Open Source Email SMTP Servers written in Java PHP dotnet .net c# .net c++ for sending cheap unlimited email
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Wednesday, October 10, 2012
smtpserver.in - Free Multiple Subject Switch to and one letter can have multiple subjects and switches on one by one basis to improve you inbox ratio.
Free Multiple Letter Switch to improve you inbox ratio.
Free IP Switcher to improve you inbox ratio.
Free Spam Keyword Checker in you letter or subject.
Free Unsubscribe Manager
Free Inbuilt Bounce Processer
@Mail Server - @Mail can help streamline your business messaging solutions, provide your customers an improved Webmail platform, and offer you a reliable and stable email-server infrastructure.
Provide your customers an improved Webmail interface for their existing POP3/IMAP account. Offer more then the standard open-source or simple Webmail interface that any ISP can provide, give customers an improved Webmail platform for their personal or business email account. WebMail usage is growing and traditional mail-clients are becoming less reliant; bring customers back to your ISP portal to access email-resources using Webmail, and add further value to your ISP offerings.
ArGoSoft Mail Server - ArGoSoft Mail Server is full SMTP/POP3/Finger/IMAP server for all Windows platforms, which will let you turn your computer into the email system. Even though, it is loaded with features, It is very compact, takes about 1-5 Mb of disk space (depending on the version), does not have any specific memory requirements, and what is the most important - it's very easy to use.
Currently, we have three different versions of Mail Server: freeware, Plus and Pro.
AXIGEN Mail Server - AXIGEN Mail Server smoothly integrates SMTP/POP/IMAP and WebMail, offering unique configurability and security that allow system dministrators to have full control of the email traffic.
AXIGEN Mail Server is a carrier class messaging solution, backed up by first rate tech support. Our product comes in three editions, each tailored according to customer needs.
CapeSoft Email Server - CapeSoft Email Server is a compact POP3 & SMTP Server for medium or small businesses and home environments. It's easy to use and provides full control over email mailboxes, aliases and domains. Upgrades are free. The number of mailboxes are not limited so you don't have to pay again as your company grows or your needs increase.
Built for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows NT4, Windows 98 & Windows 95.
CMailServer - CMailServer, a small and easy-to-use mail server software and web mail server software, will help you build your own mail server over Internet. It enables you to send and receive emails across the Internet or within the LAN and has support for client email applications such as Outlook, Eudora etc. Also supports Hotmail-like web mail service. The web mail function is based on ASP scripts. So you can customize your web mail interface freely. It also supports multiple domain names and SMTP authentication.
Complete Mail Server - Complete Mail Server is high-performance professional SMTP/POP3 server software engineered for corporations and ISPs to satisfy business needs in ultra fast, flexible and reliable mail server. It works along with any email program or mailer and offers a lot of security features and options to allow you to protect the server from the outside and restrict the SPAM activity. In case of parallel mail processing, Complete Mail Server can be installed on several computers while the common message queue and user mailboxes can be kept on separate dedicated computers.
You can assign specific configuration for each installation to facilitate email messaging in your organization. Friendly user interface of the program can be installed separately from the SMTP and POP3 services to give you ability to manage each of the server installations from a single PC. The SMTP and POP3 services can work as NT services and will keep working in the log-off mode. The special test mode is provided for software debugging and testing purposes that you can use to check if your email clients work properly.
Courier Mail Server - The Courier mail transfer agent (MTA) is an integrated mail/groupware server based on open commodity protocols, such as ESMTP, IMAP, POP3, LDAP, SSL, and HTTP. Courier provides ESMTP, IMAP, POP3, webmail, and mailing list services within a single, consistent, framework. Individual components can be enabled or disabled at will. Courier now implements basic web-based calendaring and scheduling services integrated in the webmail module. Advanced groupware calendaring services will follow soon.
Courier's source code should compile on most POSIX-based operating systems based on Linux, and BSD-derived kernels. Courier should also compile on Solaris and AIX, with some help from Sun's or IBM's freeware add-on tools for their respective operating systems.
Email Component & Email Server Solution - EASendMail Service is a light and fast email delivery service which works with EASendMail SMTP .Net Component / ANSMTP SMTP Component to enable your application to send mass emails in background service.
Along with its ability to picking recipients from database in background and sending email in specified datetime, it eases your task in developing featured email application especially newsletter application.
Email Server FAQ - An FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) format that we hope will be useful. Our knowledge relates primarily to mail servers in general use, although the information offered here should cover almost any mail server. We welcome feedback and comments from any readers on the usefulness or content.
All aspects of the Internet are constantly changing. We are providing the best information available to us as at date of writing and intend to update it at frequent intervals as things change and/or more information becomes available. However we intend this FAQ as a guide only and recommend that users obtain specific information to determine applicability to their specific requirements. (This is another way of saying that we can't be held liable or responsible for the content).
