Net Basics: Email - one of the articles published by Lyndon Cerejo

It would have happened to you sometime or the other. You suddenly realise that it's the birthday of an out-of-town friend, and you forgot to post a card well in advance. It happened to me last month. The classmate in question wasn't that close a friend that I would call him up in Chandigarh, but he was a pal nonetheless. Had I sent him a card by mail, it probably would cross him on his journey back. And if our postal system favoured me, the card would probably reach him on time…for his next birthday.

Late that night, I logged onto the Net to drown my sorrows when I came across this site offering free greeting cards. "Free" being one of the most popular four lettered F words on the Net, I chose a birthday card, and emailed it to him. He got my card within two minutes even as he was ending his birthday by enjoying a few visual treats on the Net. Saved by the Net !

Electronic mail (or email) works on lines similar to our postal system. The address is the most important part, and is used to find out where the message has to ultimately go, and is made up of two parts, separated by the "@" sign. The half to the left of the "@" sign indicates who the recipient is, and the part to the right gives the recipient's online address. Sending an email can be compared to dropping a letter in the postbox at the corner. Just as a letter goes from one post office to another, an email message goes from one computer to another till it reaches the recipient's computer. So any email sent to my address - [email protected] would reach my personal mailbox on the columnist.com computer, and will stay there till I read it.

Email has come a long way from its origins as a text - only service. Today, an email can contain animated pictures, sounds, and even moving text of different fonts, colours and sizes. Besides these advantages, email wins hands down on the fronts of speed, convenience, and low cost as compared with snail mail (our postal mail). Sending email to the other side of the world takes almost the same time, cost and effort as sending it in aamchi Mumbai. Little wonder then that email is the most used service on the Internet today.

Next fortnight, we'll take a look at the Internet service that comes a close second to email. You'd better have your purple swimsuits ready, because we're gonna be surfing !