Path: news1.ucsd.edu!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!newsfeed.internetmci.com!chi-news.cic.net!news.cic.net!locust.cic.net!pauls From: pauls@CIC.Net Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.answers,news.answers Subject: Client-server mail protocols FAQ Supersedes: Followup-To: comp.mail.misc Date: 4 Dec 1995 06:00:28 GMT Organization: CICNet, Inc. Lines: 323 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Distribution: world Expires: 01/08/96 01:00:03 Message-ID: Reply-To: pauls@CIC.Net (Paul Southworth) NNTP-Posting-Host: locust.cic.net Keywords: FAQ MAIL POP IMAP X-Posting-Frequency: posted on the 4th of each month Originator: pauls@locust.cic.net Xref: news1.ucsd.edu comp.mail.misc:18766 comp.answers:13001 news.answers:50564 Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.2 Archive-name: mail/mailclient-faq Mini FAQ on client-server mail protocols ---------------------------------------- $Id: mailclientfaq.1,v 1.19 1995/09/11 17:57:58 pauls Exp $ This is a mini FAQ covering client-server mail protocols, available software packages, and pointers to sources and FAQs. To get something included in it, email it to me. -- Paul Southworth CICNet Systems Support pauls@cic.net A. Servers 1. Where can I get a POP server? 2. Where can I get a IMAP server? 3. What's the difference between POP and IMAP? 4. What are the relevant RFCs for POP and IMAP? B. Clients 1. Where can I get a POP client? 2. Where can I get a IMAP client? A Servers 1. Where can I get a POP server? For Unix: The "qpop" distribution is a direct descendent of the UCB "popper" and should be used instead of the UCB popper package since popper hasn't been maintained in 2+ years. qpop supports many platforms and also supports Kerberos IV. It is maintained by Qualcomm, makers of the popular Eudora POP client. ftp.qualcomm.com:/quest/unix/servers/popper The IMAP distribution contains the ipop2d and ipop3d servers (in addition to imapd) which are POP2 and POP3 respectively. The IMAP distribution has also been ported to many platforms. ftp.cac.washington.edu:/imap/imap.tar.Z BlitzMail is Dartmouth College's freeware client-server Internet e-mail system (supports POP3 and POP password changing protocol). More information about BlitzMail can be found at: . ftp.dartmouth.edu:/pub/mac/BlitzMail/Export Pop3d is a POP server produced by Katie Stevens at the University of California, Davis. It has apparently not been maintained in some time, and has not been widely ported. Notes indicate that it was coded based on RFC1225, which has been obsoleted by RFCs 1460 and 1725 since pop3d was released. ftp.ucdavis.edu:/unix-public/pop3d.tar For OpenVMS: There is a free OpenVMS POP3 server available in ftp://ftp.indiana.edu/pub/vms/iupop3. [Thanks to "Mark H. Wood" ] For Macintosh: MailShare runs on the Macintosh, and supports SMTP and POP services. For information: http://www.winternet.com/~carl/mailshare/mailshare.html To download: ftp://ftp.winternet.com/users/carl For Windows: WinSMTP is an SMTP/POP3 server for Microsoft Windows (and NT). For information: winsmtp@wildside.kwnet.on.ca To download: ftp://ftp.metrics.com/smtp For Windows NT: Net Shopper offers NTMAIL which supports SMTP and POP. For information: http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/software/mail.htm For Netware: Mercury Mail supports SMTP and POP3 running on a Novell Netware server. risc.ua.edu:/pub/network/pegasus/mercXXX.zip (XXX = version, current = 121) 2. Where can I get a IMAP server? For Unix: The Washington IMAP distribution is the most widely used IMAP server. Widely ported and easy to install. Includes POP2 and POP3 servers as well. ftp.cac.washington.edu:/imap/imap.tar.Z The Cyrus IMAP server differs from other IMAP server implementations in that it is generally intended to be run on "sealed" servers, where normal users are not permitted to log in. The mailbox database is stored in parts of the filesystem that are private to the Cyrus IMAP system. All user access to mail is through the IMAP, POP3, or KPOP protocols. For information, http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/cyrus/cyrus ftp.andrew.cmu.edu:/pub/cyrus-mail For OpenVMS: Innosoft International, Inc. includes POP2, POP3, and IMAP2 servers in their PMDF email package, which runs on OpenVMS. [Thanks to: "Mark H. Wood" ] 3. What's the difference between POP and IMAP? Terry Gray's "imap.vs.pop" document in the IMAP distribution describes this in detail. Stealing from that document: With POP (Post Office Protocol), mail is delivered to a shared server, and a personal computer user periodically connects to the server and downloads all of the pending mail to the "client" machine. Thereafter, all mail processing is local to the client machine. Think of POP as providing a store-and-forward service, intended to move mail (on demand) from an intermediate server (drop point) to a single destination machine, usually a PC or Mac. Once delivered to the PC or Mac, the messages are typically deleted from the POP server. IMAP is a client-server mail protocol designed to permit manipulation of remote mailboxes as if they were local. With IMAP, mail is again delivered to a shared server, but the mail client machine does not normally copy it all at once and then delete it from the server. It's more of a client-server model, where the IMAP client can ask the server for headers, or the bodies of specified messages, or to search for messages meeting certain criteria. Messages in the mail repository can be marked as deleted and subsequently expunged, but they stay on the repository until the user takes such action. Need more? Go read the document yourself. It's stored on ftp.cac.washington.edu:/mail/imap.vs.pop 4. What are the relevant RFCs for POP and IMAP? On ftp.uu.net:/inet/rfc For POP3: 1734 Myers, J. POP3 AUTHentication command. 