EmailArchitect Email Server - EmailArchitect Email Server is a full featured windows email server which supports SMTP/ POP3/ IMAP4/ LIST/ SSL/ HTTP/ Webmail protocols. It provides you a total email solution with high quality at low cost.
It supports most popular email clients such as Outlook, Netscape Mail, etc... It also provides remote administration/webmail access via EmailArchitect Web Access Interface and powerful built-in rbls/anti-spam/anti-virus module.
Enterprise Mail Server - Enterprise Mail Server is a high-performance SMTP/POP3 server program designed for large enterprises and Internet Service Providers where having an ultra fast and reliable mail server is vital. It can be used along with virtually any mailer or email program; it is simple, light-weight, powerful and absolutely bullet-proof. It has a lot of security features and options that allow you to protect the server from DDoS attacks as well as safely block SPAM and spammers. Another great feature is that Enterprise Mail Server can be installed on several computers while the common message queue and user mailboxes can be kept on separate dedicated PCs. This will definitely facilitate email messaging in your organization. The user interface of the program is flexible and can be installed separately from the SMTP and POP3 services. This will give you an ability to manage all your servers from a single PC where only the user interface of Enterprise Mail Server is installed. The SMTP and POP3 services work as NT services therefore they will keep working in the logoff mode. For software debugging and testing purposes, the program has a testing mode you can use to check if your email clients work correctly. After you enable the testing mode, the server will accept your email messages, store them in the queue but will not deliver them to the actual recipients. As a personal solution, it is ideal for laptop PC users who travel a lot and have to use different Internet Service Providers (ISP) on the run. Using Enterprise Mail Server, you will never encounter a sending problem wherever you connect your PC to a network or phone socket.
Eudora Internet Mail Server (EIMS) - 3.2. is an Internet-based email server for the Macintosh platform. If you're running an electronic messaging system on the Macintosh, there's no better solution than EIMS.
As of December 2001, EIMS has been licensed back to its original author and programmer, Glenn Anderson. Glenn will now be handling all sales and technical support for version 3.1 and later.
QUALCOMM will continue to support EIMS 2.x and 3.0.
Eudora Internet Mail Server 3.2 - Eudora Internet Mail Server (EIMS) 3.2 is the latest version of the popular Internet mail server for Macintosh. If you need to handle email for a dozen users, or thousands of users, EIMS is a reliable and easy to use solution.
EIMS 3.2 is available for US$400.00, there are no limits on the number of users that can be added, and free email support is included.
Existing EIMS 3.1.x users can upgrade to EIMS 3.2 for US$60, existing EIMS 3.0.x users can upgrade to EIMS 3.2 for US$90, existing EIMS 2.x users can upgrade to EIMS 3.2 for US$180.
eXtremail - eXtremail is a Unix mail server. It actually supports three protocols used on Internet electronic mailing systems: SMTP, which stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, and is the responsible of transferring the contents of the email form the sender to the final recipient. POP, in its third version -POP3-, and stands for Post Office Protocol, which is the protocol used by MUA, Mail User Agents or mail clients, to retrieve the contents of the email. IMAP, in its forth version -IMAP4-, which stands for Interactive Mail Access Protocol, and is an alternative protocol for retrieving mails from the MUA, less used that POP3 but increasing lately though.
FTGate 4 Groupware Mail server - FTGate4 is a powerful Windows(TM) communication suite that combines exceptional mail handling facilities with comprehensive Groupware functionality. Its security and collaboration features were developed in conjunction with leading ISP's and define a new era in mail server performance.
High performance eXtensible email server - There is no single e-mail solution that fits every individual need. XMS was built to adapt to every e-mail infrastructure requirement. Engineered in the latest release of Java 1.5 (J2SE 5), XMS is one of the first sixty four (64) bit e-mail servers.
Unlike any competitor, XMS allows for the addition of features, as you need them, through extensions. Extensions are powerful tools used to create additional Java e-mail server functionality to fulfill special needs. Extensions can also be produced by ActivSoftware programmers and many other third party programming firms.
hMailServer - hMailServer is a free, open source e-mail server for Microsoft Windows. It supports all the common e-mail protocols (IMAP, SMTP and POP3) and comes with an easy-to-use COM library that can be used for integration with other software. It also has supports for virtual domains, distribution lists, antivirus, antispam, aliases, distributed domains and much more. E-mail data is stored in a database server, MySQL or MS SQL, depending on your choice.
The hMailServer installation contains a minimal MySQL-installation, so if you don't already have a database server in your network, MySQL is installed automatically when you install hMailServer.
