All about email - Part 1

by Mitch Morrison on Aug 3, 2020

This is the first of a series of blog posts devoted to email issues and how Bywater Solutions supports your Koha email capabilities. In this post, we look at the different types of emails.

In 1965, a handful of programmers developed the first system to allow users of the MIT Compatible Time-Sharing System a novel to send and receive text messages in a standard format called MAIL. In 1972 while developing ARPANET RFC 385 defined the concept of a mail file type for transfer between systems within the FTP protocol. In 1979 AT&T released UUCP which allowed various UNIX servers to connect and communicate FTP including the mapping to multiple servers. In 1982 the bulletin board network FIDONET established the ability to send messages and attachments to users of bulletin boards across the globe. As ARPANET developed into what we now call the Internet, DNS allowed for easy routing of email messages between servers allowing people with dialup internet access to send and receive mail to anyone else that could connect to the network.

What started as a project designed to allow users of a single computer system to share project updates and system messages has evolved over the years into arguably one of the most important aspects of our daily lives. Email not only is a primary communication tool but also serves as an identity source for our digital experience. Every online service, banking, shopping, social networking, entertainment sites, require you to register to use their services. To register for these services you need an email address.

Types of email

Not all emails you deal with originate from your Koha instance. Bywater Solutions provides different types of emails when you join our service. Some of these emails originate from Bywater and some originate from your Koha instance. Here is a short breakdown.

The important thing to remember is that email from your Koha instances is the email you are sending and are directly responsible for. Email from other sources is email that you are receiving and you are not directly responsible for. You have the ability to opt-out of most emails you are not directly responsible for. (Although opting out of ticket email will have a direct impact on your ability to receive support from Bywater Solutions)

Of all these emails, the ones that often run into deliverability problems are emails from your Koha to your Patrons. Next time we will look at the DNS infrastructure requirements needed to make sure your emails arrive at their destination.

More in this Blog Post Series

Read All about email - Part 2

Read All about email - Part 3

Read All about email - Part 4