Chapter 3: Internet E-Mail and Usenet Newsgroups
Electronic mail (called e-mail) is the tool you can use to send electronic correspondence to another user. Usenet newsgroups are electronic bulletin boards where you can leave or read messages pertaining to selected topics of interest.
Technically, these tools differ from the Internet and Web tools in that they don't require an Internet protocol connection to the Net. They are, however, a vital resource and service for all Internet and Web surfers. Practically speaking, e-mail and the newsgroups are the communication tools that bind the users of the Usenet and the Internet together.
In this chapter, you will read about the following:
Even with the World Wide Web growing daily, the application that makes the Internet world go around is e-mail. By many accounts, over 70 percent of the traffic on the Internet is e-mail. E-mail enables someone in Aberdeen, Maryland to communicate quickly (and cheaply) with someone in Aberdeen, Scotland. E-mail has transformed the way corporations and small businesses conduct work and distribute information. E-mail has also found many users new friends they didn't know they had.
One of the basic complaints of many Web browser users has been the lack of fully functioning support for e-mail in the browser itself. Unfortunately, e-mail support is where Web browsers have traditionally been the weakest. Until the release of Netscape Navigator 2.0, no browsers offered a decent e-mail front-end, much less a good one. With Netscape 2.0, you get a great Web browser and a good e-mail utility (see fig. 3.1). For most users, however, the best strategy is to have both a strong Web browser to navigate the Web and a powerful, but separate e-mail application to read, sort, store, and send e-mail messages.
Figure 3.1. The Netscape 2.0 e-mail window.
The closest that Web browsers come to e-mail is the use of forms found on many Web sites. Forms are HTML documents that can send fill-in-the-blank messages back to the Web server. Although you could use these HTML documents to build a true e-mail system, it would be rather cumbersome.
Most of the documents you'll find on the Web are written in HTML, which is very flexible. Not only can you use it to create documents, but you can use it to make e-mail forms, survey forms, and query forms for databases. With e-mail readers like the one in Netscape 2.0, you can create electronic newsletters in HTML format and distribute them via e-mail so readers can click on links in the newsletter to access that resource. The advantage of this is that users can receive updated newsletters via e-mail, not by accessing a Web sites. The sender of the newsletter (perhaps a software company or not-for-profit business) is controlling when and who receives the newsletter.
Forms are usually used for feedback to Web site administrators and for commercial purposes. Forms, for example, might ask you for your opinion on the Web server you're visiting or for your credit-card number when you want to buy something.
There are many things you need to know about Internet e-mail, however, that have nothing to do with the interface. No matter the look and feel of a program, there are many things about Internet mail that are true regardless of your application.
E-mail has always been better than using browser forms. It's faster, and its hardware is easier to integrate into a PC. E-mail's Achilles heel has been that it's difficult to use. If you can dial a telephone, you can learn to use a fax machine. E-mail, on the other hand, used to required expert-level computer users.
Things are changing. Today's e-mail programs make it possible for even computer novices to send messages across the hall and across the continent. Unfortunately, jumping on the Internet e-mail bandwagon still isn't easy. E-mail interfaces are far more friendly than they once were, but difficulties still abound. The following sections examine some of these concerns.
First, e-mail is not the U.S. Postal Service. Large gray areas exist in the law when it comes to privacy rights and e-mail. If you're using your company's or school's Internet system, the system owners may claim that they have a perfect right to peek into your electronic mailbox. Whether they do is still a matter that's being hashed out in the courts.
You might also have a problem with an individual snooping through your mail, which can be a serious threat. Your confidential mail, whether it's related to business or romance, is vulnerable to the online equivalent of a cat burglar.
Another problem is that someone might use your mail address to send bogus messages. In a recent case, someone sent out thousands of racist messages from a college professor's mail account.
Sounds unlikely doesn't it? Maybe not. Consider that one rude electronic note to your boss, a colleague, or a client, by someone else's handbut in your namecould prove disastrous. At the very least, turn off your Internet connection when you're not around.
