Email is growing: it was one of the first Internet applications in the 1970s, and it still accounts for the majority of Internet traffic. More people are using it for more and more purposes.

That's good news and bad news, though. We'll take a look at both the good and the bad of email in this module, and help you understand a few things you might not be aware of.

There are three main parts to an email: the header, the body, and attachments. We'll look at the parts of the header we generally see:

To
Cc
Bcc
Subject

We'll also look at issues to be aware of in the body, and how the body relates to attachments:

1b. Body
1c. Attachments

We are given 3 fields for addresses of people to whom we want to send our message. How best to use these three fields?

To: The person or people for whom the message is primarily intended. These are often the people who are expected to do something about the message.

When to use To: this is the normal field to use

Cc: For people who might want to know about the message, but who aren't expected to do anything.

When to use Cc: when some people need to know what's in the letter, but not necessarily do anything about it. For example, if your email mentions what someone did or said, it's courteous to Cc them so they'll know what's being said about them.

Bcc: "Blind" carbon copy. Nobody (except the sender) can see who's getting the email if they're in the Bcc field.

When to use Bcc: when you're sending the message to a list of people who don't necessarily want their email address revealed to everyone else on the list. This is a courteous way of avoiding problems that can arise when people want to keep their address private. Generally when people do this, they put their own address in the To field.

You can also use Bcc when you don't want the main recipient to know others are getting their email, but that's a bit sneaky! Still, it's a good idea never to assume that email is private. It never really is!

Subject: This is the line people see when they first notice your message. Of course, it's to tell them what the letter is about.

But there's another reason for the Subject line: to convince people to read your message. This is especially important if the person receiving your email doesn't know you. It's also important when the recipient is busy and gets emails from lots of people. (Recipients like your instructors! ;-)

Email messages can generally be sent in two ways: plain text, and HTML.

Plain text messages are just that: the writing, and nothing else. There is very little you can do to make them look "pretty".

Here's what you can do in plain text email:

• use capital letters
• start new paragraphs
• put in several blank lines
• use spaces and tabs to put the words where you want them on the page - more or less. (The "less" is when you make lines too long for your recipients' email program to handle.)
• ...and nothing much else!

When a plain text message is sent, the recipient's email program will determine what font, size, and color to display it with:

• Many email programs use a mono-spaced font like this for plain text messages;
• Now, it's more common to see plain text messages displayed with a sans-serif font like this.

HTML is the coding that's used to format Web pages. Many email programs can handle HTML, but not all. When you send HTML email to someone, you can't tell if they'll see the nice formatting you put in.

Here are some things you can do with HTML emails, but not all email programs can display all kinds of HTML formatting - some can only handle a subset of HTML.

• specify a font
• change letter sizes
• put in pictures
• use italics, bold, and underlining
• color the letters and background
• decorate the background with a picture
• put information in tables

What if you don't know whether the person you're sending email to can deal with HTML? The good news is that usually when you send HTML email, a plain text version is automatically sent along with it. (If not, the recipient will see the text along with the HTML codes. This is readable, but very distracting.)

In the early days of email, plain text was all you can send. People soon got pretty tired of that. They decided it would be great to attach things to email - files like documents, pictures, spreadsheets, databases, and whatever they wanted.

But there was a technical problem with attachments. Most of them had more information than could be represented in plain text, but the Internet email system could only handle plain text.

The solution was (and still is) to convert the attachments to the letters of plain text, but include a code that allows them to be converted back to their original form. This code is called MIME, the Multipart Internet Mail Extension. When you "attach" a file to email, the file is put at the end of your email message, separated by a dividing-line of text. When when the recipient reads the email, they usually see only the first part, and need to click a button to have the attachment shown.

MIME has become a system for classifying just about every type of computer file, and is used in several ways besides email.

We need to talk about a couple of things related to email etiquette - that is, how to get your message across and make the right impression on the person you're sending to. Even people who have used email since they were kids might not realize some of the consequences of how they write email.

2a. Who's this for? The first thing to consider is what type of person the message is for - friend? parent? stranger? prospective employer? boss? We'll talk about what difference that makes.
2b. Your emotions?! Lots of people have gotten in trouble with their emails. Find out how to keep your emails from stabbng you in the back.

