Read:

1.1 What Is the Internet
1.3 Host Machines and Host Names
1.4 Bandwith, Kilobytes and Other Jargon
1.5 The Client/Server Software Model
1.6 The World Wide Web and Web Browsers

CIS160 and BOST160
Lecture 1
Page 2 of 7

 
E-mail

E-mail is a way of sending messages from one person on the Internet to another person on the Internet. The E in e-mail stands for "electronic." This is an electronic version of regular postal mail. It is one of the oldest applications of the Internet, so many people have been using e-mail since the mid-eighties.

Because of the advent of e-mail, regular postal mail is sometimes referred to as snail mail because it is so slow by comparison. I can send an e-mail to a friend in England, and provided all parts of the Internet are working smoothly, and my friend happens to be reading her e-mail at the precise moment that I send my message, I might get a response back within thirty seconds. Using regular postal mail, the same process could take weeks. Other key differences include the fact that e-mail is much less expensive to send than regular postal mail.

Next -->