Outlook replacement

[Hal Duston]

On Wed, 5 Feb 2003, Dustin Decker wrote:

> On Wed, 5 Feb 2003, Benjamin Fisher wrote:
> 
> > Well, so long as I go use outlook, I can send out to anybody.  It's
> > using SMTP as far as I can tell.  And prob. MAPI for incoming?  Hum.
> 
> Benjamin,
> I'm not sure if I misunderstand you here, or if perhaps you need help in 
> understanding how SMTP, IMAP, and POP work.
> 
> For starters, SMTP is the simple mail transport protocol.  This is the
> protocol used _between_ one mail server and another.  Unless you're hand
> crafting spam, it is highly unlikely you will ever make use of it
> directly.  The proper jargon for the server in this case is an MTA or 
> message transport authority.
> 
> POP is the post office protocol.  Generally, this protocol is used by a 
> mail reader to connect to the mail server, and retrieve all messages to 
> local storage (although it can often be configured to leave copies on the 
> server).  This protocol is also used to submit your newly composed 
> messages to the server.  The server will then use SMTP to deliver it to 
> the final destination mail server.  As you can see here, this probably 
> isn't at all what you're dealing with.

Actually (having just refreshed my memory by rereading RFC1931), I can
state that an email client _does_ in fact use SMTP to send the mail.  
POP3 has no mechanism for sending mail, only retrieving it.

Hal