mailbox (MBX)

A mailbox is a temporary storage facility for messages, comparable to an answering machine or a mailbox, in which a subscriber can store messages, data, e-mails or even programs intended for a recipient. Mailboxes are equally used for the intermediate storage of voice messages as they are executed by a voicebox, but also for e-mails and data exchange.

The recipient of the messages can retrieve them at any later time. In general, all mailboxes are protected against unauthorized access. If for voice mailboxes it is the telephone number and identifier, for e-mails it is the user name and password. For voice mailboxes, message retrieval is controlled via the dial keypad, combined with voice prompts from the network operator; for e-mails, it is controlled by downloading the e-mails received.

Each user of a mailbox has his own memory area in which he can store his messages and to which only authorized recipients have access. This storage area is provided by the network operator and can be several megabytes in size, depending on the service. Once a mailbox is released to all recipients, it is referred to as a bulletin board or bulletin board system( BBS). This is a bulletin board on which the exchange of experiences between the participants takes place.

Mailboxes are usually integrated into the telephone network or the data network and are often networked with other mailboxes.