Interchange Email Server - Infinite InterChange is a server-based application that integrates seamlessly with any IMAP4 (Internet Messaging Access Protocol Version 4), POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3), SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol), Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus cc:Mail, Lotus Notes, or Connect2 based e-mail system, or a mixed environment containing multiple protocols. Infinite InterChange also integrates with the underlying directory systems of these e-mail systems, including LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is used to ensure secure access.
ITHouse Email server - ITHouse Email server software is a standard Internet POP3, IMAP and SMTP server web mail, anti virus, anti spam, SMTP Server, freeware, sharerware, business, education, hosting, hotfixes Groupware Server, that runs flawlessly under It is aggressively priced, robust, user friendly Email Server and full featured. The IT House Email Server will connect to the Internet using any type of connection, including a dial-up modem. And it provides numerous unique features for both small and large businesses as well as ISPs.
Java Apache Mail Enterprise Server - The Java Apache Mail Enterprise Server (a.k.a. Apache James) is a 100% pure Java SMTP and POP3 Mail server, and NNTP News server designed to be a complete and portable enterprise mail engine solution based on currently available open protocols.
Java Email Server (JES) - Java Mail Server is a Java SMTP and POP3 e-mail server. This project was inspired by and based on the CRSMail project written by Calvin Smith. This project exists for everyone who is interested in running their own email server quickly and easily.
The goal of JES is to provide an easy to use and reliable email server that can be quickly and easily setup. JES attempts to provide a powerful server using the minimal number of configuration settings and project size.
Java Email Server (JES) - JES was written and tested using Sun's 1.3 JDK on Windows XP. It should work on all OS's with JDK 1.3 or later. It may or may not run with previous JDKs.
JES can be installed as a Windows NT service. A batch file is included in the bin directory of this distribution. To install JES as a service, open the batch file and edit the properties to match your local system. You can then install and uninstall the sevice using the -install and -uninstall command line parameters. Once the system is installed, it will be started by default the next time the computer is restarted. To start the service the first time, you can type 'net start JavaEmailServer'.
Java(tm) Mailserver - The Java(tm) Mailserver originally written by Wolfgang Mutter is made available under the GNU General Public Licence
Features
1. SMTP Server that collects EMail from Internet and Intranet.
2. POP3 that can be used by Intranet Users to retrieve their EMail
3. Sender Utility that forwards collected EMail to your ISPs Mail MTA, if it is addressed to non-local users.
4. Fetcher Utility that retrieves EMail from different POP3 Servers in the Internet
5. Alias List configurable through configuration file
6. 100 % pure Java(tm) - system independent, but only tested on Windows 9x, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 RC2, SCO Open Server, and Linux 2.2.5
To use the EMail Server you need a working Java Runtime Environment with the Java Mail Package installed.
Kerio MailServer - Kerio MailServer is a state-of-the-art groupware server allowing companies to collaborate via email, shared contacts, shared calendars and tasks.
Mail Server - A mail server is a server dedicated to sending and receiving mail. A software application handles the sending of messages from client machines and the receipt of email from other servers.
This Linux Mail Server can be integrated into your current network and it is compatible with various email clients such as Thunderbird, Outlook and Outlook Express, Pegasus, Eudora and many others.
Mail Server - Mail Server is a small and easy to use mail server, that supports SMTP, POP3,IMAP4, Remote Administration and attachment blocking (based on file extension) to prevent many email viruses from getting to the users.
The mail server is easy to setup and requires little configuration. A step-by-step wizard guides you through the process of setting up your mail server. Additional features include mail quotas, SMTP Relay, access control by IP or SMTP authentication, integrated backup, catch-all accounts, aliases and more. Ability Mail Server also includes a webmail server that allows you to retrieve your email from any web browser, using a hotmail-style web interface to read and reply to your mail.
MailEnable mail server - MailEnable's mail server software provides a powerful, scalable hosted messaging platform for Microsoft Windows.
MailEnable™ offers stability, unsurpassed flexibility and an extensive feature set which allows you to provide cost-effective mail services.
MailMax 5.5 email server - MailMax 5.5 email server for Windows 2000/2003/XP, is an award-winning high performance server that supports SMTP/IMAP4/POP3 protocols.
MailMax 5.5 gives you the option to add Avast! or Sophos Integrated Anti-Virus protection to your email server. Configuration is a snap and immediately provides you with the SECURITY needed to prevent email born viruses from reaching your server.
MailSite Email Server Software - MailSite Email Servers provide high quality, easy to use email solutions for businesses, enterprises and service providers that require secure, scalable email hosting software with integrated anti-spam, anti-virus, content filtering and attack prevention.
The award-winning Rockliffe MailSite email server and email gateway solutions have been meeting the performance, scalability and reliability requirements of service providers and businesses since 1995. MailSite includes real-time anti-virus and anti-spam protection, content and attachment filtering, automatic blocking of denial of service and directory harvest attacks, protection against email fraud including "phishing", and the ability to enforce corporate email policies.