What kind of relationship is implied by this email?

Who is this person writing to?

1. a boss
2. a potential employer
3. a colleague at work
4. a family member
5. a friend

What clues do you have?

One more sample:

Same questions - is this to:

1. a boss
2. a potential employer
3. a colleague at work
4. a family member
5. a friend

What clues do you have?

Now look at these two samples and decide which is more likely to succeed:

These two emails have exactly the same message, expressed very differntly. What are the factors that make them different?

Bottom line: write emails any way you want to your friends, but do it right for people you don't know, especially if your email is of a professional nature. Aim your style right:

Email has the potential for ruining your relationships. Why?

• It's easy to express your emotions in ways that can have unexpected results
• Writing doesn't have the body language, feedback, and spoken language cues of face-to-face or phone conversation
• Email is less formal than "snail-mail" letters
• Email is quick to send but almost impossible to call back
• Email can be forwarded to other people without your knowledge
• Email is not private in any way

Guidelines for healthy email

1. As you write, remember that email is not private -
   • it can be read legally by employers, if the email server of the sender or receiver is provided by their organization
   • it can be forwarded legally to other people without your knowledge
   • it can be retrieved legally from organizational email archives or your computer by the organization you work for (if it belongs to them), or law enforcement (with a court order or National Security Letter)
   • it can be read legally by the governments of many countries through which it might be passing
   • it will be scanned for key words and phrases by the U.S. National Security Agency
   • it can be read illegally by people at intermediate routers on the Internet
2. Use a style appropriate to the person you're writing to - friend, colleague, stranger, boss
3. Use a spelling checker for all professional or formal email
4. Use emoticons (= "emotion icons") whenever appropriate
   • Avoid them or use them very sparingly in formal or professional email
   • Use them to make your feelings clear to friends and family - they can save relationships if something you said was intended as a joke! ;-)
   • The most common emoticons:
     

     Primary Icon	Cute variants	Asian variants	Meaning
     :-)	:)    =)    8-)	^_^	smile "smiley"; (last is with glasses)
     :-D	:D    =D	\^o^/	grin, laughing, or very happy
     ;-)	;-)	`_^	wink, not serious
     :-(	:(    =(	<_>   ;_;	sad, sympathetic
     :-\		>_<    ~_~	frustrated
     :-S	=S	^_^"	apologetic, chagrinned, feeling foolish or confused
     >:-|		-_-#	angry (use with care!)
     :-*	:*	^ 3^	kiss (love or mischief)
     :-O	=O	O_O	astonishment
     :-|		v_v	deadpan, undecided, sarcastic, annoyed
     :-P	:P		disgust, sticking out tongue

5. Always re-read your email.
   1. In formal and professional email, check for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
   2. In all email, check to make sure nothing you said could have an unintended meaning that might hurt or offend a recipient. Be especially careful about jokes.
6. Are you angry? Don't send it yet! You can never retrieve email once you click the Send button. Instead, save it as a draft and read it again when you've cooled down, in a day or so.
7. Are you sending to multiple recipients? Consider using the Bcc: field to preserve their privacy and anonymity. (In the To: field, put your own email address.)
8. OK, now you can send it. :-)
9. Check your email in a few minutes to make sure it didn't "bounce". It may even take half an hour for some messages to realize they have no place to go.

Ever wondered how email works? This doesn't go into a lot of technical detail, just what you need to use it intelligently.

3a. How it works
3b. Getting to your Email

Here's a summary of how email works:

1. You compose a message using an email client. An email client is the software that allows you to create email, send it, read it, file it, and delete it. Email clients can be either local (on your computer) or online (on a Web server or email server computer).
2. You you "send" email, your client passes it to an email server. An email server is a computer with software that acts like a post office, sending messages to other destinations, receiving your messages and holding them until you're ready to deal with them.
   1. Your outgoing message is packged in TCP packets
   2. The IP address of the destiation is looked up using the DNS system.
      
      (If the address is not found, the server sends a message back to you - usually within a few seconds.)
   3. The packets are sent on their way, and the Internet's software and connection links relay them to their destination.
      
