E-mail is the short form for electronic mail,
the transmission of messages over communications
networks. The messages can be notes entered
from the keyboard or electronic files stored
on disk. Most mainframes, minicomputers, and
computer networks have an e-mail system. Some
of the electronic-mail systems are confined
to a single computer system or network, but
others have gateways to other computer systems,
enabling users to send electronic mail anywhere
in the world. Companies that are fully computerized
make extensive use of e-mail because it is fast,
flexible, and reliable. Most e-mail systems
include a text editor for composing messages,
but many allow you to edit your messages using
any editor you want. You then send the message
to the recipient by specifying the recipient's
address. You can also send the same message
to several users at once. This is what called
broadcasting. Sent messages are stored in electronic
mailboxes until the recipient fetches them.
To see if you have any mail, you may have to
check your electronic mailbox periodically,
although many systems alert you when mail is
received. After reading your mail, you have
more options like you can store it in a text
file, forward it to some other users, or delete
it. Copies of memos can be printed out on a
printer if you want a paper copy.
All online services and Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) offer e-mail, and most also support gateways
so that you can exchange mail with users of
other systems. Usually, it takes only a few
seconds or minutes for mail to arrive at its
destination. This is a particularly effective
way to communicate with a group because you
can broadcast a message or document to everyone
in the group at once. Although different e-mail
systems use different formats, there are some
emerging standards that are making it possible
for users on all systems to exchange messages.
In the PC world, an important e-mail standard
is MAPI, which attempts to provide a universal
way of addressing messages.
Another common spelling for e-mail is email.
WHY E-MAILS BOUNCE ?
A bounced e-mail is one that never arrives in
the recipient's inbox and is sent back, or bounced
back, to the sender with an error message that
indicates to the sender that the e-mail was
never successfully transmitted. But what happens
when someone sends an e-mail out into cyberspace,
and why do e-mails sometimes bounce back? When
a user attempts to send an e-mail, he is telling
his e-mail system to look for the domain of
the recipient (for example, indianwebdesigning.com)
and the domain's mail server. Once the e-mail
system makes contact with the recipient's mail
server, the mail server looks at the message
to determine if it will let the message pass
through the server. If the recipient's server
has predetermined that it is not accepting e-mails
from the sender's address (for example, if it
has blocked the address for anti-spamming purposes),
the server will reject the message and it will
subsequently bounce back to the sender. The
message will also bounce back to the server
if the mail server on the recipient's end is
busy and cannot handle the request at that time.
When an e-mail is returned to the sender without
being accepted by the recipient's mail server,
this is called a hard bounce.
Once the e-mail has been accepted by the recipient's
mail server there are still ways for the message
to be rejected. The mail server has to determine
if the recipient (for example, webmaster@indianwebdesigning.com)
actually exists within its system and if that
recipient is allowed to accept e-mails. If the
recipient's address does not exist on the mail
server, then the message will be rejected because
there is no one to deliver the message to. If
the sender misspells the recipient's address
(for example, qebmaster@indianwebdesigning.com)
then the system will recognize this as a nonexistent
address and bounce the message back. If the
recipient exists but does not have enough disk
space to accept the message (i.e., if his e-mail
application is filled to storage capacity) then
the message will bounce back to the sender.
Some mail systems predetermine a maximum message
size that it will accept and will automatically
bounce the message if it exceeds that size and
some mail systems predetermine a maximum amount
of disk space the user is allowed to occupy
on the server. When an e-mail is returned to
the sender after it has already been accepted
by the recipient's mail server, this is called
a soft bounce. Some mail servers are programmed
to accept incoming e-mails and store them for
further analysis without initially checking
to determine if the recipient exists or is even
capable of receiving the message.
Occasionally, a network failure at the
sender or recipient end will cause an e-mail
to bounce back to the sender. Typically, a bounced
e-mail returns to the sender with an explanation
of why the message bounced.
GETTING RID OF SPAM
Spam has become ubiquitous - one of the strongest
facts of life, like taxes. Until strong anti-spam
laws are passed and actually enforced, spam
proliferation will continue because it's proven
to reach a mass audience. If it didn't work,
spammers wouldn't waste their time. Most people,
however, see spam as the scourge of e-mail and
look for ways to stop it from infecting their
e-mail boxes.
