Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Email: OK – You didn’t really want to know but it might help.

 

 

A Brief History of Email

While you are “@” it.

Web Based Email vs. Client Based Email.

POP vs. IMAP

Safety and Security

 

A Brief History of Email.

Email predates the “web” by a few years. It evolved from humble beginnings in 1965 from a way of leaving a message in a large, mainframe computer, for another user to see.  There were less than a hundred users on such a computer and you could only leave a message for another user on this computer. There was no way to leave a message for a user on a different computer.

 

Not until 1972 did Ray Tomlinson “invent” email.  It was designed to send messages to a user on any other computer which was connected to ARPANET – the building block on which today’s World Wide Web is based.  Tomlinson selected the “@” sign to separate the USERNAME from the NAME OF THE COMPUTER you wanted to send the message to.

 

In less than two years there were hundreds of email users on ARPANET but this was still, almost exclusively, used by the US military and a few educational institutions.  There was not yet the WEB as we know it.

 

Moving quickly the basics of email as we know it today started materializing in 1976 as the Internet was beginning to grow, while still not at all common for the individual.

 

The first Email software – Eudora, came out in 1988. As the internet became more widespread, so did Email and many other Email readers or clients came into existence.

While you are “@” it.

Names in other languages

• InAfrikaans, it is “monkey tail”,
• InArmenian, it is “puppy”.
• InAzeri, it is “dog”.
• InBasque, it is a “wrapped A”.
• InBelarusian, it is “helix” or “snail”.
• InBosnian, it is “crazy A”.
• InBulgarian, it is “a badly written letter”,
• InChinese:
  • Inmainland China, it used to be “circled A” or “lacy A”, or “little mouse”. Nowadays, for most of China’s youth, it is called “at”.
  • InTaiwan, it is “little mouse”.
• InCzech and Slovak, it is called “rollmops”.
• InDanish, it is “elephant’s trunk A”
• InDutch, it is “[little] monkey tail”.
• InGreek, it is “duckling”, due to the similarity it bears with comic character designs for ducks.
• InGreenlandic, and Inuit language, it is “A-like” or “something that looks like A”.
• InHebrew, it is colloquially known as שטרודל (strudel), due to the visual resemblance to a cross-section cut of a strudel cake. The normative term, invented by The Academy of the Hebrew Language, is כרוכית (krukhit), which is another Hebrew word for “strudel”, but is rarely used.
• InHungarian, it is called kukac (a playful synonym for “worm” or “maggot”).
• InKazakh, it is officially called  (“moon’s ear”, sometimes unofficial as  “dog’s head”.
• InKorean, it is ” top shells”
• InMorse code (not a language), it is known as a “commat”, consisting of the Morse code for the “A” and “C” which run together as one character: ·–·-·. The symbol was added in 2004 for use with email addresses, the only official change to Morse code since World War I.
• InNorwegian, it is officially called “curly alpha” or “alpha twirl”.
• InRussian, it is most commonly “dog”. The name “dog” has come from Soviet computers DVK where the symbol had a short tail and similarity to a dog.
• InSlovak, it is called “pickled fish roll”.
• InVietnamese, it is called  “bent A” in the north and a “hooked A”) in the south.

web based email vs. client based email

1. If your email address is at GMAIL, YAHOO, HOTMAIL, AOL or the like, then you are using WEB BASED EMAIL.
   1. This means that your email is received by your EMAIL service and stored on their computers.
   2. When you “LOGON” to your email you connect to their computers/servers and your email is displayed from their computer.
   3. You can read your email, reply to it, forward it or even store it in folders (or labels) that you create but all of these functions take place on their computers.
   4. Your INBOX, SENT ITEMS, DELETED ITEMS, etc. are all stored on their computers.
   5. There are a number of advantages to Web Based Email:
      1. Since your messages are not stored on your personal computer, should your computer fail, your email is not lost.
      2. You can usually access your email from multiple computers (or Devices such as smart phones, tablets, etc.)

• You need not worry about upgrading your EMAIL SOFTWARE because you are either accessing your email through your regular Internet Browser (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari) or through an APP specifically designed by your Email provider for accessing their email system.

