How Email Works?

In the past 10 years or so, email has become one of the most popular ways to communicate. Some would say it is the most popular way to keep in touch and pass along information.

While we have become very comfortable with email in this time, to the point that it seems so simple, the truth is the email process involves a few crucial steps along the way. Creating an efficient system for email was anything but an “overnight” task.

Here Are The Basics:-

First you have to have an application that allows you to write and read email, store messages in folders or mail boxes etc. This has been referred to as a user agent in the email world. This software program/application, such as Outlook, Thunderbird and others, is the first stop along the message road.

After you have created an email message and choose to “Send” it, the program/application moves the message in electronic form along the cable or through wireless signal to a delivery agent. Sometimes the delivery agent tasks are also handled by the user/transfer agent software.

The message is accepted in a mail box by the program on the receiving end. One of the jobs of this application is to send the message to the correct mailbox, as set up by the person receiving it. If there is no specific box for a certain type of message, it generally goes to the Inbox.

At this point, you may be wondering how the program/application knows where to send the message and what mail box to put it into. The special language used to make email applications work contains directions and instructions that the sender and reader don’t see. But if you were to view the entire message in its raw form with instructions you would see. Some of that “text” might appear to be a foreign language containing symbols as well as letters. But it works to give the program instructions on how to handle the message.

If the email message is sent to a huge corporation or an Internet Service Provider that hosts dozens of Web and mail sites, the message may be entering a “network cloud.” This name is intended to give the impression of a large gathering or group of computers that act as servers, routers that direct mail traffic electronically and so on. Email messages may have to wait in line as messages sent earlier are routed to the proper place.

The message may pass through the domain-name system so that the transfer agent and other receiving programs can be identified. In basic terms, this level is where such “suffixes” as .com, .org and .net come into play. This step is sometimes addressed in earlier steps. The mail-exchange server must accept the message from any prior mail agent.

It is in this general time span that firewalls and filters can block a message or send it to a designated mail box. Spammers have spent a great deal of time studying each of the steps along the way in order to hide the true identity of the unwanted messages. Their goal is to get by any agent instructions, firewalls and filters.

Only after all of these steps are taken, without major incident, can the message be received and safely read by the intended recipient.

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