Hello Again! In our last Cyber Travels we looked at the subject of Bandwith on the Information Super highway. Well, what kind of information takes up space in this Bandwith? One type is E-Mail...
Some think of Email as yeah, been there done that. Email on the information superhighway is in wide use. Email, Electronic Mail, brings us close to our Paperless Society. You would think that due the fact that the Postal Service has standard due to paper traveling, maybe Email would not need this, but it does. Via the Global Directory Standard of X.500 mail can be sent to users on various E-Mail networks.
Email allows you to send E-Mail to those within your Network System and all over. Now when we say within your Network System. We can assume that you may use an email system via your online Service or even at your place of employement. We are saying "all over" because as of late online services as well as corporations are beginning to allow access to the mechanism we refer to as the Information Superhighway.
Ever notice with Email Addresses you may see something like ".com" at the end? These are part of the addresses that can be accessed globally via the Information Superghighway. They will vary of course. While COM will represent a Commericial Servie EDU will represent an Educational Facility.
Ok, great, now tell me how I can get the mail. When someone wants to send you Email, you would give them your Internet Address. One of my address is very long, but it will get Internet Email directly to my Bulletin Board System. The address reads like this:
michael.holman.sr.@f511.n278.z1.fidonet.org
The first part being my name, next being my FidoNet (A BBS Network or collaboration of BBS's) address.
Another, probably my shortest is like this: holmanm@haven.ios.com
What is surprising is that many actually have Internet Addresses but are not aware of it. An inquiry made via your Email or System Administrator can reveal if you are able to receive mail via the Internet. Many Students in Educational Institutions actually have an Email account that is just waiting for them to access.
I have corresponded with a person in Africa via IRC (Internet Relay Chat, another lesson...) and this was real time chat. We continue our correspondence via Internet Email. He access the Internet through one of the Educational Institutions there, if I remember correctly. Because I had his Internet Address I was able to send him E-mail through my Service Provider. My Service Provider will then route the mail through other systems until it get to his service provider who will intern drop the message in his Mail Box. This is one what makes E-Mail so fascinating. The Mail may travel through various Systems until it finally gets to it's destination.
One of interesting aspects of E-Mail is the ability to attach files to your Internet E-Mail Message. Many providers will allow you to do this. So not only will your message travel from System to System but your file as well. What I have found though (others can give there thought as well) is that there is often a limitation on the size of the file that can be sent. I tried to no avail to send a file about 1/2 a meg (500,000) bytes in size to a person in Germany. Just couldn't cut it. Ultimately I wound up puting the File at my FTP Site (another lesson...) for the person to "Cyber Transport" to and download.
Well that wrap up this lesson (only a portion there is so much more, won't you share?)...
We end this lesson with from Tips....
What is the E-Mail address of a service that will Do your Research for you, that also has served individuals and organizations in Business,Goverment,etc.?
Answer:
Information Researchers. Email Address: info@uiuc.edu
Hoping your Cyber Travels are good ones!