IMAP And POP Mailers Make E-Mail Easy

Open Internet Standards Explained IMAP: The Internet Message Access Protocol 4 is a server-oriented drop-and-store mail protocol. It is designed to facilitate online and offline mail management equally. Clients do not have to maintain messages or folder structure. ·X.500: An international standard for distributed global directories consisting of many individual servers responsible for their own content. X.500 is rather difficult to set up and maintain, but it is a complete directory capable of powerful searches and relational queries. ·X.500 DAP: The access protocol for X.500 directories. This gave rise to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) because X.500 DAP is complicated and difficult to use. ·LDAP: LDAP directories c an have much the same directory structure as X.500, but they are often easier to access and maintain. ·PH (CSO nameserver/Internet Phone Directory): PH wa s developed by the Computing and Communication Services Office at the University of Illinois. It is widely supported by educational institutions and businesses and easy to use; however, entries are keyed only on the name or alias field. PH is not as flexible as X.500 DAP- or LDAP-based directories, but it is easy to set up and maintain. ·Proprietary: Many LAN-based mail systems, such as Microsoft Exchange and Mail and Lotus cc:Mail, have their own directory databases and access protocols. These are often closed systems and are hard to incorporate with the Internet. But the latest versions of the proprietary systems, such as Notes, GroupWise and Exchange, are jumping on the LDAP bandwagon. ·POP3: Post Office Protocol 3 is a client-side mail protocol designed to facilitate offline operation. Messages are downloaded to the client and manipulated there. ·SMTP: The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is used by both POP and IMAP to "send" mail. SMTP originated because of the expanse of the Internet and the need for a mechanism that would transfer mail from host to host through as many servers as necessary. Typically, only the organization and destination SMTP hosts are involved in mail transfers. ·Whois and Whois ++: Similar to PH, Whois and Whois++ use structured data objects known as templates. Newer features included in Whois++ include authentication and multilanguage support.

Updated July 10, 1997