Raj ChengappaEver wondered about the future of the post office as we know it? What set me thinking about where the ubiquitous red boxes were headed to was a question that my son, who just turned 10, asked me last week. "How do e-mails go?" he asked while I was putting him to bed.That stopped me. Given that we have been using it as a form of communication for over a decade now, it should have been an easy enough answer. But I never thought how the system really works. So I kissed him goodnight and promised to tell him the next morning.That night I sat up and looked up Wikipedia and other sites. This is the simplest answer I got: If Ram wanted to send Shyam a message he would compose it using his computer programme designated as a Mail User Agent (MUA). Ram then types in Shyamr's e-mail address and presses the send button. The programme formats his message through one of the standards known as Request For Comments (RFC) (now don't ask me why?) that specifies a syntax for the message that is being sent. It then uses a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) that transmits the message to a local Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) run by Ram's Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISP's computer programme swiftly scans the e-mail address that usually has the user name and a domain name. It then checks the Domain Name System (DNS) to find the mail exchange server for the domain. The DNS was evolved essentially to avoid a machine's numerical address. .preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}So, instead of saying 12034, we just put "india today". When Shyam opens his e-mail account through his MUA, he reads his message using the Post Office Protocol (POP3) to retrieve the e-mail from the remote server using a connection known as Transmission Control ProtocolInternet Protocol. (TCPIP).Got all this-frankly, it made me dizzy and I'm still trying to work out a simpler way to tell my son. My teachers had a far easier time explaining how I got mail through the post office. Come to think of it, post offices as we know them, face the danger of extinction as sending mails through computers and cellphones is fast becoming universal.We may soon have to find other work for our massive post and telegraph systems. Do you have any thoughts on this? Send me your suggestions at rajc@intoday.com. How else?Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 25, 2006--- ENDS ---