      (If the destination server isn't responding, the server will re-send the message every few hours for the next five days or so. It will send you a message by email to let you know this is happening.)
3. When a message reaches its destination email server, that server looks up the recipient's "mailbox". If all goes well, the message is put in their box until they ask to see it.
   
   (Sometimes there is no mailbox with the name you used; at other times, the mailbox may have gotten too full, or the email you sent has an attachment bigger than the recipient's system allows. If any problems like that come up, the recipient's server will send you email with some indication of the problem - though often it's not easy to understand when the message means! You have to read them carefully.)
4. The recipient uses their email client to read the message. If it's a local client program, it will usually ask the server to let it download all the email. They can then read your message and deal with it even if they're not connected to the Internet.

To get to your email, you need an email client - the program that lets you create and deal with email. There are two kinds of clients: local, and remote. All email clients allow you to do the same things (pretty much):

• Read
• Write (and check spelling)
• File (put messages into folders)
• Reply and reply to all
• Forward
• Delete
• Store names and email addresses of contacts

Local and remote clients go about their jobs a bit differently, though.

Local Email Clients

Local email clients are those that run on your computer - desktop, laptop, or handheld. Examples include Microsoft Outlook and Qualcomm Eudora.

Since they run on your computer, you can use them even if your computer is temporarily off-line (disconnected from the Internet). This is useful if:

• you have a laptop and don't always have a connection available; or
• you have a desktop and dial-up connection, so you can't stay on line very long; or
• you have an Internet connection that's not very reliable; or
• you pay for your Internet connection by the minute.

Example of a local email client: MS Outlook

Here's how you work with a local email client:

A local email client can act like an agent who goes to the post office for you, takes your letters to mail, and picks up the mail for you.

1. When you're actually on line, you open your email client and have it connect to your email server.
2. While it's on line, the email client:
   • Asks the server to download information.
     If you have a slow connection, you can tell your email client to download only header information (sender, subject line, date, and size). You can then ask it to download only the emails you really want, and delete the rest from the server.
   • If you're written emails while off line, your email client will send them out while you're on line.
3. You can go off line to:
   • read the contents of email
   • answer
   • forward
   • compose new mail
   • file the old messages in the apporpriate folders (if you file your emails).
4. When all your off-line work is done, you can go on line again and have your email client send all your outgoing mail in one burst, and retrieve any new messages on the server.

Remote Email Clients

A remote email client is an email client that runs, not on your computer, but on a server which you access via the Internet.

Remote clients have become increasingly popular as Internet access has become faster and more reliable. Examples include MS Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Google Mail, clients available through service providers like WCC, AOL, Comcast, AT&T, and many others.

Most email clients now run through your Web browser, but originally they ran through telnet, a command-line interface. Many system administrators of Unix and Linux systems (the geekiest geeks of them all!) still use Unix mail or University of Washington's pine as their remote email clients.

Remote clients are useful if:

• you have fast, reliable Internet service; and
• you are able to spend all your email working-time on line; and
• you like the simplicity of doing your email work through one central service.

Example of a remote email client: Google Mail

Here's how you work with a remote email client:

1. Run your Web browser
2. Navigate to your email service's site on the Internet
3. Log in
4. Read, compose, reply, forward, and file your mail; log out when you're done.

At first , this looks simpler than a local email client. In some respects it is, but two things need to be considered:

1. Your email is always on the server, so if for some reason you don't have access to the Internet, you can't refer to your messages. The simplicity comes at the cost of less flexibility.
2. Using a local client is not necessarily complicated; if you have a fast, convenient, reliable Internet connection, you can use a local client in just as simple a way as you would a remote client.

We depend a great deal on email, and the benefits are great. But the bad news (well, not news, really) is that people also use email to try to make money in annoying and dishonest ways. We'll talk about four ways email can be a pain, and how to protect against it:

4a. Spam
4b. Scam
4c. Phishing
4d. Virus

Spam is officially referred to as Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) - that is, email that you didn't ask for, advertising commercial products or services.

The name Spam is actually a registered tradmark of Hormel Foods, LLC, used for a type of canned meat developed in 1937. It has come to be used for unwanted email because of an episode in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which all the breakfast options at a roadside café include unwanted Spam. (See video, script, or Wikipedia article.)

