How does email work?

There are several similarities between email and regular mail (snail mail).

• Both need to have a unique address
• Both need to be "sent"
• Both need to be "picked up"

Email addresses are similar to regular mail in that the addresses are unique. In regular mail, each street and city address has its own specific zip code. That combination of street address, city, state and zip code must be unique and determines what post office the mail gets sent to for delivery.

Email has a unique post office --- that is an email server. Each email server must have a unique name. When you send your email the last part of the address after the @ is the server address (or post office).

For example - student Jane A. Alverno would have an email address that consisted of her user name – alvernja plus the Alverno email server (post office) - @alverno.edu On the Alverno email server – alverno.edu there could only be one user with the name alvernja. That insures that the email will go to only that person.

Let’s say you are sending an email to Jane. The email address you would type in on the To: line would be:

alvernja@alverno.edu

This email would be sent to the alverno.edu server (post office) for Jane to pick up. When Jane picks up her email, the message would be sent to her email software package and she could read it. At home or at Alverno you will need to remember to pick up your email – just as you need to remember to take your snail mail out of your mailbox!

Email, unlike regular post office mail (snail mail), is delivered to the email server almost immediately. That means that you can send a message and the person you emailed can pick it up within seconds (depending on his or her email server).

Another difference between email a snail mail is that you do not have to put a stamp on email. Usually email is provided by your ISP (Internet Service Provider) as part of your Internet connection cost. At Alverno all students are given an email address and can pick up their email at Alverno without any charge. This means you can send email to any state or country around the world for free!!!

What are the parts to an email?