MAILTRAQ - Mailtraq sends and receives your email; checks for spam & viruses, and safely delivers to your local email clients and much, much, more.
Mailtraq is the professional scalable email solution you need with the power, flexibility and support you want.
MDaemon® Email Server 9.5, - Now featuring spam traps, custom scheduling, email queuing, and a host of other new features and enhancements. MDaemon email server for Windows is the best choice for managing your organization's messaging and collaboration infrastructure.
The MDaemon email server for Windows is a comprehensive messaging and collaboration solution that provides secure, standards-compliant features to small-to-medium sized businesses. It supports mailing lists, remote access and administration, spam-blocking, content filtering, and multiple domain support.
Merak Email Server for Microsoft Windows - Merak Email Server is a reliable, easy to use and afforable communication solution that is used by more than 30 million users worldwide. This powerful server solution contains every feature, module and extension you might desire and yet is extremely easy to administer.
The Merak Email Server installs in 5 minutes and comes packaged with all the optional modules for you to evaluate. You can Backup your server settings and accounts regularly with an automatic schedule, or manually with a single click of a button.
Merak Email Server is compatible with all Server and Client Software supporting the Internet standards. The supported Protocols and incorporated Security features ensure a complete and safe Internet communication solution.
Merak Linux Mail Server - Merak Linux Mail Server Suite introduces a complete all-in one communication solution containing not only all common mail server features but also effective antivirus and antispam protection detecting all incoming security threats, GroupWare, FTP server, Web Server and secured Instant Messaging Server.
Merak Mail Server - Merak Mail Server Software is a high performance mail server software suite for Windows or Linux - supporting unlimited users, unlimited domains, POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, HTTP, LDAP, ODBC protocols, fully integrated AntiVirus Server, AntiSpam Server, Webmail Server, Groupware Server, Mail Server Migration Tool and much more ...
From small office to multi-million user load balanced installations, Merak Mail Server for Windows or Linux offers the best price-to-power & price-to-feature ratio on the market today.
The Merak Mail Server Suite for Windows or Linux "All-Inclusive" software bundles provide significant savings on our standard Merak Mail Server pricing and empowers companies with a fast, secure, efficient and powerful total messaging solution.
Relay Fax - Email-to-Fax or Fax-to-Email. Either way, it automates your workflow with full faxing capabilities from your desktop.
Soho Mail Server - The SOHO MAIL SERVER is an internet standards mail server designed to provide email services to a small home or office network. It performs internet SMTP delivery and POP3 collection from existing mail accouts, and has local POP3 and SMTP servers for communicating with mail clients on the local network.
The SOHO MAIL SERVER runs on a windows machine that has a dial-up, DSL or cable broadband, or LAN internet connection, and runs unobtrusively in the background. It supports multiple mailboxes and users, and has flexible and confugurable header and envelope based routing for directing incoming email to appropriate mailboxes.
SurgeMail - SurgeMail Mail Server- Easy install, secure, antispam, antivirus. Supports IMAP4, SMTP, POP3, SSL, HTTP, unlimited users, unlimited domains. Free Webmail including groupware:- calendaring, filestore and blogging.
SurgeMail Mail Server Software Suite - combines advanced features, high performance and ease of use. Ideal on Windows, UNIX ( Linux, Solaris etc.), Mac OSX, FreeBSD and others, this integrated email server is an Antispam Server, Antivirus Server, Webmail Server, Groupware Server, Blog Server and much more.
SurgeMail Mail Server - Easy install, secure, antispam, antivirus. Supports IMAP4, SMTP, POP3, SSL, HTTP, unlimited users, unlimited domains. Free Webmail including groupware:- calendaring, filestore and blogging.
SurgeMail Mail Server Software Suite - combines advanced features, high performance and ease of use. Ideal on Windows, UNIX ( Linux, Solaris etc.), Mac OSX, FreeBSD and others, this integrated email server is an Antispam Server, Antivirus Server, Webmail Server, Groupware Server, Blog Server and much more.
This all combines to make SurgeMail Mail Server, the fastest, most robust, stable and secure, full featured and high performance mailserver on the market today.
VisNetic Mail Server - VisNetic Mail Server is a high performance POP3, SMTP, IMAP, LDAP mail server for Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP Pro/2003. Designed for the corporate SME as well as ISP/ASP environments, VisNetic Mail Server provides a superior combination of security, speed, and scalability. It also features several productivity-enhancement tools, including a built-in instant messaging server and support for VisNetic GroupWare, a shared calendaring component fully compatible with Microsoft Outlook.
