Email
CAS 133 – Basic Computer
Skills/MS Office XP
Russ Erdman
Email
You've probably never heard of Ray
Tomlinson, but odds are that you can't live
without his invention.
@
Ray Tomlinson, the
inventor of e-mail
Email
In late 1971, Tomlinson modified a computer file
transfer protocol (FTP) to work with a simple mailbox
program.
He then sent the world's first e-mail message from
one computer in his lab to another.
The message caused the two-computer network to
crash.
From that beginning sprang a new form of
communication that elevated an obscure symbol into
a pop culture icon: @.
Email
"The @ sign seemed
to make sense,"
Tomlinson says.
"I used the @ sign to
indicate that the user
was 'at' some other
host [computer]
rather than being
local."
Email
An engineer at Bolt Beranek and Newman
(BBN) -- the company the U.S. government's
Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency contracted in 1968 to develop
DARPANET, which would later evolve into
the Internet -- Tomlinson nearly suppressed
his invention.
One of his colleagues, Jerry Burchfiel, says
Tomlinson cautioned him, "Don't tell anyone!
This isn't what we're supposed to be working
on!"
Email
He didn't imagine that in less than 30
years, e-mail would go from being the
preferred mode of communication of a
few scientists around the U.S.A. to
playing a key role in the daily lives of
millions of people around the world,
and even defining a generation
Email
Ray Tomlinson developed the first email
application for the ARPANET, consisting of a
program called SNDMSG for sending mail,
and a program called READMAIL for reading
mail.
These early email programs had simple
functionality and were command line driven,
but established the basic model still in use
today.
Email
How it Works:
Flo uses her email software to write an email. She
includes the address and adds a Subject line.
She connects to her ISP (Internet Service Provider)
and tells her email software to send waiting
messages.
The email software sends the message to the ISP's
sending software (SMTP server). That software
checks that Flo is authorized to send email through
her ISP, looks at the address and sends the message
on its way.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, a protocol for sending e-
mail messages between servers. Most e-mail systems
that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send
messages from one server to another.
Email
After bouncing around the world a bit the message is
received by my ISP's receiving software (POP server).
Post Office Protocol, a protocol used to retrieve e-mail from a
mail server. Most e-mail applications (sometimes called an e-
mail client) use the POP protocol
That software checks that I'm "on the books" and
drops the message in my email letterbox on their
machine.
At some point I start up my email software, connect to
my ISP and tell my software to look in my letterbox. My
software has to tell my ISP's software who I am and
what my password is before it can collect the mail. My
software now downloads that message onto my
computer and now I can disconnect from my ISP and
sit back and read the message.
Email
How does an
e-mail Step 1
message
travel?
1 Create & send message Step 2
2 Your software contacts Step 5
ISP mail server
3 Mail server determines
best route mail
Step 4
4 Mail server transfers server
message to POP3 server
5 When e-mail software Internet
checks for e-mail routers
messages, message
transfers from POP3 POP3
POP
mail server
server to recipient’s
Step 3 server
computer
Email
Snail mail used to be the only way to send a
letter (FedEx and UPS gave them a run for their
money)
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays
these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed
rounds.
- Herodotus, describing the Persian courier system about 500
B.C., inscribed on the General Post Office, New York City,
U.S.A.
Email is now the most widely used Internet
application. For some people, it is their most
frequent form of communication.
Email
THE END