Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The.client,.however,.is.the.part.of.the.e-mail.application.
that.you.see.on.your.desktop..It.can.be.Outlook,.or.a.Web-
based. client. like. Gmail.. This. is. your. interface. or. connec-
tion.to.that.back-end.server..It.is.where.you.compose.your.
e-mail. messages. and. address. them.. It. can. also. be. where.
you.input.addresses.and.contact.information.or.add.calen-
dar.items.or.tasks..But.all.of.these.are.just.forms,.exactly.
the. same. as. the. forms. we. talked. about. in. the. section. on.
databases.that.you.should.have.just.inished.(if.you.skipped.
ahead,.now.you.have.to.go.back)..In.fact,.e-mail.systems.are.
a.type.of.database.
So,. when. you. ill. in. the. “To”. form. ield. in. your. e-mail.
client,.and.then.ill.in.the.“Subject”.ield,.and.so.on,.all.of.
that.information.is.sent.from.your.computer,.as.data.in.ield.
records,.to.the.e-mail.server..The.server.then.puts.all.of.that.
information. together. into. packets . of. data,. identiies. from.
your. To. ield. data. where. you. want. the. e-mail. to. go,. and.
directs.it.out.onto.the.Internet.or.into.the.correct.tables.of.
the.e-mail.database.and.eventually.toward.that.destination.
What.happens.then.and.how.data.packets.move.around.
the.Internet.is.a.bit.beyond.the.scope.of.this.topic..But.suf-
ice.it.to.say.that.your.“client”.is.simply.your.window.into.the.
e-mail.server..As.such.it.also.serves.as.the.place.where.you.
retrieve.e-mail.messages.that.were.sent.to.you.
In.effect,.you.create.a.query,.just.like.we.talked.about.with.
databases,.every.time.you.open.your.e-mail.client.and.check.
to.see.if.there.is.new.mail..The.e-mail.server.looks.to.see.what.
new,.uniltered.e-mail.it.has.in.its.storage.with.your.name.on.
it.and.serves.you.up.a.nice.list.of.who.sent.you.e-mail.with.
the.subject.lines.and.dates.received..When.you.click.on.one.
of.those,.it.returns.the.actual.e-mail.
The.e-mail.server.is.the.key.component.for.us.to.consider.
as.we.think.about.the.location.of.electronic.information.
Even. though. you. can. access. your. own. e-mail. records.
from.your.client,.you.should.not.be.able.to.access.anyone.
else's..Again,.this.is.similar.to.the.database.model.we.dis-
cussed. above.. Access. to. the. e-mail. server. is. regulated. by.
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