Mail Protocols Overview

The following guide attempts to give a basic understanding of many of the protocols and concepts involved with sending Internet mail, including SMTP, POP, IMAP, messages, and MIME. This guide DOES NOT attempt to demonstrate usage of PowerTCP Mail for .NET. For information of this type, see either the topic Using PowerTCP Mail for .NET or Assembly Overview.

In This Section

Email Beginnings: Discusses the origin of Internet email and the advent of SMTP.
SMTP Protocol Overview: Discusses some of the inner workings of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
POP Protocol Overview: Discusses some of the inner workings of the Post Office Protocol.
IMAP Protocol Overview: Discusses some of the inner workings of the Internet Message Access Protocol.
Basic Message Structure: Discusses the elements that comprise a basic email message.
MIME Overview: Discusses the need for and the implementation of Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.
S/MIME Overview: Provides an overview of S/MIME.

Related Sections

Getting Started: Provides an overview of the product, and discusses topics related to distribution, licensing, and support.
Using PowerTCP Mail for.NET: Demonstrates how to create a project and add the PowerTCP components.
Mail Protocols Overview: Summarizes the mail protocols.
Detailed Use of the Mail Components: A more in depth description on the use of the components.
Using Interactive Tools: Demonstrates how to use the included interactive tools to help make debugging and testing quicker and easier.
Assembly Overview: Provides a language/syntax reference for PowerTCP Mail for .NET
Samples: Describes the samples that are installed with PowerTCP Mail for .NET.

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Documentation version 3.1.