VisNetic Mail Server includes an anti spam engine that uses three proven spam filtering technologies--Bayesian filtering, SpamAssassin processing and challenge-response. These technologies combine to provide a level of spam filtering unmatched in any other Windows mail server. VisNetic Mail Server also includes support for TLS/SSL connections, allowing for secure transmission of email to other TLS/SSL enabled mail servers on the Internet. Integrated support for the VisNetic AntiVirus Plug-in provides server level virus protection that protects all accounts from email born viruses.
VisNetic Mail Server - VisNetic Mail Server is a POP3, SMTP, IMAP, and LDAP mail server for Windows featuring integrated antivirus, built-in spam filter, instant messaging server, Web mail and groupware.
The messaging suite also includes VisNetic MailFlow, eCRM software that vastly improves email customer service, and an IM management tool that can detect, block, control, secure and archive IM communications.
Winmail Server - Winmail Server is an enterprise class mail server software system offering a robust feature set, including extensive security measures. Winmail Server supports SMTP, POP3, IMAP, Webmail, LDAP, multiple domains, SMTP authentication, spam protection, anti-virus protection, SSL/TLS security, Network Storage, remote access, Web-based administration, and a wide array of standard email options such as filtering, signatures, real-time monitoring, archiving, and public email folders.
ZeroToaster::MTA - ZeroToaster::MTA is a very fast, responsive POP3 and SMTP mailserver with superior spam filtering features and all the features an ISP, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) or Individual user requires.
A decade ago it started out as an exercise designed to prove the strength of Java technology, resulting in an excellent application for sending, receiving and processing e-mail for small organizations with 1-30 domains and less than 300 users. Since then it has been revised and reworked, utilizing our staff's ever expanding knowledge base and capabilities, resulting in the current ZeroToaster product.
This is a high grade, sophisticated, multithreaded environment capable of running on multiple operating systems with a wide range of features. It is highly configurable, which makes it an ideal application for companies of any size, no matter how simple or complex your processing needs may be.
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The Story of Email Marketing: Evolution of Email Communications
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
It’s always important to understand the history of something in order to understand why it’s important! Learn about how
Email Marketing evolved as well as the challenges of offline direct-to-consumer or direct business-to-business marketing communications that
Email Marketing has provided a solution to.
Remember the Days of Postal Mail Marketing?
Take
a minute and take a walk to your mailbox. No, we don’t mean walk to
your computer to check your inbox. We mean a walk to your actual,
physical mailbox where people mail you paper letters and packages. Now
take a moment to sort through the mail that you find there. Chances are
that you will find several promotional or marketing flyers which are
trying to sell you localized services. However, you may also find
catalogs and promotional postcards for global or larger brands.
Now, take a moment to consider what the
world would be like if postal mail to your physical mailbox were the
only way to send you customized communications to market products and
services. It would be a highly inefficient system. Because postal
mailings need to be printed in bulk to reduce costs, your message could
only be mildly customized to include your name. Then, whoever wanted to
advertise to you would have to pay for not only the printing of the
postcard, flyer or catalog to be mailed, but also for all of the stamps
or postal costs to send the mailing. Finally, the marketer who sent the
mailing would have to wait for a period of time for you to receive it.
It may be several weeks until the post office delivered it, and it may
be even longer until you removed the mailing from your mailbox and read
it. Because of that timing, the offer that the marketer was sending to
you couldn’t be specific and time relevant. Finally, the marketer had no
way of knowing if the postal mailing had had any impact on you unless
you then used a specific promotional code included on the mailing. There
was no way to know if you’d even looked at or received your mailing!
Does this sound like an ineffective way
to market your products or services to a mass consumer audience? Well,
until as recently as the 1990s, it was largely the only way to get a
marketing communication into the hands of a specific individual.
Marketers came up with many ways to attempt to make postal marketing
mailings more personalized and to better track their response rates, but
the truth was that once you sent a postal mailing, figuring out if it
worked or didn’t work was more guess-work than actual facts. The entire
process was, and is, expensive, time consuming and difficult to judge
the success of.
Fortunately for you and your consumer or business-to-business
marketing needs, the 1990’s happened and the internet was born. Soon
after, email began to become a primary form of both personal and
business communications. Not long after
the popularity of personal email exploded, email marketing became a
specialty area for those with marketing expertise because of its
improved capacity for customization, segmentation, frequency, relevancy
of communications and, most importantly, tracking capabilities.
1991: The “Birth” of the Internet
While
there are many people who “claim” to be the founder of the internet,
experts say that the internet as we know it began in 1991 when CERN (the
European Organization for Nuclear Research) publicized a paper known as
the New World Wide Web Project. Though a British scientist, Tim
Berners-Lee, had actually been creating html, http and the world’s very
first web pages at CERN as early as two years prior to the paper, the
publishing of the paper is considered the “birth” of the internet. Not
only did the internet change life as we know it, it also changed
marketing as we know it!
