P. Bournias, Management Information Systems and Technology

P. Bournias
Management Information Systems and Networking Technology

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Email - How It Works

A simplified text explanation of how email works

When an email is sent by someone, it passes from their system through the modem or router along the communication company lines to their isp or Internet provider.   Then the isp should normally check to see if the person that is sending the email is authorized to send it and that the email is coming from a valid existing user account.   Unfortunately the verification part does not always happen, and that is how spammers use your email accounts.   Assuming that it does, the email moves onward through the Internet and through other Internet servers or nodes to the isp of the recipient's email account.  Once there, the email is stored in a queue for the user until they access it with their email program and download it to a system that they are using.
The entire process of an email traversing the world takes only seconds today and that's even using 56k dial-up.

A Proper Email

Emails are correspondence and as such they must include at least one recipient in the TO area.   They must also include a FROM which is normally from you the writer, which is normally automatic, just as including the date and time, assuming that you are using your own system.   Apart from that, you should follow the logic of writing which is to address the questions of:   Who, What, When, Where, and Why, you are writing the email especially in business.

Most people don't think about the fact that an email exhibits the character of the person, so you might want to keep that in mind when creating your email.

If you need to emphasize, use the html format which is normally default.  This gives you the potential to create an email with multiple fonts, although using more than three (3) is not recommended, along with using bold, italic, and coloring parts of text.  Backgrounds should be avoided as they can create difficulties for readers.

Finally, the content of the email should not be all capitals as that symbolizes shouting for many readers but written in the same way that one would normally write a letter or text using a word processor.

Replying to Emails

How to answer emails?

First question, is it a business email?
If it is then you will in most cases be using the REPLY-ALL because you should be addressing everyone that is already addressed in that email with your response. There are exceptions but very few.

In the case that it is a personal email, then the choice is yours but if the email requests a response of a group situation like a party or get-together, then again you should be using REPLY-ALL.

The following contains an excerpt from an email that has actually been in circulation although I don't know who the author is but I would give him or her credit as it is excellent advice.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail?
Every time you Reply or Reply-all or use the Forward button for an email there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their email addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for someone to get a virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every email address that has come across his computer or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to their website and they will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it?
Well, there are several steps to help eliminate it although I don't know if it will ever stop.

(1) Reply or Reply-all or the Forward button.

When you forward an email, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all.

(2) Emailing more than one person.

Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding email addresses.
Always use the BCC:(blind carbon copy) field for listing the email addresses. This way the people you send to will only see their own email address. If you don't see your BCC: option click on the To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients" in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it. If that phrase does not appear, type your own email address in the "TO" field, but put everyone else's in the BCC field.

(3) "FW :" in the subject line.

You can remove any "FW :" in the subject line or rename the subject if you wish or even correct the spelling once you hit that Reply or Reply-all or the Forward button.

(4) Click your Forward button from the email you are reading.

Ever get those emails that you have to open 10 attached pages to read the one page with the information on it?
By Forwarding from the actual page you are reading to someone to view, you stop them from having to open many emails just to see what you sent. If you can't forward from that page, "Copy" the info and then "Paste" it into a new blank email.

(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition?

There is no such thing. The only way that an organization or individual could logically accept submissions to something that would probably be worthless by law, is through a form on a website.
Why would it be worthless? Because anyone could complete a form on the Internet using false information.
The only part that you would be taking in submitting your email address in such a form was to supply it to spammers.

(5) Beware of html emails.

There are many tricks that spammers use besides simply asking for your email address.

The most difficult aspect to understand by most users on the Internet is how someone supplying only a few pieces of information can actually be the victim of Identity Theft.  I hope that the following information will help you understand that your private and personal information such as complete date of birth, first and last names, parent's names, social security number or tax identification numbers, and other documents can be used by individuals intending to commit fraud.

You have probably heard of the term phishing by now but how do you know if someone is actually phishing for your private information?  Normally, this is done through emails that will either have an email address that looks familiar but may be deceptive and hide a URL or browser link that will direct you to a website that they have actually created to look like the one that you normally use.  In many cases, you can easily spot this.

Using your email or browser program, depending if you access your email through the browser, move your mouse cursor over the link and then looking at the bottom left side of the browser.  It should show you an email address or a webpage link that it is hiding.

This same technique can be used when the email that you have received looks the same as a webpage.
If you cannot see this for whatever reason on your program, or if you do not trust the link from the email that you received, then your best alternative is to visit the website using your web browser and the address link that you should have originally saved in your favorites or just type it in manually yourself to access the site if you must respond to a request.
Not all html emails are bad but they do require careful inspection before clicking on embedded links.

Saving Emails

It amazes me when I hear business people saying that they delete almost every email they receive.

Email can be a legal justification just as if is where a type written letter and should be kept when used in communications between yourself and any business or possible business transactions.

The current status quo indicates that public companies under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act corporate reform measures implemented by courts are imposing increasingly harsh punishments on corporations that fail to comply with orders to produce e-mail documents.

What applies to individual local areas will probably be entangled between local laws and international laws but here is an interesting article.
Email - the legal issues

But, but how am I supposed to keep all those emails and keep track of them?

The same way that files are kept, the BACKUP process.

First, if you are using Outlook Express or Outlook or Firebird, all email will arrive in what is known as the INBOX.
In the same column where the inbox is located, you can create folders allowing you to separate emails into categories, of course, how well you organize them depends on your meaning of organization.
In any case, emails can be saved into your documents area, and hopefully into an appropriate folder there, normally by simply clicking once on an email and then clicking FILE SAVE AS and then browsing for the folder of your choice.
Then a complete backup of My Documents or whatever you happen to call it should be done periodically to another medium such as a cd or dvd.
How long should one keep emails, I guess that would depend on your local laws and how much storage space you have for cd's or dvd backups.
Cumbersome, hmmmm, not as much as loosing everything and having to start from scratch I'll bet.

Think about it but don't take too long or you might be sorry.

You might want to print this page for reference or simply copy and send the URL to others.