From the course: Computer Literacy for Mac (2018)

Understanding email servers and clients - Mac OS Tutorial

From the course: Computer Literacy for Mac (2018)

Understanding email servers and clients

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- [Instructor] In this chapter, we're going to talk about email. If you're using a computer with an internet connection, you almost certainly have acquired or have been assigned an email address. And in this chapter, we're going to look at the basics of emailing. Let's start with a quick overview of what email is and how it works. Emails are electronic text-based messages you send and receive, either through the website of your email hosting service or through a dedicated email software program, also called an email client. When you want to send an email to someone, you usually do so through your email provider's website or through that dedicated email client. To send an email, you need to know the email address of your recipient. Next, you can enter a subject for your email, so your recipient knows what your message is about. You then compose your message. Your email can be plain text, but you can also include attachments, like photos and short audio or video files. When you're done composing your email, you click Send, which sends your email through your email provider's server. Your email service provider's servers then look at the address of your recipient to figure out where to send it next. Your email is then sent to your recipient's email hosting service and stored there until your recipient downloads the email into his or her email client or reads it from a web browser. Once you click Send, it can be just a matter of seconds before your email arrives at your recipient's email server. Now, whether the email is then read right away depends on whether your recipient is sitting in front of his or her computer at the time or has access to some portable email-capable device, like a smartphone. So that's a very basic description of how email works. Both you and your recipient have to have your own email addresses. Usually, your work or school will provide you with an address. If you're at home, your internet service provider will give you an email address, or you can also sign up for free email addresses from services like Google's Gmail, Apple's iCloud service, or Yahoo Mail. You can also have and manage as many email addresses as you wish. Many people like to keep their work and personal emails separate, and, generally, that's a good idea. You probably don't want personal messages going through your work email address. Many companies have policies in place, stating that any emails that go through their servers are their property and can be reviewed by them at any time. Also, if you were to change jobs, you'd probably lose access to emails that came to your work address. Personally, I prefer a free email service like Gmail, Yahoo, or iCloud, none of which are tied to your work or your internet service provider, because you might find yourself, at some point, switching jobs or internet providers, and, again, you'd have to change your address and might lose your old emails that you received through your service provider. Okay, so those are just some basic things to know and keep in mind about email. We'll get into more specific topics in the rest of this chapter.

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