Over the next decade, many experts estimate that the internet grew as
much as one hundred percent per year in terms of bandwidth used. The
greatest spikes of growth were seen in 1996 and 1997. Today, of course,
you would have a hard time finding anybody who does not admit that the
internet plays a key role in their daily lives, from information
gathering to processing communications, primarily through the use of
email and, more recently, social media.
1996: Hotmail Becomes the First Web-Based Email Service
One of the greatest benefits of the rise of the internet was the
ability to use email, or electronic mail, to communicate with people. Email was fast, free and could speed up communications across the world in a way that most people had not previously imagined. However,
during the first years of the internet, email was only available to
people who fit into specific groups: college students using their
college email address or employees who were able to use corporate email
addresses. The second group typically had significant limitations on how
they could use their email and whom they could communicate with. While
some individuals could also get email services provided by their
Internet Service Provider (ISP), those services typically required that
you checked your email specifically from the computer that was supported
by your ISP. Email was not a “pick up and go anywhere” type of
communication.
Then, in 1996, Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith launched what was then
called HoTMaiL (with the letters being a reference to html). It was the
first web-based email system, and suddenly email was available to
anybody who had access to the internet. That didn’t just mean people who
had home computers that were internet wired. It also meant anybody who
could use a public computer at a library or business center.
Suddenly, email was no longer limited to just a small group of people
who needed to communicate primarily with each other. Email was out of
the bag to the public, and anybody who wanted to communicate with
anybody else could do so via HoTMaiL. Not surprisingly, people
loved the service and flocked to it. A year later in 1997, Microsoft
purchased HoTMaiL for four hundred million dollars and renamed it MSN
Hotmail.
Just How Many People Use Email Today?
Today, Hotmail is still technically the largest web-based email
service in terms of raw users, according to the most recent comScore
data (August of 2010). Hotmail is reported to have three hundred and
sixty-four million users. Yahoo! mail is the second largest with a
reported two hundred and eighty million users, and Google’s Gmail is
third with one hundred and ninety-one million users.
The Birth of Email Marketing
While
email began as a communications tool for academic and business
purposes, it soon became a tool for personal communications among
friends, relatives and even people who had never met in real life! As
people began to spend more and more time using email as their primary
communications tool, smart marketers realized that email communications
were the future of marketing communications and began to make the shift
into using email as a way to effectively communicate with customers.
Email marketing, even in its earliest days, presented a number of
benefits over both postal marketing and telesales as a form of
direct-to-consumer or direct business-to-business communications.
We’ll look at those benefits in detail in the next section of this
book, but today email marketing is a robust portion of any complete
marketing plan and has entire industries built around helping businesses
of all sizes effectively email market.
SMTPSERVER.in
would, of course, be an example of this. SMTPSERVER.in
works to develop email products that streamline the sending of email to
consumers or business contacts with customized messages and complete
tracking. In addition to companies that focus primarily on developing
email marketing solutions, individuals have become email marketing
experts as well. Most mid-sized or larger companies employ at least one
email marketing specialist and may have as many as several employees who
focus on nothing but creating effective email marketing strategies and
campaigns.
Of course, you may not need an entire
staff, but you do need to understand the basics of email marketing
strategy, benefits and tactics of email marketing. We’ll cover all of
those in this book to make you your own email marketing expert by the
end!
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What is an SMTP server?
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Saturday, September 11, 2010
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
An SMTP server is a computer that receives outgoing mail messages from
users and routes them to their intended recipients. All
SMTP servers implement some version of the Simple Mail
Transport Protocol, and many that run Unix use the
sendmail
program. Messages often must pass through
several servers to reach their destinations, and SMTP facilitates
this.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard for electronic mail (e-mail) transmission across Internet Protocol (IP) networks. SMTP was first defined in RFC 821 (STD 15) (1982),[1] and last updated by RFC 5321 (2008)[2] which includes the extended SMTP (ESMTP) additions, and is the protocol in widespread use today. SMTP is specified for outgoing mail transport and uses TCP port 25. The protocol for new submissions is effectively the same as SMTP, but it uses port 587 instead.
While electronic mail servers and other mail transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages, user-level client mail applications typically only use SMTP for sending messages to a mail server for relaying. For receiving messages, client applications usually use either the Post Office Protocol (POP) or the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) or a proprietary system (such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes/Domino) to access their mail box accounts on a mail server.
* 1 History
* 2 Mail processing model
* 3 Protocol overview
o 3.1 SMTP vs mail retrieval
o 3.2 Remote Message Queue Starting
o 3.3 On-Demand Mail Relay
o 3.4 Internationalization
* 4 Outgoing mail SMTP server
* 5 SMTP transport example
* 6 Optional extensions
* 7 Security and spamming
* 8 Implementations
* 9 Related Requests For Comments
* 10 See also
History
Various forms of one-to-one electronic messaging were used in the 1960s. People communicated with one another using systems developed for specific mainframe computers. As more computers were interconnected, especially in the US Government's ARPANET, standards were developed to allow users using different systems to be able to e-mail one another. SMTP grew out of these standards developed during the 1970s.
