MAP04: E-MAIL
"I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that
were worth the postage." -- Henry David Thoreau
I think I have the oldest e-mail program in history. I would not be
shocked to learn that my VM Mailbook program was written by the ancient
Greeks (or by my campus' squirrels). Actually, I recently received an
e-mail from the author of my mail program in which he said, "I am not a
Greek." So, let me clarify: VM Mailbook is a GREAT mainframe mail program,
but unfortunately what the University of Alabama's version of VM Mailbook
does not have is a spell-checker, so a few typos are bound to slip through
in these posts. Please accept my deepest apologies for this. :)
Almost all e-mail programs have similar, universal functions. The problem
is that different e-mail programs use completely different commands to
access these functions. (Example: to reply to the author of a current
message using the ELM or PINE e-mail programs, you type the letter "r"; to
do the same function in the VM Mailbook program you have to hit the PF5
key).
I am not going to be able to discuss all of these functions, but what sort
of functions do most e-mail programs have in common? Well, most mail
programs have functions that will allow you to:
- Access and read your incoming mail,
- Save incoming mail in a file,
- Print incoming mail,
- Send new messages,
- Reply to a message,
- Include a file in a mail message, and
- Import/export special objects into/from your mail.
Depending on your e-mail software, these functions are either easy or
difficult ... but nearly always possible.
With all of the different e-mail programs out there, and with all of the
different commands required to run each program, how are you ever going to
find out what commands are right for YOUR e-mail program? Easy! Ask your
local e-mail service provider! This may shock you, but almost every mail
provider offers some sort of instruction sheet or file that will teach you
how to use the e-mail program that your provider is running. All you have
to do is ask!
I want to take a moment to show you how to read an Internet address. I
have to admit that when I first started learning how to use e-mail, I was
intimidated by the length of Internet addresses. However, once I learned to
read the addresses BACKWARDS -- from right to left -- Internet addresses
ceased to be a thing of mystery.
The first e-mail address I ever had was
PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU
Every Internet address has three parts -- a user name, an "at" sign (@),
and the address of the user's mail server. In this example, my user name
was PCRISPE1 (and stop laughing -- there is nothing funny about
"p-crispy-one"), and my mail server's address was UA1VM.UA.EDU
The mail server address (the UA1VM.UA.EDU part of the above example) is
actually called the "domain name," and it is based on something called an
Internet Protocol (or IP) address. Each server connected to the Internet
has a numerical IP address. The IP address is four sets of numbers
separated by periods. (For example, the IP address for the mail server that
I am using at the University of Alabama is 130.160.4.100).
Fortunately, the powers that be realized that people remember NAMES better
than they do numbers, so they created the Domain Name System (DNS). The
Domain Name System associates each numerical IP address with an
easier-to-remember DNS name. (For example, thanks to the Domain Name
System, the IP address 130.160.4.100 becomes the much easier-to-remember
UA1VM.UA.EDU).
You may run into IP addresses from time to time when you are FTPing or
telnetting (we will talk about both of these tools in a few weeks). Just
remember that an IP address (the four sets of numbers separated by periods)
is simply another way to write a domain name, and you will do fine. Both
IP addresses and domain names should work equally well.
Anyway, back to the "p-crispy-one" example. Remember that my domain name
was UA1VM.UA.EDU? Well, as I said earlier, the best way to read an
Internet address -- and, for that matter, a domain name -- is from right to
left. Domain names are broken down as follows:
EDU Educational sites
COM Commercial sites
GOV Government sites
NET Network administrative organizations
MIL Military sites
ORG Organizations that don't fit into other categories
(usually not-for-profit organizations)
INT International Organizations
SU Soviet Union (Yes, there is still a Soviet Union, at
least on the Internet -- as Thomas Dowling pointed out,
"they're keeping their options open")
FR France
CA Canada
... (other countries have their own country codes)
There is also a new country code that you are going to start seeing more
and more in the months ahead: US. The US country code is for local, state,
and national government agencies, schools, libraries, museums, and
institutes in the United States.
Anyway, since my old domain name has an EDU at the end of it, we now know that
UA1VM.UA.EDU is the domain name for some educational site in the United
States. But where?
The rest of the UA1VM.UA.EDU domain name lists the "subdomains" that tell
you where my old mail server was actually located. UA is the University of
Alabama, and UA1VM is the name of my mail server's machine.
So, PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU is the Internet address for someone named
"p-crispy-one" (stop laughing!!) at some U.S. educational site. Further
investigation shows that the site is at the University of Alabama, and that
the machine which "p-crispy-one" used was called UA1VM.
Actually, I recently changed my e-mail address from PCRISPE1@UA1VM.UA.EDU
to CRISPEN@CAMPUS.MCI.NET, but you can still reach me through my old
"p-crispy-one" account :)
Another sample Internet address: W.V.BRAUN@HQ.MSFC.NASA.GOV
Okay, reading this right to left, we see a GOV. That means it's a U.S.
government address. I think we all know what NASA is -- the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration. Unless you are a big NASA fan,
however, you probably do not have the slightest clue what MSFC stands for
(it is the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama).
