E-mail is an electronic means of sending letters, along with attachments, in a fast, easy and economic way. In this chapter, we will discuss E-mail, its advantages and disadvantages, E-mail accounts, and other terms related to it.

Summary

  • E-mail is a widely used service of the Internet and has made the exchange of both formal and informal letters easy, fast and convenient using electronic means.
  • Every user is assigned a unique ID which is authenticated by the password. Such ID is known as E-mail accounts.

E-mail

Mailing has been an integral part of human life. It is really important for official purposes. Little earlier, mails used to be sent using through a Post Office. It is still in use nowadays. However, most mails (or letters) are being sent and received electronically in recent days.

E-mail (Electronic mail) is a service of the Internet which allows the users to send and receive mails in an easy, economic, fast and electronic way.

It is a quick service. Attachments can also be sent along with emails. And, the same mail can be sent to multiple recipient at the same time thus, it has become an efficient way of mailing in today's world.

Advantages of e-mail

Email has made our lives more comfortable and advanced. This has contributed a lot towards globalization.

Following are the advantages of email:

  • It helps to communicate with people all around the world.
  • Internet connection is the only pre-requisite so, it is cost effective.
  • It is a quicker method of communication.
  • Multimedia files can also be sent using emails.
  • Emails can be sent to multiple recipients at the same time, as well.

Disadvantages of e-mail

Almost all Internet services have their positive and negative sides. One can easily be safe from these negative effects of the services and so is for email.

Following are the disadvantages of email:

  1. Viruses and malware can be sent using emails.
  2. Harassing letters can be easily sent from public to the individuals.
  3. In order to send and receive Emails, we need internet connection which is not available everywhere.
  4. Confidential information sent via email can sometimes be spread over which hampers privacy.

Types of e-mail accounts

There are two types of email accounts. They are:

  1. Web based email account
  2. POP based email account

E-mail Address

Email address is the special and unique name designated for a specified user by the service provider. It basically contains two parts: user name and service provider's domain. For example: admin@gmail.com. Here 'admin' is the user specified name whereas 'gmail.com' is the service provider's domain name. An '@' sign is compulsory in all email accounts.

Important protocols for e-mail

Protocol is always necessary to establish connection between two or more computers. So, there are two mandatory protocols that allow people to send and receive the electronic mails. They are:

  • SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): This protocol helps to send emails.
  • POP (Post Office Protocol): This protocol helps to receive emails.

We've finally accomplished Unit 1 of Computer Science Grade 10 - Communication and Computer Network.

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