To combat online peeping Toms, you must employ some security basics. First, security starts with people. An old cracker joke, that's painfully true, is that the easiest way to break into a system is to make friends with someone in the office. (And in case you are not aware of the difference, crackers are hackers with criminal intent. Hackers hack for the heck of it.)
If you want to make sure that your secrets don't walk, you can start by making sure that your pass-word isn't easy to guess, changing it on a regular basis, and not telling anyone what it is. Equally important, don't write it down on paper on or in your desk. Too many people do this, and every snoop knows it.
Another way to safeguard your privacy is to use an encryption program with your e-mail. By far the most popular of these on the Internet is Philip Zim-merman's Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). PGP encrypts your mail so that nobody but the intended recipient can read it.
You can also use PGP to sign your public messages with a unique digital signature. You use this option when you want to make it absolutely clear that you are the author of a particular message. If you want to know more about PGP, look for the FAQ in the alt.security.pgp, alt.answers, or news.answers newsgroup.
Most people find e-mail addressing to be their biggest headache. For all of e-mail's virtues, getting mail from one system to another can be monstrously difficult.
Much of this problem isn't that e-mail addressing is really that difficult. It's just that with dozens of different e-mail systems out there, it can be tricky determining which method is right for getting the mail from one specific system to another. Sending messages from user to user on the Internet, for instance, is pretty straightforward. On the other hand, sending a message from the friendly confines of the Internet to someone on America Online or CompuServe can be more complex.
The crux of this difficulty is that the "who, how, and what" of e-mail addressing is hard to come by. Most systems hide this vital information away in so-called help files. In essence, addressing really isn't the prob-lem; it's finding the address in the first place. Later in this chapter, you'll deal with this problem. For now, background information on mail addressing might help you get a feel for the issue.
No man may be an island, but e-mail systems certainly can be. Sitting alone in splendid isolation, an e-mail system can make it mindlessly simple to send a message to another on the same system. At the same time, it can be practically impossible to send messages to someone on another system.
The current concern with sending e-mail from one system to another, however, is with addressing. A typical Internet e-mail address consists of two parts: a mailbox name and a domain name. This address can be represented in many formats. For example, were I to send you a message from the Internet, my address might read:
rtidrow@iquest.net (Rob Tidrow)
or
Rob Tidrow <rtidrow@iquest.net>
Whichever way you type it, the important part is the section containing the at (@) sign. The name listing is purely an optional convenience so you'll know who's sitting behind an often cryptic address. The following address syntax, for example, works well:
The information to the left of the at sign is the mailbox address. On many mail systems, this usually is a version of your name, or, in this example, my first initial and last name.
Some mailbox names contain percentage signs (%) or periods, which usually means that the mailbox name is a forwarding address. When you send a note to a forwarding address, the address is expanded to its
full size by the receiving machine. This is frequently the solution used within an internal network. The following address, for example, sends a message to my Lotus Notes mail account, which is connected to the Internet by the mail.zd.ziff.com gateway system.
sjvn.Notes@mail.zd.ziff.com
There are fundamental problems with full names, however. Not only are some mail systems unable to deal with very long names, but some systems can't handle mixed cases in addresses. A message sent to the hypothetical mailbox, Heidi_Patton@testcase.bitnet, for instance, would generate a "nasty-gram" from the system mailer daemon (an automatic mailer program) because it couldn't figure out, or, as it is said in the business, resolve, the address.
In an address, mixed case is simply the use of upper- and lowercase letters in an address element, such as user name.
Another concern with mixed case addresses is that these addresses are usually treated precisely. If you sent a message to rtidrow@iquest.net, I would get it; if you sent one to Rtidrow@iquest.net, however, I would never see it because Rtidrow is not the same thing as rtidrow to most mailers. To prevent confusion, most users go with e-mail names, or handles, in all lowercase letters. You would be wise to adopt the same convention.
