Email box

An e -mail account or e-mail mailbox, often Engl. E- mail account has for e-mail about the same function as the mailbox at a postal service within the framework of traditional letter mail: It preserves incoming messages until the client reads or fetches.

E- mails are sent through a global network of mail servers that are connected to each other via the Internet. To send e-mails and receive, therefore you an e -mail account is required when an e -mail provider (also: E -mail provider ). An e -mail provider has such a mail server and address its customers an e -mail mailbox, where all incoming e- mails are saved to the customer or user to this mail server.

Setting up an e -mail account

At the moment, in which the user At length a user account as access authorization in e -mail provider, the e -mail provider will set him an e -mail mailbox. Here, the user selects a user name ( often a pseudonym) and a password. Both require the user later if he wants to access his e- mail inbox, to identify itself over e -mail vendor as owner of the e- mail mailbox.

Both the username and the e -mail provider are reflected in the e- mail address, but it has the shape of contact @ domain. The right of the @ sign here is the name of the e -mail provider (more precisely: the domain name of the organization that owns the mail server), the left of the @ sign typically the user name of the owner of the e- mail account. ( Exceptions to this rule, for example, alias addresses (see below), e -mail distribution list and mailing lists dar. )

Since many providers do not check the user's identity, it is possible to adopts e- mail account under a false name. So we can at an incoming e- mail at first not sure if they actually came from the person who suggests the e-mail address as the sender.

Use and access to an e- mail inbox

The user can access the e -mails in his e- mail account using an email program, via webmail or - access to a device-specific app, depending on supports which types of access to the e -mail provider - for mobile use.

Does it have multiple e - mail accounts - be it at the same, except for different e- mail providers - so it is possible to set it up so that all of these e- mail accounts can be managed via a single. If you insert an e- mail program on his e -mail, so you have to do is add all of his e -mail account for this purpose. If one uses webmail, so we created in his favorite e- mail box a so-called POP3 collection service. In either case, all incoming in the associated e- mail inboxes e- mails appear in your Inbox.

Alias ​​addresses and disposable e- mail addresses

In an e -mail account, the owner can usually multiple e -mail addresses (" aliases " ) set up. The e -mails to all these additional e- mail addresses will be delivered in the same e- mail account such as e- mails to the first e -mail address (main address) of the e- mail account. In this way you can with different addressees communicate with different sender name, the incoming e -mails but all get together in the same e- mail inbox. The alias address can be deleted when spam e- mail which increasingly into the mailbox through them.

Disposable e- mail addresses are email addresses that are limited by time valid. These addresses are used primarily to prevent spam. They are used among others in forums, chats and other sites, where in a registration e- mail address is required. The retrieval is often done via a browser directly on the vendor's website ( webmail ), but there are also services that forward the e - mail to other mailboxes, whereby the retrieval via e -mail program is then possible. In some cases the addresses expire after a certain time or after a certain number of incoming mails by itself, in other cases they are logged off manually or simply no longer used. A similar approach is to use services like spamgourmet. A view of the received e -mail is possible for most providers in text and HTML version. Chance and the reception and downloading e- mail attachments is possible.

Security and Privacy

E -mails are stored as files on the mail server. Accordingly, they can by any administrator of the mail server - be seen - if they have not been transferred encrypted. Access to this data is only for administrative purposes permitted ( telecommunications secrecy, also compare e- mail provider ).