1. Internet Messaging IN500Version 1.0/23-03-09

2. Topic • An introduction to the various messaging options that one can find on the Internet today

3. Internet Messaging • Messaging systems on the Internet exchange messages for the purpose of human communications • Wikipedia stating the obvious

4. General types of messaging systems • Typical messaging systems you might come across • Common • Electronic Mail • Instant Messaging • Older/Unusual • News Groups • Online Chat

5. Electronic Mail • Ubiquitous system for communications • Took a long time to be adopted • Used by many instead of the postal service • Replacing traditional mail/fax services • Can send mail to one or more recipients • Can carry multiple items in each mail message

6. Electronic Mail • Corporate email systems have many features that allow the users to share information and store more details (like a calendar) • Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes, Novell Groupwise • Public email systems allow people to have an email account for free • gmail, yahoo, msn, isp

7. Sending electronic mail • Basic email • to • subject • Body • Optional • cc • bcc • Attachments • Features • spell check • formatting

8. Receiving electronic mail • Basic fields • from • to • sent • cc

9. News Groups • News groups have largely been replaced with other methods of discussion and dissemination of information • When news groups were common news servers existed at most ISP or large sites and would distribute new articles to other remote news servers • Messages are in groups and moderators control the content (and the flames) • Google has a cache of the most common news groups

10. Online Chat • Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was one of the most common forms of online chat • Multiple servers connecting together to allow users to participate in large forums • IRC is still alive and well • IRC chat now is often used for more dubious tasks now (e.g. controlling botnets) • Need a client to connect to the IRC servers (mirc is a widely used client)

11. Instant Messaging • Instant messaging (IM) allows users to exchange immediate short messages (or files) with their friends • As simple as phone call (or SMS) to make • Must add friends • Online friends appear in your contacts list where you can send messages to them • Some IM services can be accessed from cell phones

12. Twitter (latest messaging tool) • Like IM is to email, twitter is to blogging • For quick updates • Followers are notified of your updates • One can update a line or two to a webpage on the twitter site and followers are notified of that update • Updates can be a phone or desktop app