One of the earliest (and certainly most popular) methods of communicating via the web, Email allows people and companies to send billions of messages daily in a variety of ways – including but limited to: personal correspondence; business communications; verifying accounts on various websites; and notifying the user of changes made to their account or service. While it may seem like sending an Email happens instantaneously; there are many Systems and Technologies that interact with one another to provide each Email with its own delivery path. Understanding the way Email operates will allow users to have a greater appreciation for the infrastructure that supports Modern Digital Communication.
The Basic Concept of Email
At its most basic level, email works in much the same way as regular mail. The writer (sender) writes an email with the intended recipient’s address included and sends it via the internet to the recipient’s mailbox (inbox). However, unlike mail which has to be physically delivered, emails are sent electronically via the internet by utilizing special protocol(s) for sending the message and mail servers for directing where the message should be sent.
Step 1: Writing and Sending the Email
The process of sending an e-mail starts with the end-user composing a message via either a desktop email program (such as Microsoft Outlook) or by utilizing a web-based email platform such as Hotmail, Gmail, AOL or Yahoo.
Once the user selects the send button on their e-mail application, it transfers the message to an outgoing mail server via the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).
SMTP is the protocol that will transport the email message from the sender’s e-mail provider to the recipient’s mail server.
Step 2: SMTP Transfers the Message
The outgoing mail server then looks at the sender’s email address and determines where the email should be sent. If the email is being sent to [email protected], the outgoing mail server has to find the mail server that manages the domain.com domain.
To do so, the server does a DNS search for an MX record (MX stands for Mail Exchange). An MX record in DNS tells the sending server which mail server handles incoming email for a particular domain.
Once the correct server is found, the SMTP protocol then sends the message to the mail server through the Internet.
Step 3: The Receiving Mail Server Accepts the Message
Once the sending mail server has sent a message to the receiving mail server (via SMTP), the receiving mail server will store the message until the recipient opens it.
At that point, the message may go through some additional filtering before it goes into the user’s mailbox on the receiving server.
These filters are designed to check incoming messages for spam; malicious attachments; and suspicious links. This helps prevent phishing, malware and other types of unwanted messages from being delivered to recipient’s email accounts.
Once these filters have cleared the message, the receiving mail server will add the message to the user’s mailbox on their account.
Step 4: Retrieving the Email
After an e-mail has been saved on the mail server, the recipient can then access the message using their email client. The two most common methods for accessing your messages are:
POP3 (Post Office Protocol): POP3 pulls messages off of the server onto your computer or mobile device, usually after that message has been pulled down, the message will be deleted from the server.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): IMAP syncs the messages across all of your devices; therefore, you can check your inbox on either your smartphone, computer, or tablet.
Because with IMAP you can access your e-mails from anywhere, at anytime, this makes IMAP much more popular than POP3.
The Role of Email Servers
Email Servers are key to this whole process. Email Servers have all your emails stored on them, they send and receive emails for you and they also house your mailbox.
The largest email service providers have extremely large and complex server infrastructure (with thousands of machines) to deal with the massive amount of email traffic flowing through their systems every second. This infrastructure is what enables emails to be delivered rapidly and dependably around the world via the Internet.
Spam Filters and Email Security
Spam Filters are one of the most important aspects of Email Security and are used by all modern Email Systems to provide a level of protection for the end user.
The primary function of a Spam Filter is to examine each message received before it reaches the recipient’s inbox to identify any patterns of potential fraud, malicious links, or known spammers.
Each filter uses its own combination of Blacklist/Whitelist information, Machine Learning Algorithms, and Content Analysis to determine if a message will be sent directly to the recipient’s Inbox, routed to a Spam Folder, or completely blocked.
Authentication Technologies like SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) also play a significant role in protecting users by providing ways to validate that messages were sent by legitimate senders and that they were not modified while in transit.
Temporary Email and Message Delivery
Temporary email services use basically the same type of email infrastructure as regular email services. Emails to temporary addresses come into a user’s standard mail server and then get placed into a user’s temporary inbox so they can access it.
Services like Evap Mail also give users a chance to create a temporary email address to receive verification messages or confirmations of accounts that don’t need an actual permanent email account to register on a website or use some other service.
This is great because the temporary mailbox will be deleted after it has served its purpose so users do not have to worry about giving out their main email address to potential spammers or unwanted senders.
Why Email Remains Important
The use of emails has become a vital part of how we interact with each other via the Internet, despite the growing popularity of social media and mobile messaging applications. Emails are still the primary form of interaction used by consumers when creating accounts, recovering passwords, communicating with businesses, or receiving digital notifications.
The open standard and global architecture of email allows for seamless communication between multiple service providers, making email one of the most reliable forms of communication available to users via the Internet.
Final Thoughts
Sending an e-mail can be done in only a few seconds. Behind the scenes are a combination of technologies that work as a team to send e-mails from the sender to the recipient. These technologies are SMTP server, spam filter, retrieval protocol and DNS lookup. Each one of these technologies have their own role to play in getting your message delivered to the correct person.
Knowing how to get an e-mail sent helps you understand the infrastructure that makes up the modern way of communicating digitally on the internet. Whether you use it for personal communications, business communications or account verifications, e-mail is a big part of our lives on the web.