Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 17:57:18 -0400 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> To: Joe Clarke <marcus@marcuscom.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: config for POP3 mail Message-ID: <3B29333E.E393F8C3@iowna.com> References: <20010614171915.G5238-100000@shumai.marcuscom.com>
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I don't know if what I'm going to add will be helpful or not, but I get the idea the original poster is confused as to exactly what an MTA & MUA are. If so, these two links should help out a bit: http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?query=mua&action=Search http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?Message+Transfer+Agent A little more on the relationship: The MUA is the user interface that you would work with (In M$ terms, this would be Outlook or Outlook Express) The MTA is the server program that handles delivery of the mail to it's destination mailbox(es). M$ Exchange server is an MTA. Common Unix MTAs are sendmail, postfix and qmail. Now, POP3 is an animal slightly out of kilter with the rest. To understand why POP3 doesn't fit in, you have to know some history. In the original Internet mail system, you didn't have POP3, because you would log into a shell (on a remote server) and pick up your mail from the mailbox it had been delivered to by the MTA. With the dominance of Microsoft and the advent of cheap dialup connections, people needed a way to access email that had already been delivered without logging in to a server. IOW: they wanted to _download_ already delivered mail from a server to a local "client" machine. That's what POP3 is for. POP3 doesn't really fit into the MTA/MUA paradigm, but most modern MUAs are able to use POP3 to download mail just as easily as they would access it if the MTA had delivered it locally. IMAP is kind of like POP3 on steroids. It's sort of a replacement for POP3, doing everything POP3 did, plus adding abilities such as shared folders (and others). fetchmail is a nifty program designed to grab mail from a POP3/IMAP server and deliver it locally so an MUA thinks it was delivered locally by an MTA. (fetchmail can do many other groovy things as well, but you can research that on your own) So fetchmail is sort of a MTA with the plumbing reversed. Another place where this gets confusing is that programs like Outlook and Outlook Express have 1/2 an MTA built in for SENDING mail (not receiving). Most Unix MUAs don't have half an MTA built in and rely on an MTA being installed that they can give mail to in order to be sent. (usually, but not always, sendmail) What happens is you use the MUA to compose the email, then the MUA hands your email to the system MTA and asks it to deliver it for you. Hope this helps, Bill Joe Clarke wrote: > > If your MUA supports POP, then that will transfer mail from your mail > server to your local machine. A dedicated MTA is not needed for this. > > The way I do it is use pine to check email on an IMAP server. I have > filters setup on the mail server to filter my mail from freebsd-* > appropriately. Pine then knows how to check the multiple mailboxes. > > I have also used /usr/ports/mail/fetchmail in the past to pull email off > of a POP3 server, and deliver it locally. fetchmail is _very_ > configurable, and works well for dialup connections. > > I guess it depends on your connection to your mail server as to what > method you'll prefer. If you have a on-demand link, the fetchmail > alternative might be the way to go. If you have a dedicated connection, > using IMAP or POP right out of your MUA would save you the extra setup > hassle. > > Joe Clarke > > On Thu, 14 Jun 2001, Cynic wrote: > > > Hi there, > > > > coming from the NT world, I'm a bit baffled by the unix > > distinction of MUA's / MTA's. So, if someone can kindly > > confirm (or explain if I'm wrong) a few things, I'll be more > > than happy. > > > > If I get this right, one can use a MUA (like mutt, pine, etc) > > to read mail on their IMAP server, or in their local mailbox. > > If one has a POP3 account, they'll need an MTA to deliver > > mail from their POP3 server to their workstation (or, local > > mailbox), where it can be read using an MUA. Same with > > sending mail -- if you have an IMAP account, you're off with > > just an MUA, but need an MTA with a POP3 one. > > > > Right or wrong? :) > > > > I'm ignoring the setup of the server, here, the frebsd machine > > is just a workstation, where I want to be able to handle my > > email just like in windoze. > > > > Basically, I would very much welcome a link to an explanation > > of this stuff for a win32 user. Seems like this is an area > > where the terms I'm used to don't translate easily. (what the > > heck is multidrop? :) I guess this confusion mostly comes from > > the fact that while win32 mail software uses the kitchen-sink > > approach (one app fetches, sends, views, filters into folders, > > and notices you of new mail), unices make mail no exception to > > their set-of-specialized-tools attitude. > > > > Also, if you can recommend a setup... I recieve ~200 messages > > a day mainly from several busy mailing lists. Seems like I could > > use e. g. getmail to fetch email and sort it into folders upon > > retrieval, right? > > > > TIA > > > > > > cynic@mail.cz > > ------------- > > And the eyes of them both were opened and they saw that their files > > were world readable and writable, so they chmoded 600 their files. > > - Book of Installation chapt 3 sec 7 > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message -- If a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, then what can I get for two hands in the bush? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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