UCE has become a real problem as more and more messages flood the Internet. Estimates range up to 75% of Internet email traffic is UCE. On January 1, 2004, the "CAN-SPAM Act" took effect, outlawing UCE. Unfortunately, it has had no noticeable effect on the amount of UCE, which has continued to increase.

Stopping Spam

Though it is imposible to prevent all UCE from reaching your inbox, you can filter it out in a number of ways. Unfortunately, this sometimes results in genuine business or friendly email from getting put in the "junk" or "bulk" mail, so it's a good idea to check periodically through the folders where UCE is put.

A scam is defined as "a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation". The scammer tries to get money from the victim, usually by presenting a bogus opportunity for gaining wealth.

A widespread type of scam involves a request for help in releasing a large amount of money from a bank. In order to get the money, the victim is asked to send the scammer a certain amount of money in return for a share of the released money. Of course, there is no large amount of money in the bank, and after the victim has sent money to the scammer, they never hear from the scammer again. This type of scam has been a very popular way of getting foreign currency into Africa for a number of years. The most notorious source of this type of scam is Nigeria.

Avoiding Scams

The best way to protect yourself from most scams is a healthy scepticism and a good sense of humor. If an offer for lots of money looks too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. Don't part with your hard-earned money without verification that an enterprise is legitimate.

Phishing is actually a type of scam, but it merits separate discussion because it works a bit differently. Rather than offer easy riches like most scams, phishing presents an email that looks like a legitimate request from a financial institution for an update of your account records.

The criminals in this case make use of technology to create a forgery. (Unfortunately, it's not hard to do it.) The message asks that the victim click on a link in the email, which then takes them to a Web site made to look like the financial institution's site. The victim is asked to enter their account number and password, together with other information that enables the phisher to enter the victim's account and steal the money. This makes phishing a combination of scam, forgery, and identity theft.

It is very difficult to track down and prosecute the criminals responsible. They are usually not based in the US - the most popular centers of phishing are Russia and Brazil.

Don't Get Phished!

Because they're aware of phishing, financial institutions no longer ask their customers to update their accounts online. If you get a request like that, it is almost certainly an attempt to phish you! Don't fall for it. Instead, phone the financial institution using the number on your latest statement. Tell them about the email message, and if they really need you to update information, they can take it over the phone.

A computer virus is a piece of computer code (software instructions to the computer) that does something harmful with your computer.

Viruses have been infecting computers since the mid 1980s. Early viruses were primarily aimed to "show off" the virus writer's talent, and did little intentional harm. Soon, however, viruses progressed to destroying all data on people's disks. Now, this has been replaced largely by Internet-based viruses that do things useful for the virus-masters, such as:

• Key-logging: making a record of keystrokes to steal user codes and passwords, sending them back to the virus-masters
• Data-mining: looking for information on your computer that could be useful to the virus-masters, such as credit card numbers
• Activity-tracking: keeping a record of sites you have visited on the Web, to sell to interested marketing firms. This is called spyware.
• Zombie-making: Taking over your computer (making it into a "zombie" or "bot") to send out spam or Denial of Service (DoS) messages. You may not even be aware that your computer is being used this way, because it may share resources with you nicely, and not be at all obvious.

Victory over Viruses

Fortunately, there are several organizations that work diligently to keep viruses from harming you. These are companies and government agencies that actively study viruses and how they work. The companies then create software to do battle with the viruses and disable them.

In order for these to be effective, you need to:

1. Make sure you have an anti-virus program running on your computer; and
2. Keep the anti-virus software up-to-date; and
3. Keep your operating system up-to-date; and perhaps
4. Installing anti-spyware software and keeping it up-to-date as well.

Keeping anti-virus and operating system software up-to-date is very important, because the virus-masters are continually inventing new ways to break or sneak into your computer. Fortunately, it's easy with the Internet. Operating systems and anti-virus software automatically check over the Internet with their headquarters to see if any new defenses are available. If they are, they will generally download and install them; sometimes they'll ask you to re-boot your computer so the updates can take effect, and it's a good idea to comply with that request.