The basic electronic mail standards were established in 1982. They allow sending messages that contains only 7 bit characters. Later in 1992, a MIME standard was approved. It allows sending messages that contains 8 bit characters; also it allows sending various multimedia objects. Unfortunately, even at present time problems of sending national characters exists, because programs don't meet some requirements of MIME standard and supports only some character sets.
This article analyses requirements of MIME standard related to sending 8 bit characters. Results of testing various electronic mail programs are presented in this article. They demonstrate usability of programs to send national characters.
Characterisation of electronic mail software and the list of programs, which are best suitable for sending Lithuanian texts, are presented in conclusions.
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