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How Email Works

Page 1 : Preparation and Connect to the Internet

Here's a brief tour of how email messages transfer over the Internet, from one country to another a thousand miles apart.

Preparation

For most people, the only way to connect to Internet is through your local Internet Service Provider (ISP). There are many methods for you to access your ISP. They are mainly :

  • Use a Dial-Up Line
  • Use a Leased Line or Dedicated Line
  • Use Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

In this tutorial, we are using the firstmethod (Dial-Up Line) to connect to the Internet.

Connect To Your ISP

Most ISP provide some local telephone numbers for you to log on the internet. You open the dial-up software and call your ISP. Your modem converts the signal from your computer to signals that can travel over the telephone lines to your ISP. Actually, when you are using a local telephone number with your modem, you are just calling another modem at the ISP site. After the telephone number is put through, there is about 10 seconds "hissing sound". This process is called Handshaking, meaning that the modems are seeking for a highest connecting speed. Upon accepting your call, the ISP modem then configured to assign your computer a temporatory unique address. This unique address is called IP address. This IP address becomes your virtual identification on the Internet. Your computer also becomes a virtual host on the internet.

Since your computer has a unique IP address, this enable files from other computers on the internet to download to your computer directly.

Connect To The Internet

The servers on your ISP are connected to the Internet, so you are connected to the Internet now ! Most servers on ISP are using T1 or T3 Line connect to the Backbone of Internet. However, the servers on some smaller ISP are connected to other larger ISP.

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