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From: pauls@CIC.Net
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: Client-server mail protocols FAQ
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Date: 4 Dec 1995 06:00:28 GMT
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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:
<http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/softdev/blitz.html>.
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" <MWOOD@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU>]
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" <MWOOD@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU>]
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:
<http://www-camis.stanford.edu/projects/imap/ml>
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 <ecs-sales@edm.isac.ca>
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 <bforney@umich.edu>]