SMTP can trace its roots to two implementations described in 1971, the Mail Box Protocol, which has been disputed to actually have been implemented,[3] but is discussed in RFC 196 and other RFCs, and the SNDMSG program, which, according to RFC 2235, Ray Tomlinson of BBN "invents" for TENEX computers the sending of mail across the ARPANET.[4][5][6] Fewer than 50 hosts were connected to the ARPANET at this time.[7]
Further implementations include FTP Mail [8] and Mail Protocol, both from 1973.[9] Development work continued throughout the 1970s, until the ARPANET converted into the modern Internet around 1980. Jon Postel then proposed a Mail Transfer Protocol in 1980 that began to remove the mail's reliance on FTP.[10] SMTP was published as RFC 821 in August 1982, also by Postel.
The SMTP standard was developed around the same time as Usenet, a one-to-many communication network with some similarities.
SMTP became widely used in the early 1980s. At the time, it was a complement to Unix to Unix Copy Program (UUCP) mail, which was better suited to handle e-mail transfers between machines that were intermittently connected. SMTP, on the other hand, works best when both the sending and receiving machines are connected to the network all the time. Both use a store and forward mechanism and are examples of push technology. Though Usenet's newsgroups are still propagated with UUCP between servers,[11] UUCP mail has virtually disappeared[12] along with the "bang paths" it used as message routing headers.
The article about sender rewriting contains technical background info about the early SMTP history and source routing before RFC 1123.
Sendmail was one of the first (if not the first) mail transfer agents to implement SMTP.[citation needed] Some other popular SMTP server programs include Postfix, qmail, Novell GroupWise, Exim, Novell NetMail, Microsoft Exchange Server, Sun Java System Messaging Server.
Message submission (RFC 2476) and SMTP-AUTH (RFC 2554) were introduced in 1998 and 1999, both describing new trends in e-mail delivery. Originally, SMTP servers were typically internal to an organization, receiving mail for the organization from the outside, and relaying messages from the organization to the outside. But as time went on, SMTP servers (Mail transfer agents), in practice, were expanding their roles to become message submission agents for Mail user agents, some of which were now relaying mail from the outside of an organization. (e.g. a company executive wishes to send e-mail while on a trip using the corporate SMTP server.) This issue, a consequence of the rapid expansion and popularity of the World Wide Web, meant that the SMTP protocol had to include specific rules and methods for relaying mail and authenticating users to prevent abuses such as relaying of unsolicited e-mail (spam).
As this protocol started out purely ASCII text-based, it did not deal well with binary files. Standards such as Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) were developed to encode binary files for transfer through SMTP. Mail transfer agents (MTAs) developed after Sendmail also tended to be implemented 8-bit-clean, so that the alternate "just send eight" strategy could be used to transmit arbitrary text data (in any 8-bit ASCII-like character encoding) via SMTP. 8-bit-clean MTAs today tend to support the 8BITMIME extension, permitting binary files to be transmitted almost as easily as plain text.
Many people contributed to the core SMTP specifications, among them Jon Postel, Eric Allman, Dave Crocker, Ned Freed, Randall Gellens, John Klensin, and Keith Moore.
Mail processing model
Blue arrows can be implemented using SMTP variations.
The overall flow for message creation, mail transport, and delivery may be illustrated as shown.
Email is submitted by a mail client (MUA, mail user agent) to a mail server (MSA, mail submission agent) using SMTP on TCP port 587. Most mailbox providers still allow submission on traditional port 25. From there, the MSA delivers the mail to its MTA. Often, these two agents are just different instances of the same software launched with different options on the same machine. Local processing can be done either on a single machine, or split among various appliances; in the former case, involved processes can share files; in the latter case, SMTP is used to transfer the message internally, with each host configured to use the next appliance as a smart host. Each process is an MTA in its own right; that is, an SMTP server.
The boundary MTA has to locate the target host. It uses the in the Domain name system (DNS) to look up the the mail exchanger record (MX record) for the recipient's domain (the part of the address on the right of @). The returned MX record contains the name of the target host. The MTA next looks up the A record for that name in order to get the IP address and connect to such host as an SMTP client. (The article on MX record discusses many factors in determining which server the sending MTA connects to.)
Once the MX target accepts the incoming message, it hands it to a mail delivery agent (MDA) for local mail delivery. An MDA is able to save messages in the relevant mailbox format. Again, mail reception can be done using many computers or just one —the picture displays two nearby boxes in either case. An MDA may deliver messages directly to storage, or forward them over a network using SMTP, or any other means, including the Local Mail Transfer Protocol (LMTP), a derivative of SMTP designed for this purpose.
