So what is e-mail?

• e-mail is an electronic message sent from one computer to another.
• You can send or receive personal and business-related messages with attachments like pictures or other documents.
• You can even send computer programs.

• Just as a letter makes stops at different postal stations along its way, e-mail passes from one computer to another as it travels along the network.

• Each computer reads the e-mail address, then routes it to another computer until it eventually reaches its destination. It's then stored in an electronic mailbox.

• With the Internet, this whole process usually takes just a few minutes, allowing you to quickly and easily communicate with millions of people around the world anytime of the day or night, for the cost of a local phone call.
• You can send e-mail to anyone who has an e-mail address, anywhere in the world.
• The beauty of e-mail is that even if you have limited access to the Internet, you can still take advantage of the many services available (ftp, archie, mailing lists, etc.) ifyou have an e-mail account.

professor@learnthenet.com

 

First there is the user name (professor) which refers to the recipient's mailbox.

Then there's an axon sign (@). Next comes the host name (learnthenet), which is also called the domain name. This refers to the computer where the recipient has a mailbox and is usually the name of a company or organization.

Finally, there's a [DOT] followed by three letters (com) that indicate the type of domain it is.

 

An address ending with [DOT] com means the host is a business or commercial enterprise or a commercial online service like America Online, CompuServe or Prodigy. Most companies use this extension.

 

A host name ending with [DOT] edu means the host is a university or educational facility while a [DOT] org indicates the host is a non-commercial organization.

Let's say you wanted to e-mail the President of the United States. You would sendmail to: president [AT] whitehouse [DOT] gov. gov stands for "government" and is used by government agencies and officials.

 

Other extensions you might encounter are [DOT] mil for military and [DOT] net for network. The latter tends to be reserved for organizations like Internet Service Providers. By the way, there are currently plans to add seven additional top level domains, such as .web, later this year. We'll keep you posted on these developments.

 

For e-mail addresses outside of the United States, there is often a [DOT] followed by two letters representing the country. For instance, .ca indicates Canada, .de indicates Germany and .nz indicates New Zealand.

 

Ke Menu Utama