Lesson 5: E-Mail

"I have received no more than one or two letters in my life

that were worth the postage" -- Henry David Thoreau

Contents:

The Email Address

Parts of an Email

Basic Email tasks

Mail Folders

Mail Filtering

Attachments

Viruses

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Almost all e-mail programs have similar, universal functions. The problem is that all of the e-mail programs use completely different commands to access these functions (example: to reply to the author of a current message using the elm or pine e-mail programs, you type the letter "r"; to do the same function in a windows based program you must select reply from the menu, or use a button).

I'm not going to be able to discuss all of these functions, but what sort of functions do most e-mail programs have in common? Well, most mail programs have a function that will allow you to access and read your incoming mail, another to save incoming mail in a file, one to print incoming mail, one to send new messages, one to reply to a message, another to include a file in a mail message, and one to import/export special objects into your mail messages. Depending on your e-mail software, these functions are either easy or difficult ... but nearly always possible.

With all of the different e-mail programs out there, and all of the different commands required to run each program, how are you ever going to find out what commands are right for YOUR e-mail program?

Easy!  Look at the help resources.  OR! Ask your local e-mail service provider! This may shock you, but almost every mail provider provides some sort of instruction sheet or file that will teach you how to use the e-mail program that your provider is running. All you have to do is ask!

I want to take a moment to show you how to actually read an Internet address. I have to admit that when I first started learning how to use e-mail, I was intimidated by the length of all of the Internet addresses. However, once I learned to read the addresses BACKWARDS -- from right to left -- Internet addresses ceased to be a thing of mystery.

Sample Internet Address (One of our project staff)

CDONNAN@ZOO.UVM.EDU

Every Internet address has three parts -- a user name, an "at" sign (@), and the address of the user's mail server. In this example, the user name is CDONNAN (Craig Donnan), and the mail server's address is ZOO.UVM.EDU

The mail server address (the ZOO.UVM.EDU part of the above example) is actually called the "domain" name, and it is based on something called an IP (or Internet Protocol) address.

Each server connected to the Internet has a numerical IP address. The IP address is four sets of numbers connected with periods (for example, the IP address for the mail server that I am using at the University of Vermont is 132.198.101.64).

Fortunately, the powers that be realized that people remember NAMES better than numbers, and they created the domain name system. The domain name system associates the numerical IP address with an easier to remember "name" (for example, thanks to the domain name system, the IP address 132.198.101.64 becomes a much easier to remember ZOO.UVM.EDU).

You may run into IP addresses from time to time when you are FTPing or telnetting (we'll talk about both of these tools in a few weeks). Just remember than an IP address (the four sets of numbers connected

with periods) is simply another way to write a domain name, and you will do fine. Both IP addresses and domain names should work equally well.

Anyway, back to the "CDONNAN" example. Remember that the domain name is ZOO.UVM.EDU? Well, as I said earlier, the best way to read an Internet address -- and, for that matter, a domain name -- is from right to left. Domain names are broken down as follows:

EDU Educational sites in the U.S.

COM Commercial sites in the U.S.

GOV U.S. Government sites

NET Network administrative organizations

MIL U.S. Military sites

ORG U.S. Organizations that don't fit into other categories

FR France

CA Canada

... (other counties have their own country code)

Since the domain name has an EDU at the end of it, we now know that ZOO.UVM.EDU is the domain name for some educational site in the United States. But where?

The rest of the ZOO.UVM.EDU domain name lists the "subdomains" that tell you where the mail server is actually located. UVM is the University of Vermont, and ZOO is the name of the mail server's computer(actually a group of computers working together in a 'cluster', each named after an animal - moose, elk, gnu, etc.  No, this is not Animal House...but.....no - I'm not going there....).

So, CDONNAN@ZOO.UVM.EDU is the Internet address for someone named "CDONNAN" at some U.S. educational site. Futher investigation shows that the site is at the University of Vermont, and that the machine "CDONNAN" is using is called ZOO.

Another Sample Internet Address: w.v.braun@hq.msfc.nasa.gov

Okay, reading this right to left, we see a GOV. That means it's a U.S. Government address. I think we all know what NASA is -- the National Aeronatics and Space Administration. Unless you are a a big NASA fan, however, you probably don't have the slightest clue what MSFC stands for (it is the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama). HQ is pretty self-explanatory --Headquarters.

So we know that w.v.braun@hq.msfc.nasa.gov is the address of some person named w.v.braun whose mail server is at the Headquarters of the Marshall Space Flight Center, and that the Marshall Space Flight Center is part of NASA, which itself is part of the U.S. government.

What can you tell from the Internet address ike@saceur.pentagon.army.mil? A lot, especially if you are a history buff, and if you know that "saceur" is the military abbreviation for Supreme Allied Commander-Europe.

The best rule of thumb I can give you about Internet addresses is this: if the address is not of the form described above and does not end with one of the standard top-level domain abbreviations or country codes, the address is NOT an Internet address. You may still be able to send mail to non-Internet addresses through a gateway, though.

There a several basic pieces to an E-Mail message. Although the format can vary depending on the software you are using, the general idea will be the same.

