbox.
 In phase three, the recipient check for mail, retrieves the letter from the
mail box, opens the envelope, reads the mail, and perhaps files it away.
 Similar phases need to be carried out in the electronic setting:

 Mailer,MailServer,andMailbox–Threemailcomponentsare necessary
for the email system to work.
 MailersAmailerisalsocalleda mailprogram, mailapplication,or mail
client.Amaileristhesoftwarethatallowsyoutomanage,read,and compose email.
 Mail ServersThemailserverisacomputerwhosefunctionistoreceive, store and
deliver email.
 MailboxesAnelectronicmailboxisadiskfilespecificallyformattedto hold
email messages and information about them,.
Thereareseveraldifferentwaysinwhichuserstypicallyobtaintheir emails.
 StoreandForwardFeatures

 CentralMailSpool and IMAP

Email working follows the client server approach. In this client is the mailer i.e. the mail
application or mail program and server is a device that manages emails.

Followingexamplewilltakeyouthroughthebasicstepsinvolvedinsendingand receiving emails and will

give you a better understanding of working of email system:

 Suppose person A wants to send an email message to person B.

 PersonAcomposesthemessagesusingamailerprogrami.e.mailclientand then select Send

option.

 Themessageisroutedto SimpleMailTransferProtocol topersonB’smail server.

 Themailserverstorestheemailmessageondiskinanareadesignatedfor person B.

Thediskspaceareaonmailserveriscalledmailspool.

 Now, suppose person B is running a POP client and knows how to communicate with B’s
mail server.

 It will periodically poll the POP server to check if any new email has arrived for B.As
inthis case, person Bhas sentan email for personB, soemailisforwarded over the network
to B’s PC. This is message is now stored on person B’s PC.

Thefollowingdiagramgivespictorialrepresentationofthestepsdiscussed above:
Herewewilldiscusstheoperationsthatcanbeperformedonane-mail.Butfirstofall