All About Email
According to the Pew Internet Research organization, email is the most popular activity for Internet users.
"E-mail", of course, is short for "electronic mail", spawning the slang terms "snail mail", "paper net", and "sneaker net" for regular post service.
Email is accessed in one of two ways; either by web page or by an email client (a program written specifically for that function)
Popular "web-based" email examples are Hotmail or Yahoo.
Most Internet service providers offer a web-based alternative for their email, though while Hotmail and Yahoo can only be access via web page, most ISPs' email can also be access with an email client, such as Outlook Express or Netscape.
The structure of an email address is simple: yourname@yourprovidersname.com.
Or, in plain English "your name" "at" "your Internet provider's name".
Our email address "support@imt.net" would then spoken as "support at i m t dot net".
You can receive, reply, and forward email just as easily on a web-based system as using an email client.
Most web-based email includes special features such as an address book.
However, there is still a significant difference between web-based email and using an email client.
Generally, email is sent from you to your Internet server, to the addressee's Internet server, and then on to the addressee.
When you access email on a web page, you are actually logging onto your email provider's server and seeing a picture of what is stored there.
Hotmail email remains always on Hotmail's computer.
You see it on your computer, you can copy text from it to your computer, and you can tell Hotmail what to do with it like replying or forwarding that email.
But it never actually resides on your computer, only Hotmail's.
When you use an email client to receive email, you are actually downloading email from your provider's server to your own computer.
Once you receive your email to your email client, that email is located only on your computer.
Email exchange is done in such huge quantities that most Internet providers don't bother storing copies of an individual's email after they've downloaded it (unless you specifically instruct the server to do so).
It is only necessary to be connected to the Internet while you are exchanging files to and from your Internet provider's server.
Once you are done sending and receiving email, and your new messages are on your computer, you no longer have to be connected to the Internet.
At this point you can read and reply at your leisure.
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