On the right side of the address is the domain address (iquest.net in this case). At the extreme right, you'll find the top-level domain. Other ele-ments in this section of the address are referred to as subdomains. These work just like the Internet site addresses you looked at in the last chapter.
Domain addresses normally resemble the U.S. Postal Service system of addressing. The more specific address elements come first, and the more general ones come last. There are thousands of .com sites (commercial sites), for instance. The next subdomain, as you move closer to the at sign, tells you more specifically where the user's e-mail account can be found. Table 3.1 shows how postal addresses are similar to Internet e-mail addresses:
Table 3.1. RFC822 Addressing
Postal Address |
|
Rob Tidrow
|
rtidrow@
|
123 Some Street
|
well
|
New York, New York 21202
|
iquest or sf.ca
|
USA
|
net |
There are two exceptions to address ordering. In the United Kingdom and New Zealand, some mailers read the address in reverse. These systems expect to see something like the following:
example@uk.cambridge.csdept
Fortunately, most modern mailers can handle either address form.
You'll notice that there can be more than one subdomain, which can represent geographic entities, as you can see from the Well address with San Francisco, California in table 3.1. A subdomain can also represent a particular computer in a network or a department inside a larger business or organization. For example, an address may read as follows:
sjvn@vna.digex.net
In this case, vna is a single computer within the larger digex organization. This is an especially popular addressing scheme in university communities where addresses such as test@history.mit.edu are common.
You might occasionally bump into mailbox names with dashes (-) in them. These are almost always mailing list addresses.
A mailing list is simply a single mail address that corresponds to a list of other e-mail addresses. Thus, when you send a message to a mailing list, the mes-sage is automatically forwarded to all the people on the list. Mailing lists are used for everything from keeping college friends in touch with one another, to students of heraldry, to serious discussions of the C++ computer language.
If a list's subject matter sounds interesting to you, you can usually ask to be added to the list by sending a message to the following address:
listname-request@domain_name.system_type
Note that the word "request" is critical. If you send a message to the list itself, which is what would happen if the address didn't include "request," everyone on the list would get your message. Soon thereafter, you would get mail from many people on the list telling you not to bother them with your requests.
For instance, if you want to join the mailing list devoted to Traveler, a science-fiction role playing game, you'd send a message to the following address:
traveler-request@engrg.uwo.ca
Other lists use programs to manage their lists. These lists will have mailbox names such as listserv, majordomo, listproc, and mail-serv. Each of these uses a slightly different method to place you on a mailing list. To find out how to join a list, send a message to the list management program consisting simply of the word "help."
Once you're on a list, you'll automatically get all mail sent to the list, including any mail you send. Some systems also enable you to set up your own lists. Check with your Internet provider to see if it's possible. Small lists are easy to maintain and can be invaluable for keeping people with common interests in contact.
The one common name with a hyphen that is not a list is MAILER-DAEMON. Whenever you get a message from MAILER-DAEMON or a similar name, it's almost always an error message from the mail-handling program, or, as they're known in the trade, a mailer.
There are too many Internet e-mail interfaces to go into much detail on how to use them. Nevertheless, here are the basics for using the Netscape e-mail manager in Netscape Navigator 2.0. Check your manual or your Internet provider's help desk for more information.
You can start the Netscape e-mail manager by using the Netscape Mail option in the Window menu in Netscape. When you do this, a new window displays that is the e-mail manager. (If you have not configured your e-mail preferences first, you'll need to configure them now using the Mail and News Preferences option in the Options menu.) The e-mail window looks like the one in figure 3.2.
Figure 3.2. The Netscape e-mail manager window has three panes to help you manage and read your e-mail messages.
Notice how the window is broken into three panes. These panes are described in the following list:
The panes in the e-mail window can be resized by moving the thick bar separating each window with your mouse. You may need to do this if you can't read information in one of the panes. Usually, the top left pane (mail folders pane) does not need to be very large.
