Configuring Email Service

CONFIGURING EMAIL
SERVICE
1 ITP4112 Network and Virtualized Systems
Administration Project
ELECTRONIC MAIL
Allows message to include text, audio and video,
one message to one / many recipients

Configuring Email Service

Email system architecture
Useragent (UA)
Message transfer agent (MTA)
Message access agent (MAA)

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FIRST SCENARIO
When the sender and the receiver of an e-
mail are on the same system, we need only
two user agents.

Configuring Email Service

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SECOND SCENARIO
When the sender and the receiver of an e-
mail are on different systems, we need two
UAs and a pair of MTAs (client and server)

Configuring Email Service

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THIRD SCENARIO
When the sender is connected to the mail
server via a LAN or a WAN, we need two
UAs and two pairs of MTAs (client and

Configuring Email Service

server).

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 FOUR SCENARIO (1)
When both sender and receiver are
connected to the mail server via a
LAN or a WAN, we need two UAs, two

Configuring Email Service

pairs of MTAs and a pair of MAAs.

This is the most

common situation
today. 6
FOUR SCENARIO (2)
1. Bob cannot bypass the mail server and use
MTA server directly

Configuring Email Service

2. Bob needs another pair of client/server
programs, message access program, to pull the
message from server

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USER AGENT (1)
User agent types
Command-driven E.g. mail, pine, elm

Configuring Email Service

GUI-based E.g Eudora, Outlook, Netscape
Sending Mail
User, through the UA, creates mail with an envelope
and a message

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USER AGENT (2)
Envelope contains sender & receiver addresses
Message contains header and body

Configuring Email Service

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USER AGENT (3)
Receiving Mail
User agent is triggered by the user (or a timer)
If a user has mail, the UA informs the user with a

Configuring Email Service

notice
Email Address unique

Mailing List - alias to represent several

different email addresses 10
USER AGENT (4)
Email can send messages only in NVT (Network
Virtual Terminal) 7-bit ASCII

Configuring Email Service

It cannot be used for
languages such as French, German, Chinese and
Japanese.
sending binary files or video or audio data
Solution : Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
(MIME)

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MESSAGE TRANSFER AGENT (1)
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
2 pairs of MTA client/server programs are used

Configuring Email Service

in most common situation

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MESSAGE TRANSFER AGENT (2)
SMTP uses commands and responses to transfer
messages between an MTA client and MTA
server

Configuring Email Service

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MESSAGE ACCESS AGENT (1)
SMTP is NOT involved in the last stage because a
push protocol, MAA, is needed

Configuring Email Service

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MESSAGE ACCESS AGENT (2)
Post Office Protocol, version 3 (POP3)
Internet Mail Access Protocol, version 4 (IMAP4)

Configuring Email Service

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POP3 (1)
Simple
Client POP3 is installed on the recipient
computer, server POP3 is installed on the

Configuring Email Service

mail server
Client opens a connection to the server on
TCP port 110
It sends username and password to access
the mailbox
2 modes
Delete mode mail is deleted from mailbox
after retrieval
Keep mode mail remains in mailbox after 16
retrieval
POP3 (2)
Exchange of commands and responses

Configuring Email Service

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IMAP4
More powerful and complex
Extra functions

Configuring Email Service

User can check the email header prior to
downloading
User can search the contents of the the email for a
specific string of characters
User can partially download email
User can create, delete, or rename mailboxes on
server
User can create a hierarchy of mailboxes in a folder
for email storage

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WEB-BASED MAIL
E.g. Hotmail and Yahoo
Mail transfer from sender to mail server by

Configuring Email Service

HTTP
Mail transfer from the sending mail server to the

receiving mail server by SMTP

Mail transfer from the receiving server to
receivers browser by HTTP

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 Post Office

Mailbox

Configuring Email Service

Post Office POP3/IMAP4

M TP
S

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