E-mail

Electronic mail, abbreviated e-mail or email, is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. The term e-mail applies both to the Internet e-mail system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and to workgroup collaboration systems allowing users within one company or organization to send messages to each other. Often workgroup collaboration systems natively use non-standard protocols but have some form of gateway to allow them to send and receive internet e-mail. Some organizations may use the internet protocols for internal e-mail service.

Growing popularity

As the utility and advantages of e-mail on the ARPANET became more widely known, the popularity of e-mail increased, leading to demand from people who were not allowed access to the ARPANET. A number of protocols were developed to deliver e-mail among groups of time-sharing computers over alternative transmission systems, such as UUCP and IBM's VNET e-mail system.

Related Topics:
UUCP - IBM - VNET

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since not all computers or networks were directly inter-networked, e-mail addresses had to include the "route" of the message, that is, a path between the computer of the sender and the computer of the receivers. E-mail could be passed this way between a number of networks, including the ARPANET, BITNET and NSFNET, as well as to hosts connected directly to other sites via UUCP.

Related Topics:
Computer - Network - ARPANET - BITNET - NSFNET

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The route was specified using so-call "bang path" addresses, specifying hops to get from some assumed-reachable location to the addressee, so called because each hop is signified by a "bang sign" (the exclamation mark, !). Thus, for example, the path ...!bigsite!foovax!barbox!me directs people to route their mail to machine bigsite (presumably a well-known location accessible to everybody) and from there through the machine foovax to the account of user me on barbox.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Before auto-routing mailers became commonplace, people often published compound bang addresses using the { } convention (see glob) to give paths from several big machines, in the hopes that one's correspondent might be able to get mail to one of them reliably (example: ...!{seismo, ut-sally, ihnp4}!rice!beta!gamma!me). Bang paths of 8 to 10 hops were not uncommon in 1981. Late-night dial-up UUCP links would cause week-long transmission times. Bang paths were often selected by both transmission time and reliability, as messages would often get lost.

Related Topics:
Glob - 1981

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

E-mail became an increasingly important feature of work group collaboration products developed by

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

vendors such as Wang, Lotus, IBM, and Microsoft. These systems often provided enhanced e-mail features (such as file attachments, Rich Text Format, and delivery confirmation), but only when sending e-mail to other users of the same system. These systems communicated with other, non-like, systems via specialized e-mail gateways which translated one vendor's (usually proprietary) e-mail format into a form understandable by another vendor.

Related Topics:
Wang - Lotus - IBM - Microsoft - Rich Text Format - E-mail gateway

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The CCITT developed the X.400 standard in the 1980's to allow different e-mail systems to interoperate. Roughly at the same time, the IETF developed a much simpler protocol called the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) which has become the de facto standard for e-mail transfer on the Internet. With the advent of widespread use of home personal computers connected to the Internet, interoperability via SMTP-based Internet e-mail has become a critical feature for all e-mail systems.

Related Topics:
CCITT - X.400 - IETF - De facto

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1969 US Air Force users were sending text messages by keypunching cards with long text messages using one card for each 80 character line and transmitting them as card decks from one computer to another. By 1979, US Air Force users were logging onto central computers and leaving messages for government contractors and other US Air Force users to read in special file areas where their replies were often received back within hours. By the end of 1983 US Air Force users were using user names like alclark@vax1.mil to send emails between a nationwide linkup of VAX computers. By 1984 these same users were using personal computers for same.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1982 the White House adopted a prototype email system from IBM called the Professional Office System, or PROFs for the National Security Council (NSC) staff. By April 1985, the system was fully operational within the NSC with home terminals for principals on the staff. And by November of 1986 the rest of the White House came online, first with the PROFs system, and later (by the end of the 1980s) through a variety of systems including VAX A-1 ("All in One"), and ccmail.

Related Topics:
White House - National Security Council - VAX - Ccmail

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~