There are several ways to block spam from your
e-mail inbox. They say prevention is the best
medicine, so avoid giving out your e-mail address
to unfamiliar or unknown recipients. This has
become very difficult to do, however. Spammers
can use software programs that troll the Internet
looking for e-mail addresses, much like throwing
a net in the ocean and seeing what gets caught
in it. Nowadays it's almost impossible to shop
online without providing a valid e-mail address.
Offline stores are even asking for e-mail addresses
in exchange for discounts or free merchandise.
Realize that what they are doing is potentially
opening the door for a flood of unsolicited
e-mails. These organizations will most likely
turn around and sell their list to someone else
looking for valid e-mails. In these cases, it
might be wise to have more than one e-mail address,
one for friends, family and colleagues and another
for unfamiliar sources. There are many free
e-mail services in cyberspace to choose from.
However, also know that even trustworthy sources
may be unwittingly shelling out your e-mail
address. Ever receive an e-mail greeting card?
The sender has given your e-mail to an organization
that may very well be compiling e-mail lists
to sell to spammers.
A second way to stop spam is to use your e-mail
application's filtering features. Most e-mail
applications allow you to block specific messages.
When an offending e-mail comes in, set the filter
to block further incoming mails from that sender.
A more aggressive approach to get rid of unwanted
e-mail is to report the e-mailer to the spammer's
ISP. This is not always an easy task. First
you must determine the spam's origins. Many
of the bigger and more commercial ISPs forbid
spammers from using their services and, once
discovered, will actively ban the offending
parties from using their services. But there
are plenty of smaller ones that do not. To find
the spam's origins, instruct your e-mail program
to display all of the e-mail's header information.
View the "Received" lines, and working
from top to bottom you can often pinpoint the
origin of spam. Spammers don't typically just
send e-mails from their ISP to yours; that'd
be too easy and apparent. Instead, they channel
the e-mails through one or more ISPs in order
to obfuscate the origin, but each computer that
handles the e-mail will attach a "Received"
line to the header. There are numerous Internet
resources available for help in tracking down
the source of spam.
And "BEWARE OF FOOLING YOURSELF"
:- Don't get fooled by phrases such
as "to be removed from this list,
click here." Spammers use these
types of catch phrases to entice users to respond
to the e-mails. The spammers may or may not
remove your e-mail from their list. Either way
you have told the spammer that your e-mail address
is valid and reaches a real person. They know
this because you responded and asked them to
remove you from the list. This can actually
be more valuable to the spammers because they
can now sell your address to another spammer
with the assurance that the e-mail address is
legitimate. So you may have been removed from
one list, but there's a good chance that you
will end up on another.
Yet another good and simple way to deal with
spam is to just not be bothered by it. Accept
it as a fact of life. Delete the e-mails from
your inbox without reading them and move on
from there.
For more information on the above
topic:
Fight
Spam on the Internet
SpamAnti:
Provides information about SPAM and how to fight
it.
The
Spamhouse Project: Remove spammers from the
Internet.
Fight Spam on the Internet
:-
You have probably seen an increase in the amount
of "junk mail" which shows up in your
email box, or on your favorite newsgroup. The
activities of a small number of people are becoming
a bigger problem for the Internet. We have been
actively engaged in fighting spam for years.
Since we presented this site to the public in
1996, we have been pleased to be referenced
as one of the best anti-spam sites on the net.
Help fight spam to keep the Internet useful
for everyone. Take advantage of the information
we've gathered to make your own experience on
the Internet better.
SpamAnti :- :: Information
about spam & how to fight it ::
SpamAnti.net
is the web site developed by a somewhat isolated
Internet user to participate in fighting against
SPAM. I hope you wil find it useful.
ENGLISH
VERSION [click here]
FRENCH
VERSION [click here]
The Spamhouse Project:-
An organization that works with ISPs to identify
and remove spammers from the Internet. For more
details CLICK
HERE
In case of your any type of needs, kindly mail
us at info@indianwebdesigning.com
to get a detailed proposal for your particular
brochure project OR kindly
contact us today.