An element of the e-mail window that you'll want to get used to using is the toolbar. By moving your mouse over a button and holding it steady for a second or two, a tooltip displays, telling you the name of the button. At the same time, in the status bar at the bottom of the screen, you'll get a longer description of the tool's use. The primary toolbar button you'll use is the New message button and the Reply button. These buttons enable you to create a new e-mail message and reply to a message that you've selected.
To create a new message, select the New message toolbar button or select File, New message. The message composition window displays (see fig. 3.3). From here, you can click on the To: button and select users to whom you want to send the message. You can do the same for CC: (carbon copied) recipients by using the CC: button. In the Subject line, enter a title for the message.
In the message text area at the bottom of the screen, enter your message. As a form of courtesy, you should not use ALL UPPERCASE lettering unless you want to mimic SHOUTING. All-uppercase messages are difficult to read, and seasoned e-mail readers will assume you are yelling at them and will be annoyed.
Figure 3.3. You create new messages in the message composition window in the Netscape e-mail manager.
After your message is created, you can send it by clicking on the Send button or selecting File, Send Now. If you are online when you create the message, Netscape sends the message over the Internet to the recipient (unless you requested Netscape to spool your messages first). If you are not online, Netscape will display your dial-up software window letting you know you need to connect and log into the Internet before your message can be sent.
To read more about using the Netscape e-mail manager, click on the Help window and select Handbook. If you are online, you will connect automatically to Netscape Communications' Web site and can select from a variety of help topics. If you do not use Netscape for your e-mail package, consult that individual's help system or look for information in books or online.
When sending mail, there are several problems that often trip up users. If you avoid these common mis-takes, you'll be on your way to using intersystem e-mail successfully.
Binary files, like programs and word processing files, can't be sent through ordinary e-mail. There are two ways around this: Multipurpose Internet Mail Exten-sion (MIME) and uuencode. Both translate binary files into formats that can be sent through mail. MIME is easy to use, but it can only be used if you have a MIME-capable mail program and can't be used to transfer binary files at all to address outside the Internet proper.
Uuencode, in contrast, is difficult to use, but can be used with most mail programs and, if your receiver has the right software, can send binary messages to users on Usenet systems. For more information, check your software documentation.
Figure 3.4. Internet white pages can be useful, such as this one from Four 11, but they don't have complete listings, and their records are quickly outdated.
After you've gotten the hang of Net addresses, they're easy to use. You can also use Internet mail to send mail to users on other networks or online services. For the address format for several popular online services, see table 3.2.
Table 3.2. Online Service Address Formats
Service Name |
Address Format |
America Online
|
user_name@aol.com
|
CompuServe
|
user_number@compuserve.com *
|
Delphi
|
user_name@delphi.com
|
Microsoft Network
|
user_name@msn.com
|
Prodigy
|
user_number@prodigy.com
|
* To send mail to CompuServe users, use a period instead of a comma in the user number.
|
What do you do if your Web browser does not include an e-mail utility, or if you don't prefer the one the browser has? You get a stand-alone e-mail program, of course.
There are several things you should look for in a mail program.
Figure 3.5. Eudora might be freeware, but it includes several advanced features such as mail folders, signature files, and binary transfer capacity.
Another e-mail program you might try is available from Microsoft, called Microsoft Internet Mail (see fig. 3.6). This program is a stand-alone program that Microsoft lets you download and use for free. Internet Mail features an easy-to-use interface with customizable folders to store messages, an address book to add frequently used e-mail addresses, and a message composition window that lets you add a signature file and attached files to your outgoing messages. You can download Internet Mail from http://www.microsoft.com.
Figure 3.6. Microsoft's Internet Mail program is easy to use and is free.
Now that you're grounded in e-mail, it's time to move on to Usenet newsgroups. Like mail, you'll be using an editor to write messages to people. With newsgroups, however, you'll be sending to large groups of people, not just an individual or the folks on a mailing list.
