Thornbury U3A Computer Club – Mike Farquhar July 2014

how email works…

• You need an email address• All email addresses have the same format:

A@B• …it’s the @ that tells you it’s an email address• The “A” bit is unique to you and is generally

chosen by you• The “B” bit is the internet address of your email

provider (may be the same as your ISP)• Example:computerman@btinternet.com

how email works… Types of Account

• You can get email addresses of (generally) 2 types..

• From your ISP, e.g. mikef@btinternet.comThis is OK whilst I am a BT customer but when I change ISP I have the trauma of loosing my email address and having to find another.

• Free email addresses e.g. mikef@gmail.comI can have this forever.

how email works…

how (personal) email works…

• There are agreements (Rules or Protocols) about how the system will work.

• SENDING MAIL• All mail systems use a system called Simple Mail

Transfer Protocol, SMTP, to send their mail to their mailserver….1. The user (or Client) writes an email2. The software on the clients computer sends this email

using SMTP to his own Mail Server3. That Mail Server sends it on to the correct destination Mail

Server and it goes into the mailbox with the corresponding email address.

how (personal) email works…POP3• In the old days (10 years ago!) all mail systems*

used a Protocol called POP3 to receive their mail….

• RECEIVING MAIL• When the Recipient decides to see if there is

any mail for her – she uses her client software to ask her Mail Server if there’s any mail using her email address as her credentials. The Mail Server finds the mail in her mailbox and copies it down to her client computer and deletes it from the Mail Server (this is POP3)

how (personal) email works…

• But this is no good. We’re in the modern world – I have an iPod, an iPad, a laptop or two, a desktop computer and a smart phone.

• All these can send and receive email and I don’t want my mail transferred and split among half a dozen systems!!

• We need another PROTOCOL – it’s called IMAP

how (personal) email works…IMAP

• IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol) works in (more or less) the same way as POP.

• The difference is that the user can have multiple clients accessing the mailbox on the Mail Server.

• The email messages are left on the server and will only deleted by an explicit instruction by one of the clients.

how (personal) email works…WEBMAIL

• WEBMAIL, or web-based email.• Most Mail Servers provide an interface for

clients which can be accessed by a web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Google Chrome)

• The main advantage of using webmail is that connection to your mailbox is (potentially) available from any browser anywhere in the world.

POP3 vs IMAP vs WEBMAIL

Email clients

• The email clients we usually encounter are:1. In Windows XP, Outlook Express2. In Windows Vista, Windows Mail3. In Windows 7 and 8, Windows Live Mail*

• Alternatives to all of the above, irregardless of Windows version, are:1. Thunderbird2. Microsoft Outlook3. …and one that John Mason is going to talk about!

Log in to Windows Live Mail

Has your Email been hacked?7 Things You Need to do NOW

1. Recover your account2. Change your password3. Change your recovery information4. Check your related accounts5. Let your contacts know6. Start Backing Up7. Learn from the experience

…and…8. If you’re not sure, get help9. Share this whole article http://askleo.com/hacked