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As we have shown two weeks ago, email can be a very convenient tool for decent communication and in the future we will show that it can also be very secure tool if you need to send confidential information and verify its source using digital signature. But before we venture into that quadrant of space-time, we need to have a solid infrastructure in place. We start building such infrastructure with creating email server that can host virtual domains with multiple mailboxes and aliases. We will also ensure the mailboxes are accessible using common protocols and it is possible to easily administer the whole solution.

In this rant we deviate slightly from our direct path about digital communication and its security and investigate the rain forests of South America. On the verge of these forest a very interesting bird species perseveres. The giant toucan, or - in Latin - Ramphastos toco. This remarkable member of the toucan family has a lot to offer.

As mentioned in the latest posts, there are many possibilities for online communication nowadays. But what do they offer in terms of integrity, confidentiality and - let's face it - persistence? It can be argued that especially the last part is very questionable. For how long have been instant messengers or social networks in use? Not that long. Especially compared to time-tested electronic mail with its complex ecosystem. This ecosystem can actually form a basis for modern and secure communication.

It is more than appropriate to finish our mini series about messaging on the Internet with the biggest paradigm shift when the general public started to use Internet on daily basis for casual communication as well. We can only ponder whether this was for better or worse.

Last week we have discussed some of the emerging methods of communication on the early Internet. We covered the means of communication where the primary target was conveying information to single or multiple recipients and where - at least theoretically - the primary communication intent was work- or research-related. Today we see quite the opposite trend where the communication platforms are originally envisioned for free time communication and only later on the companies try to leverage them for some possible profit. If we look at the dawn of time, we can see that this is nothing new.