Usenet newsgroups are collections of messages on a single topic, or as closely related as anything can be in the formalized anarchy known as the Internet. For instance, whether you're a fan of the Irish singer Enya, Windows 95, or (like me) both, there's a news-group for you.
Usenet groups, along with parts of the Internet e-mail system, define the Usenet. Any system that gives users access to newsgroups is part of the Usenet. Any particular system, however, will not carry all Usenet newsgroups. The defining point is not how manyit's whether the system lets you access Usenet news at all.
With thousands of topics, tens of thousands of networked computers, and hundreds of thousands of readers, it doesn't take much to turn Usenet reading into drudgery rather than a joy. There's invaluable information hidden away in Net news; the problem is finding it.
Besides pure volume, Usenet newsgroups have other problems that make them difficult to read. The most common of these are flaming and spamming. Flaming occurs when people start arguing online, and the argument goes from disagreement to insults. These online battles can go on forever. The best solution to a flame war is to walk away.
Spamming is when someone sends the same message to numerous newsgroups. It is barely tolerable when the same message is sent to related newsgroups, but it's totally unacceptable when the same message, or a slight variation, is sent to unrelated groups. In two words: Don't spam. Send your message only to the most appropriate newsgroup.
Don't fall prey to the temptation of subscribing to interesting but non-essential newsgroups. You could spend your entire life reading and writing to newsgroups if you subscribe to too many.
Similar to the way some Web browsers include e-mail utilities, some also include news readers. Most Web browsers let you access newsgroup view the Web browser window but you cannot respond to or post new messages to the newsgroup. You can simply read them. Mosaic 2.1, for instance, includes the news reader shown in figure 3.7. You can read, reply to, and create new messages using this utility.
Figure 3.7. The latest version of Mosaic includes a strong newsreader feature.
Even with Web browsers that include more powerful newsreaders, you might want to acquire a separate newsreader that does a better job of handling news-groups. When you go shopping for a news interface, there are several features you should look for. First, the interface must be capable of threading messages. In threading, messages are presented to you in conversational order. For example, if you read a conversation between John and Liz about the Web, you would see their responses one after another as their "conversation" continues.
Some news programs only display messages in chronological order, which is something entirely different. In this arrangement, you see the messages only in the order that they were written. This means you would find it much harder to read Web discussions because dozens of other messages might be interposed between the messages you want to read.
The chronological order method is used by most Web browsers with any news-reading capabilities. As you can see in figure 3.8, one Web browser, Netscape, can handle threaded news discussions.
Figure 3.8. Netscape 2.0 includes a great newsreader.
A great feature of the newsreader in Netscape 2.0 is its capability to handle binary files. If a message includes an attachment, such as a graphics file, you can view the image in the newreader window without saving the file to your hard disk and unencoding the file first.
If you want a more sophisticated newsreader, you might want to get a newsreader program such as Fortes Free Agent. The key to enjoying newsgroups is managing the incredible flood of information that roars through them.
Similar to its Internet Mail program, Microsoft recently released a newsreader program called Internet News. Internet News includes an interface similar to Internet Mail, with two main panes. One pane includes message headers, and the other includes the body of the subject. Internet News enables you to view newsgroup articles, compose new articles, respond to articles, and subscribe to newsgroups. One nice feature of Internet News is its Options dialog box (select News,Options), which enables you to configure Internet News and customize it to your specifications. You can, for instance, have Internet News spell-check your articles before posting them and specify how often the news server is checked to see if any new articles have been posted to newsgroups to which you are subscribed. You can download Internet News from http://www.microsoft.com for free.
Newsgroup articles, for example, often have what's called a header. In the header, you'll find useful infor-mation, such as the subject of the message, and some not-so-useful information, such as the number of lines in the message.
Some newsreaders, such as NetManage's AIRNews, let you organize your newsgroups into newsgroup sections. That way, you can have your set of news-groups for fun, when you have the time for them, and another set for business, which you always turn your attention to.