Pro and cons

The E-Mail system possesses some pro and cons, which are specified in the following.

Authenticity and protection of contents

Most E-Mail messages are sent away in the plain language, can be read thus in principle on each computer, which the message on its way from the sender to the receiver passes. If one draws an analogy to the letter post, a E-Mail is therefore rather with a postcard comparably as with a letter protected by an envelope forwards curious views.

Likewise similarly as with a letter or a postcard and just as simple enamels with a wrong return address can be sent away, often which is to be observed for example with Spam (UCE/UBE). Destination address, CC and BCC addresses can be falsified equally (ADDRESS spoofing).

The solution for these two problems is coding and Absenderauthentifizierung. For this (among other things) the procedures PGP and its free variant GnuPG, as well as S/MIME (predominant in the B2B-Bereich) exist, which are however not yet particularly far common. Even such coding procedures cover only contents of the E-Mail, not the line for reference text or the E-Mail date. Perhaps thus conclusions on contents of a coded Mail can be drawn.

Conclusive force

Enamels have little conclusive force, since the transmitter does not have a possibility with conventional minutes and log mechanisms of proving when it which whom dispatched on and whether the receiver received the E-Mail. By an electronic signature and particularly by a qualified electronic signature however commitments can be created in right traffic (civil law, administrative law), which have existence also before court. Colloquially then of one "„digital signature "“one speaks. Obligatory setting of a time stamp is recognized under certain conditions likewise. Details are regulated in the signature law. The receipt of the message a signature cannot prove however, for this is for example one - ideal-proves likewise marked - to answer necessary. Some Dienstleister offer solutions, the signature, coding and answer automate (for example E-Mail freight service called).

Running time

E-Mail was developed, differently than for example telephone or IRC, not for contemporaneous (synchronous) sending and receiving, but is like letter post or fax an asynchronous communication medium - the transmitter can also send its message, if the receiver can receive it not immediately.

The running time of the E-Mail can represent a problem, there it - differently than for example with the fax - is not foreseeable and under unfavorable conditions strongly vary can. The fluctuations of the running time are affected by a multiplicity by parameters, particularly by the extent of utilization of the Mailsysteme involved as well as the transmission capacity that which is available for E-Mail the Mailsysteme be-being those lines. If the Mailserver of the receiver is longer not attainable, or the Mail will transfer only in large time intervals to the server of the receiver, it can quite come to running times of some days.

Absenderauthentifizierung

In the year 2004 there were different attempts to get the Spam problem into the grasp. The procedures transmitter ID von Microsoft, Sender Policy Framework (SPF) competed, DomainKeys of Yahoo! , RMX and AMTP around the favour of the conversion. An IETF working group tried to define a standard. The function mode is similar thereby with all procedures. By an auxiliary entry in the DNS it should be possible to verify the sending Mailserver. The IETF working group failed however finally because of unsettled patent claims on the part of Microsoft. The different procedures are to be converted now in own procedures as RFCs.

See also

• Mail distributor, rate time
• Netiquette, coming university University of, O.T., TOFU
• Signature, vCard
• Geekcode, MAPI, MetaEmailSearchAgent

Related links

• E-Mail headers read and understand
• RFC 2142 - Mailbox Names for Common services, Roles and Functions
• RFC 2368 - The mailto URL scheme
• RFC 2821 - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
• RFC 2822 - Internet Message format

Articles in category "E-Mail [2 / 2]"

We found here 108 articles.

Related Websites

We found here 4 related websites.

• Gmail
  Google-owned, web-based email service that includes over 2 gigabytes of storage (and growing).


• Sign In
  Sign In to Hotmail, Help. Error symbol, Please type your e-mail address in the following format: yourname@example.com. Need help signing in E-mail address: ...


• US Representative Search
  The Write Your Representative service is provided by the US House of Representatives to enable the American public to identify, and in some cases contact, ...


• Yahoo! Mail
  Take a closer look at Yahoo! Mail. Get these great features: Powerful protection against spam and viruses, 1GB of email storage, PhotoMail, message size up ...