Ever wonder where the term 'email' came from? It's actually short for electronic mail, which is a way for users to send information to each other through computers on a network.
Email Address
An email address is kind of an electronic mailbox from where one can send and receive messages, known as email, on a computer network. An email address is made up of multiple components illustrated in the image below:
The domain name com is derived from the word commercial, indicating that the entity holding the emails is commercial. Actually gmail.com is a subdomain of com.
As you can see from the diagram above, edu is another domain indicating that the subdomain is an educational entity.
Using Email
A typical mailbox, such as Gmail, provides a number of email management features like:
Keeping emails organized using folders and tabs.
A way to compose new emails.
A way to print emails.
Viewing emails on your phone.
Forwarding received emails to others.
Saving contacts in an address book but most email clients do this automatically.
Composing an email
An email has multiple parts. In this section we will go through the main parts of an email. The illustration below is a good summary.
Addresses
TO | Any addresses here are the main recipient. |
CC | Refers to carbon copy, so recipients in here are sent a copy apart from the original. |
BCC | Refers to blind carbon copy so recipients will receive a copy but will not see the email addresses of any other recipients. |
Subject
A short summary of the contents of the email, which will be the first thing the recipient sees before opening the email to see the content.
Body
The content of the email, which can be made up of formatted text, images, and links.
Attachments
Files that are attached to the email. These can be anything from text files to spreadsheets and word documents.
Email Security
Email security is very important nowadays because a number of dangers exist when using email, such as receiving spam which can be malicious in nature! You should only open attachments in email from a recipient you trust and pay attention to the type of file. Most mailboxes spot these automatically and put them in the junk or trash folder, but some do still get through.
A common email threat is phishing, where an email is used to trick the receiver into providing information such as bank details or passwords.
Comments