Mail Server

Fitri Setyorini

Content

• SMTP

• POP3

• How mail server works

• IMAP

Electronic Mail: OverviewThree major components:

user agents, mail servers, SMTP User Agent– a.k.a. “mail reader”– composing, editing, reading mail

messages– e.g., Eudora, Outlook, elm,

Netscape MessengerMail Servers – mailbox contains incoming

messages for user– message queue of outgoing (to

be sent) mail messages– use SMTP protocol between

mail servers to send email messages

• client: sending mail server• “server”: receiving mail

server gmail?

user mailbox

outgoing message queue

mailserver

useragent

useragent

useragent

mailserver

useragent

useragent

mailserver

useragent

SMTP

SMTP

SMTP

SMTP

• uses TCP to reliably transfer email message from client to server, port 25

• direct transfer: sending server to receiving server

• three phases of transfer– handshaking (greeting)– transfer of messages– closure

• command/response interaction– commands: ASCII text– response: status code and phrase

• messages must be in 7-bit ASCII

Electronic Mail: a common scenario1) Alice uses UA to compose

message and “to” bob@someschool.edu

2) Alice’s UA sends message to her mail server; message placed in message queue

3) Client side of SMTP opens TCP connection with Bob’s mail server

4) SMTP client sends Alice’s message over the TCP connection

5) Bob’s mail server places the message in Bob’s mailbox

6) Bob invokes his user agent to read message

useragent

mailserver

mailserver user

agent

1

2 3 4 56

Electronic Mail: more on SMTP

• SMTP uses persistent connections• SMTP requires message (header & body) to be in 7-

bit ASCII• SMTP server uses CRLF.CRLF to determine end of

message

Electronic Mail: message format

SMTP: protocol for exchanging email messages

RFC 822: standard for text message format:

• header lines, e.g.,– To:– Date: – From:– Subject:– Message-ID:different from SMTP

commands!Read $MAIL

• body– the “message”, ASCII

characters only

header

body

blankline

Electronic Mail: MIME (multipurpose Intnet mail extensions)

• MIME: multimedia mail extension, RFC 2045, 2056

• additional lines in msg header declare MIME content type

From: alice@crepes.fr To: bob@hamburger.edu Subject: Picture of yummy crepe. MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 Content-Type: image/jpeg

base64 encoded data ..... ......................... ......base64 encoded data

multimedia datatype, subtype,

parameter declaration

method usedto encode data

MIME version

encoded data

Electronic Mail: MIME typesContent-Type: type/subtype;

parametersText• example subtypes: plain, html

Image• example subtypes: jpeg, gif

Audio• example subtypes: basic (8-bit mu-law encoded), 32kadpcm (32 kbps coding)

Video• example subtypes: mpeg, quicktime

Application• other data that must

be processed by reader before “viewable”

• example subtypes: msword, octet-stream

Electronic Mail: mail access protocols

• SMTP: delivery/storage to receiver’s server, “push”• Mail access protocol: retrieval from server, “pull”

– POP: Post Office Protocol [RFC 1939]• authorization (agent <-->server) and download

– IMAP: Internet Mail Access Protocol [RFC 1730]• more features (more complex)• manipulation of stored msgs on server• Originally designed more for connected operation

– HTTP: Hotmail , Yahoo! Mail, WebMail

useragent

sender’s mail server

useragent

SMTP SMTP accessprotocol

receiver’s mail server

POP (Post Office Protocol)

• POP is used to retrieve mail for a single user, typically the POP server has access from database email messages created by an SMTP server.

• POPv1 is launched on October 1984. It was published in RFC 918.

• POPv3 is the recently standard

• POP use port 110

How POP3 Works

• The server host starts the POP3 service by listening on TCP port 110.

• A client establishes a TCP connection with the server host.

• When the connection is established the server sends a greeting.

• The client and the server exchange commands and responses until the connection is closed or aborted.

• The server can respond with a positive status sending "+OK" to the client or with a negative status sending "-ERR" to the client (both in uppercase).

• Authorization stateIn this state, the client sends identification to the server. This is implemented in two ways (More information on authentication is described in RFC 1734):- Using USER and PASS commands- Using APOP command

• Transaction stateIn this state, the client can issue commands for listing, retrieving, and deleting. Please note that the deleting action is not taken in this state. The client must send the QUIT command and then the server goes to the update state.

• Update stateIn this state, the server updates the mailbox according to the commands received from the client in the transaction state and the TCP connection ends. If the connection is broken for any reason before the quit command is received from the client, the server does not enter the update state.Thus, the server will not update anything.

Difference between POP3 and IMAP

• POP3 works by reviewing the inbox on the mail server, and downloading the new messages to your computer.  IMAP downloads the headers of the new messages on the server, then retrieves the message you want to read when you click on it. 

• When using POP3, your mail is stored on your PC. When using IMAP, the mail is stored on the mail server. Unless you copy a message to a "Local Folder" the messages are never copied to your PC.

Konfigurasi Postfix pada main.cf

• myhostname = mail.jerapah.com• mydomain = jerapah.com• myorigin = $myhostname• inet_interfaces = all