What is e-mail? In its simplest form, e-mail is an electronic message sent from one computer to another. You can send or receive personal and business-related messages with attachments, such as pictures or formatted documents. You can even send computer programs.

Let's say you have a small business with sales reps working around the country. How do you keep in touch without running up a huge phone bill? Or what about keeping in touch with far-flung family members? E-mail is the way to go. It's no wonder e-mail has become the most popular service on the Internet.

Just as a letter makes stops at different postal stations along its way, e-mail passes from one computer, known as a mail server to another as it travels over the Internet. Once it arrives at the destination mail server, it is stored in an electronic mailbox until the recipient retrieves it. This whole process can take seconds, allowing you to quickly communicate with people around the world at any time of the day or night.

To receive e-mail, you must have an account on a mail server. This is similar to having an address where you receive letters. One advantage over regular mail is that you can retrieve your e-mail from a remote location. Once you contact your mail server, you can download your messages.

To send e-mail, you need a connection to the Internet and access to a mail server which can forward your mail. The standard protocol used for sending e-mail on the Internet is called SMTP, for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It works in conjunction with POP servers. POP stands for Post Office Protocol.  FVSU is currently using a POP3 server for its email service.

When you send an e-mail message, your computer sends it to an SMTP server. The server looks at the e-mail address (like the address on an envelope), then forwards it to the recipient's mail server. When the message is received at the destination mail server, it is stored until the addressee retrieves it. You can send e-mail to anyone who has an e-mail address, anywhere in the world. Remember, almost all Internet service providers (ISPs) and all major online services offer an e-mail address with every account.

TRY THIS... Send yourself a message. Click on this link. When the e-mail window appears, type your address in the TO: field, then fill in the Subject field and write a note. Now click the Send button. In a few minutes, your message should appear in your In Box.

At one time, e-mail on the Internet was good only for short notes. You couldn't send attachments like formatted documents or graphics. With the advent of MIME, which stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension, and other types of encoding schemes, such as UUencode, not only can you send messages electronically, but you can also send formatted documents, photos, sound files, and video files. Just make sure that the person to whom you send the attachment has the software capable of decoding it.

For details on MIME, read Oxford University's MIME FAQ.

If you don't have much experience with e-mail, refer to the Beginner's Guide to Effective E-mail for tips on style. If you don't have an email account, you can get a free, web-based email account at bunniwerks.