Header -The E-mail header gives information on the sender of the message, when it was sent, the subject, and who it was sent to.

Body -The message body contains the text of the message. In E-mail you can use text only with no enhancements.

Signature -Most mail programs give the option of creating signature files which can be attached to the base of the message.

Attachments -Although the message limited to simple text, most programs allow you to attach fully formatted documents to the message. (See the Attachments section)

Basic Email tasks

The basics involve opening new mail, reading it, replying or forwarding it, printing it and deleting.

Most email software has a screen that has folders or mailboxes down one side of a window and another window that shows the contents of the folder.  The most commonly used folder is generally the Inbox.  Opening the inbox will display the mail that you have recently received, read or unread.  In the folder with the contents of the Inbox, generally on the right, there should be a table with categories at the top of the columns such as Sender, Subject, Date, etc.   Individual mail messages are listed by line.  Double clicking on a line will open the mail.  Bold text on a line often indicates unread messages.

Open mail messages can be read, and then replied to, reply to all, forwarded, or deleted.  Often these common commands are listed as buttons at the top of the screen.  Mail is conveniently deleted when using the large table that shows the mail listing of your mailbox.  Use the control key and the left mouse key together to select all the messages to be deleted at once.  Once all the messages are highlighted, press the delete key on your keyboard to delete them all.

Mail Folders

Mail folders are used to store messages so you can stay organized.  They may be called Mailboxes in some software.  Create new mailboxes with descriptive names for projects, mail lists, or other organizing needs.

The commands to create new folders are generally in the File, New menu, or somewhere on the File menu.  Some software has a separate menu item for mailboxes or folders.

Like creating directories, it is possible to create folders within folders.  Use this feature if you have an over-arching topic with sub categories.  Or in the case of towns, a selectboard, with individual members that can have their own folder.

Mail filtering allows us to automatically route incoming mail into folders to be dealt with at a later date.  Mail from list services can be routed in this way.  Most software has this feature, but you may find that the free versions of software require an upgrade to use the advanced features like filtering.  Creating a filter is like creating a search on the web (maybe you haven't done this yet!).  The idea is to supply criteria for how the mail is to be handled.  For example, you can pick from a list of fields that mail messages always contain including sender, subject, date, etc.   Pick one of these fields, and then in the open box, type the text that you want the filter to match in that field.  For example, if I wanted to move all incoming Muninet mail into a folder,  select the To or the 'Any field' field, and type in muninet@list.uvm.edu .  Then pick an action.  (Be sure you have a folder created for the mail)  Choose to move the mail to the folder you created.  Next time you check for mail, see if the filter worked.

Attachments

Complete files can be attached to mail messages.  This is a handy feature.  Fully formatted documents, images, any kind of file can be sent.  The recipient needs to know what the file format is that you are sending, so in the text of your message, write the name of the program used to create the file along with the version.  A better choice for document formats is the RTF format, or Rich Text Format.  This format can be imported by a wide range of software, and it keeps a lot of the formatting unless it is very fancy.

To attach a message, write a new mail message.  Click on the Attachment button, usually a  paper clip.  Or, it will be found in the menus too.   Browse your computer to select the file you want to attach or type the name in the box with the full path ie. c:\My Document\file.rtf  When the message is sent, your file will go along with it.

Trouble finding the attachments when you receive them?  Or trouble opening them?  Many times the file is saved automatically to your hard drive when a mail message comes in.  To open the file, you can either go to the download folder where attachments are stored, or click on a link or icon in the mail message to open the file.  To find out where your attachments are stored, look in the Preferences menu of the software for File locations.

Generally, you will be prompted to be sure you want to open the file.  Also, if the computer doesn't recognize the file extension (last three characters in filename after the dot), then it won't know what software to use, and you may have to pick one.  If you know the file is a word processed document, open your word processor and try to open the file.  Sometimes it will convert the file for you.  Otherwise, you may be stuck with sending the attachment sender a message to save the file in a format you can read and send it again.  Tell them your software and version number.

Next week : Etiquette for using your E-Mail.

HOMEWORK:

Subscribe to the MUNINET discussion on the UVM list server (list.uvm.edu), if you aren't already.

Set up a mail folder and filter that re-directs your Muninet mail to a separate folder.  Or.... set up a mail folder and filter for a different list, if you don't want to filter the Muninet mail.

E-Mail me the steps on how you did it in your mail software.

Resources:

The handbook section for Netscape Communicator 4.x can be found here:
                          http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/4.0/handbook/

For Netscape Navigator 3.0x, look here:
                          http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/3.0/handbook/

Netscape also has a terrific Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section:
                          http://help.netscape.com/faqs.html

Additional information about Eudora Light can be found on Eudora. s web site:
                          http://eudora.qualcomm.com/techsupport/faqs.html

Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express have a FAQ site as well:
                           http://support.microsoft.com/directory/faqs.asp?sd=gn

ROADMAP: Copyright Patrick Crispen 1994, 1995. All rights reserved.

Modified by permission by UVM Extension System, 2000.