1994 December; 5 p. (Format: TXT=8499 bytes) 1725 Myers, J.; Rose, M. Post Office Protocol - Version 3. 1994 November; 18 p. (Format: TXT=35058 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1460) 1082 Rose, M. Post Office Protocol: Version 3: Extended service offerings. 1988 November; 11 p. (Format: TXT=25423 bytes) For IMAP: 1733 Crispin, M. DISTRIBUTED ELECTRONIC MAIL MODELS IN IMAP4. 1994 December; 3 p. (Format: TXT=6205 bytes) 1732 Crispin, M. IMAP4 COMPATIBILITY WITH IMAP2 AND IMAP2BIS. 1994 December; 5 p. (Format: TXT=9276 bytes) 1731 Myers, J. IMAP4 Authentication Mechanisms. 1994 December; 6 p. (Format: TXT=11433 bytes) 1730 Crispin, M. INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4. 1994 December; 73 p. (Format: TXT=156660 bytes) 1203 Rice, J. Interactive Mail Access Protocol: Version 3. 1991 February; 49 p. (Format: TXT=123325 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1064) 1176 Crispin, M. Interactive Mail Access Protocol: Version 2. 1990 August; 30 p. (Format: TXT=67330 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC 1064) 5. Where can I find more about available IMAP software? ftp.cac.washington.edu:/mail/imap.software B. Clients 1. Where can I get a POP client? For Unix: The Rand Mail Handler supports POP. ftp.ics.uci.edu:/pub/mh POP3 support has been added to mailx. ftp.cic.net:/pub/Software/unix/mail/popmail.shar.gz Popclient is a simple POP mail retrieval client for U*ix. It supports the POP2 and POP3 protocols, and compiles/runs under a fairly wide variety of systems. ftp.mal.com:/pub/pop For Emacs: The "vm" elisp package supports POP for emacs (versions 18 and 19 are supported). ftp.uu.net:/networking/mail/vm For MSDOS: Pegasus Mail supports POP. risc.ua.edu:/pub/network/pegasus/pmail322.zip Minuet is the successor of UMinn "popmail". It supports POP (as well as gopher, NNTP, and ftp protocols). boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/pc/minuet For Windows: Eudora works under Windows and Windows NT. ftp.qualcomm.com:/quest/eudora/windows Windows Pegasus Mail supports POP. risc.ua.edu:/pub/network/pegasus/winpm201.zip For Macintosh: Eudora works on the Mac (PPC versions too). ftp.qualcomm.com:/quest/eudora/mac POPMail II is another. archive.umich.edu:/mac/util/comm/popmailiiX.XX.sit.hqx (X.XX = version) Macintosh Pegasus Mail supports POP. risc.ua.edu:/put/network/pegasus/pmmac212.hqx 2. Where can I get an IMAP client? For Unix: The popular "pine" mail package is probably the most widely used. ftp.cac.washington.edu:/pine/pine.tar.Z For X/Motif: ML is an IMAP mail client for the X Window system using the Motif toolkit. It provides advanced mail processing features as well as being easy to use for "the masses". Statically linked binaries for ML are available on both the SunOS and Solaris platforms (as well as a few other systems). The ML home page with pointers to all of the distribution stuff is at: camis.stanford.edu:/pub/ml/ml.tar.Z For X/Athena: XLView is an IMAP based mail program for the X window system. The name is derived from one of the fundamental features of the program, "Logical Views". A logical view is in essence a filter which is applied to a mailbox, and looks just like a mailbox, but only contains messages which match the defined filter rules. XLView is designed for heavy-duty mail processing and interaction, but is also easy enough for the un-trained to use effectively. XLView takes full advantage of the X window system to do things you just can't do from a TTY based mail interface. You can do a whole lot of things at once. You can simultaneously work with different mailboxes (on different servers), access different logical views of any of these mailboxes, and each message read and compose action is done in its own self contained window, allowing you to (for instance), start a letter to a friend, deal with a work emergency involving several messages, and resume it at a more convenient time, or even work on it in during the other correspondence. camis.stanford.edu:/pub/xlview For MSDOS: Pine works on MSDOS too. ftp.cac.washington.edu:/pine/pcpine The PCPINE versions go like this (from the README) There are five versions of PC-Pine: o DOS: FTP Inc's PC-TCP file name: pcpine_f.zip o DOS: Novell's LAN Workplace for DOS file name: pcpine_n.zip o DOS: Sun's PC-NFS file name: pcpine_s.zip o DOS: WATTCP/Packet Driver file name: pcpine_p.zip For Windows: Pine works on Windows too. It works, but it ain't purty. Uses WINSOCK. ftp.cac.washington.edu:/pine/pcpine/pcpine_w.zip ECS Mail is a Windows-based IMAP client. 2.5 is the most recent full release. 3.0 is in beta testing and will support more platforms. This is commercial "for-pay" software only. Contact: ECS Sales Phone: +1 403 420 8081 For Macintosh: POPMail II supports IMAP2. See above under Mac POP clients. Mailstrom is a Mac IMAP client. Seems to like to crash a lot on some systems. I hear it's on Info-Mac but I've never actually been able to get on that mythical archive site, so we'll try at Washington: ftp.cac.washington.edu:/imap/mac Mail Drop is a Macintosh IMAP client written by Carl Bell of Baylor University, available at: ftp://ackmo.baylor.edu/pub/bell/Mail_Drop/Mail_Drop.hqx. [Thanks to Brian Forney ] .