1. Your contact list is usually stored on their computer so you will always have access to all of your contacts and their email address (PC BASED – It is different on smartphones and tablets)

1. Of course there are some disadvantages:
   1. You are limited to the amount of storage your email provider gives you. Usually you can store thousands of messages with no problems, however there are always limits.  Most providers warn you if you are getting full and offer you paid solutions to have more space for messages.
   2. You must have an internet connection, even if you want to see old mail.

• Since you can access your mail from anywhere, theoretically so can a hacker. More about Email security later.

2. If you use email from your workplace or your ISP (Internet Service Provider) such as Netvision, 012 (smile), BezeqINT, etc. then you are likely using Client Based Email.
   1. This means you have a specialized email program (or App) on your PC (or other device). On the PC level this is usually OUTLOOK, OUTLOOK EXPRESS (which has been discontinued), WINDOWS LIVE MAIL, EUDORA, THUNDERBIRD or the like
   2. These client programs have different ways of accessing your email (see next section)
   3. By default they connect to your Provider and download the mail to your PC. As soon as they download the mail – they delete from the server, and it is no longer available to any other device (such as your smartphone, tablet or laptop).
   4. To alleviate this problem we can configure your email program to not NOT delete the email immediately upon downloading it but to have it stay on the server for a few days, so you can check your mail remotely.
   5. Advantages to an Email Client:
      1. The storage of your email is on your personal PC. You can keep as much historical email as you want (and have disk space for).
      2. You do not need internet access in order to access your old emails.
   6. Disadvantages to an Email Client
      1. Requires configuration changes in order to allow access from multiple devices
      2. Historical email is not available from other devices.

• A failure of your PC could mean a loss of historical email. That’s why I recommend PC backups)

pop vs. imap

1. There are two different technologies which can allow your PC based (or other) client email software to access your email: POP and IMAP:
2. POP – Post Office Protocol.
   1. This is the earlier email connection method
   2. Your client software connects to your email server and asks it if there are any new emails that it has not yet retrieved.
   3. It proceeds to copy each new email to the client
   4. The default configuration then deletes the email from the server.
   5. This was the most widely used email methodology for many years.
   6. If you want to be able to see your email from other devices, it is necessary to reconfigure the client program to NOT delete the email from your server, making it available to your other devices.
   7. NOTE: Most email servers do not allow you to keep much email on their server and expect you to delete it as soon as you download it.
3. IMAP – Internet Message Access Protocol
   1. This is the more robust connection method.
   2. Instead of downloading and deleting your mail from the server, it replicates all messages stored on the server to your email client.
   3. Any changes you make using your client (such as deleting a message) causes the server to do the same thing.
   4. Since you are only replicating what is on the server, multiple devices can all access the messages (and folders and labels) that are on the server and you can read your mail from all devices (multiple computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.) provide all devices are set up to use IMAP.
   5. Since all messages are stored on the mail server, and not on the local PC, your mail is generally considered protected and backed up.
   6. Your mail server must also allow you to store all of your mail. Some services do not give you a very large mailbox.
4. It is definitely worth discussing your mail environment with a qualified technical resource (such as thePCGUY) to be sure you are set up the best way possible to meet your needs.

 

Safety and Security

1. General EMAIL Safety:
   1. Remember that email is not totally confidential.
   2. It can be seen by people other than the intended recipient.
   3. If you are using a company PC, your company has the legal right to see anything you do on that PC.
   4. It is well know that various security agencies monitor email.
   5. Court orders can require email services to provide copies of or logs of your email activity
   6. You have no control of the security of the recipient.
2. Email Security;
   1. All email servers require a password in order to access your email (POP or IMAP).
   2. Most Devices are set to remember your password so you do not have to enter it every time.
   3. This means that anyone using your PC or other device will have access to your email.
   4. It is up to you to secure access to your PC or other devices to make sure no one else uses them.
   5. There are various enhanced security methods which can prevent unauthorized access to your email, They are not simple to set up and maintain but they can provide an enhanced layer of protection against someone hacking into your email.
   6. If you think you would like to explore such options, contact thePCGUY.