The Journey of Email

Posted by Phineas Upham

Have you ever wondered what happens to lost emails? You know, the ones your friends swear they never received? According to Michael Specter, it must end up somewhere. In the article, “Your Mail Has Vanished,” Specter reveals the fascinating journey of the email. After trying to get the answers from different companies, Specter finally found the source – AT&T. The article chronicles his journey and describes in detail the way an email travels from the sender’s computer to the recipient. He also describes two different ways in which people can track email travels from source to destination.

Through this journey he also found just how far AT&T has gone to protect its five servers. Vice President of Internet-access services at AT&T told the writer, “People need to know that their E-mail will be there tomorrow. We have done everything possible to make certain it will be, no matter what tomorrow brings. A nuclear blast would take us out, of course. But we are as close to a hardened missile site as you can get without being built into the side of a mountain.”

So why don’t some email messages arrive where they are supposed to?

Read the entire article: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1999/12/06/1999_12_06_096_TNY_LIBRY_00001969