E-mail
The simple figure hides three important things:
- The receiver of E-mail is specified by giving the name of the target host and the name of the recipients mailbox
- The names used are separate from other host and user names
- Both mail processing and mail forwarding are missing in this picture
Most E-mail systems have a mail forwarding function that makes it possible to map E-mail addresses into new addresses and automatically redirect the message to these
The forwarding function has an associated alias function, which makes it possible to define several synonym E-mail addresses
If the alias is mapped to a set of E-mail addresses, it is a mailing list that may include addresses on other hosts
Figure 25.2 illustrates these functions