HQ is pretty self-explanatory: Headquarters.
So we know that W.V.BRAUN@HQ.MSFC.NASA.GOV is the address of some person
named W.V.BRAUN whose mail server is at the Headquarters of the Marshall
Space Flight Center, and that the Marshall Space Flight Center is part of
NASA, which itself is part of the U.S. government.
What can you determine from the Internet address
IKE@SACEUR.PENTAGON.ARMY.MIL
A lot, especially if you are a history buff, and if you know that "SACEUR"
is the military abbreviation for Supreme Allied Commander- Europe. By the
way, both the W.V.BRAUN and IKE addresses are fake. Dr. Von Braun and
President Eisenhower never actually had e-mail addresses.
The best rule of thumb I can give you about Internet addresses is this: if
the address is not in the form described above and does not end with one of
the standard top-level domain abbreviations or country codes, the address
is NOT an Internet address. You may still be able to send mail to
non-Internet addresses through a gateway, though.
HOMEWORK:
Today's homework is completely optional. Remember though, please do not
send your homework assignments to me. :)
1) I want you to find the following two commands for your mailer:
- the command that allows you to delete an e-mail letter without
having to read the letter
- the command that allows you to delete an e-mail letter after
you have read the letter
You will soon discover that these two commands are the most
important, and most used, e-mail commands.
2) If you have "Level Two" or "Level Three" connectivity and are on a
UNIX, VAX/VMS, or VM system, there are three files I want you to
GET from the InterNIC's LISTSERV file server (see last MAP02:
LISTSERV FILE SERVER COMMANDS for a review of the GET command).
The files are from Richard Smith's "Navigating the Internet"
workshop, and Richard was kind enough to give me permission to use
them in this workshop.
The first file covers the basic e-mail commands for the UNIX,
VAX/VMS, or VM systems. The second file covers the commands to
send e-mail, and the third file covers the reply function.
Remember when using the GET command that your commands must be sent
to the LISTSERV address, not to the list or to me. Replying to the
letter that you are reading right now will *NOT* work.
UNIX USERS: VAX/VMS USERS:
filename filetype filename filetype
UNIX1 FILE VMS1 FILE
UNIX2 FILE VMS2 FILE
UNIX3 FILE VMS3 FILE
VM USERS:
filename filetype
VM1 FILE
VM2 FILE
VM3 FILE
You will have to use three GET commands (one for each file), but
you can put all three GET commands in one letter. For example, if
I wanted to get all three VM files, the body of my letter would
look like this:
GET VM1 FILE F=MAIL
GET VM2 FILE F=MAIL
GET VM3 FILE F=MAIL
PLEASE REMEMBER TO SEND YOUR GET COMMANDS IN THE *BODY* OF AN
E-MAIL LETTER TO LISTSERV@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET (REPLYING TO THIS
LETTER WILL *NOT* WORK).
3) If you are not on a UNIX, VAX/VMS, or VM system -- or if you are not
sure what sort of system you are on -- contact your local Internet
provider and ask for some information on how to use your mail
program.
In particular, you should ask for information on how to:
- access your e-mail program
- open and read an e-mail letter sent to you
- save an e-mail letter to a file
- print an e-mail letter
- send a new e-mail letter to someone
- reply to an e-mail letter sent to you
- include text in a reply (and how to edit this text)
You probably know how to do most of these things, but it never
hurts to review them from time to time.
4) If you would like to get a list of all of the Internet Country
Codes, use the GET command to get the file COUNTRY FILE from the
InterNIC's LISTSERV file server.
(\__/) .~ ~. ))
/O O ./ .' Patrick Douglas Crispen
{O__, \ { The University of Alabama
/ . . ) \ crispen@campus.mci.net
|-| '-' \ } http://www.ua.edu/~crispen/
.( _( )_.'
'---.~_ _ _& Warning: squirrels.
ROADMAP96: COPYRIGHT 1996 BY PATRICK DOUGLAS CRISPEN.
To unsubscribe from ROADMAP96, send a new e-mail letter to
LISTSERV@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET with the command SIGNOFF * in the body of
your e-mail letter. To subscribe to ROADMAP96, send a new e-mail
letter to LISTSERV@LISTS.INTERNIC.NET with the command SUBSCRIBE
ROADMAP96 YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME in the body of your e-mail
letter, replacing YOURFIRSTNAME and YOURLASTNAME with your first and
last names.
The views, opinions, and conclusions reached in this lesson are those
of Patrick Douglas Crispen and not necessarily those of The University
of Alabama or its officers and trustees. The content of this lesson
has not been reviewed or approved by The University of Alabama, and
the author is solely responsible for its content.