Once delivered to the local mail server, the mail is stored for batch retrieval by authenticated mail clients (MUAs). Mail is retrieved by end-user applications, called email clients, using Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), a protocol that both facilitates access to mail and manages stored mail, or the Post Office Protocol (POP) which typically uses the traditional mbox mail file format or a proprietary system such as Microsoft Exchange/Outlook or Lotus Notes/Domino. Webmail clients may use either method, but the retrieval protocol is often not a formal standard.
SMTP defines message transport, not the message content. Thus, it defines the mail envelope and its parameters, such as the envelope sender, but not the header or the body of the message itself. STD 10 and RFC 5321 define SMTP (the envelope), while STD 11 and RFC 5322 define the message (header and body), formally referred to as the Internet Message Format.
Protocol overview
SMTP is a text-based protocol, in which a mail sender communicates with a mail receiver by issuing command strings and supplying necessary data over a reliable ordered data stream channel, typically a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection. An SMTP session consists of commands originated by an SMTP client (the initiating agent, sender, or transmitter) and corresponding responses from the SMTP server (the listening agent, or receiver) so that the session is opened, and session parameters are exchanged. A session may include zero or more SMTP transactions. An SMTP transaction consists of three command/reply sequences (see example below.) They are:
1. MAIL command, to establish the return address, a.k.a. Return-Path, 5321.From, mfrom, or envelope sender. This is the address for bounce messages.
2. RCPT command, to establish a recipient of this message. This command can be issued multiple times, one for each recipient. These addresses are also part of the envelope.
3. DATA to send the message text. This is the content of the message, as opposed to its envelope. It consists of a message header and a message body separated by an empty line. DATA is actually a group of commands, and the server replies twice: once to the DATA command proper, to acknowledge that it is ready to receive the text, and the second time after the end-of-data sequence, to either accept or reject the entire message.
Besides the intermediate reply for DATA, each server's reply can be either positive (2xx reply codes) or negative. Negative replies can be permanent (5xx codes) or transient (4xx codes). A reject is a permanent failure by an SMTP server; in this case the SMTP client should send a bounce message. A drop is a positive response followed by message discard rather than delivery.
The initiating host, the SMTP client, can be either an end-user's email client, functionally identified as a mail user agent (MUA), or a relay server's mail transfer agent (MTA), that is an SMTP server acting as an SMTP client, in the relevant session, in order to relay mail. Fully-capable SMTP servers maintain queues of messages for retrying message transmissions that resulted in transient failures.
A MUA knows the outgoing mail SMTP server from its configuration. An SMTP server acting as client, i.e. relaying, typically determines which SMTP server to connect to by looking up the MX (Mail eXchange) DNS resource record for each recipient's domain name. Conformant MTAs (not all) fall back to a simple A record in case no MX record can be found. Relaying servers can also be configured to use a smart host.
An SMTP server acting as client initiates a TCP connection to the server on the "well-known port" designated for SMTP: port 25. MUAs should use port 587 to connect to an MSA. The main difference between an MTA and an MSA is that SMTP Authentication is mandatory for the latter only.
SMTP vs mail retrieval
SMTP is a delivery protocol only. It cannot pull messages from a remote server on demand. Other protocols, such as the Post Office Protocol (POP) and the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) are specifically designed for retrieving messages and managing mail boxes. However, the SMTP protocol has a feature to initiate mail queue processing on a remote server so that the requesting system may receive any messages destined for it (cf. Remote Message Queue Starting). POP and IMAP are preferred protocols when a user's personal computer is only intermittently powered up, or Internet connectivity is only transient and hosts cannot receive message during off-line periods.
Remote Message Queue Starting
Remote Message Queue Starting is a feature of the SMTP protocol that permits a remote host to start processing of the mail queue on a server so it may receive messages destined to it by sending the TURN command. This feature however was deemed insecure[13] and was extended in RFC 1985 with the ETRN command which operates more securely using an authentication method based on Domain Name System information.
On-Demand Mail Relay
Main article: On-Demand Mail Relay
Internationalization
RFC 5336 describes internationalization features for SMTP, the UTF8SMTP extension, which provides support for multi-byte and non-ASCII characters in email addresses, such as Pelé@live.com (simple diacritic), δοκιμή@παράδειγμα.δοκιμή, and 测试@测试.测试.
Outgoing mail SMTP server
An e-mail client requires the name or the IP address of an SMTP server as part of its configuration. The server will deliver messages on behalf of the user. This setting allows for various policies and network designs. End users connected to the Internet can use the services of an e-mail provider that is not necessarily the same as their connection provider (ISP). Network topology, or the location of a client within a network or outside of a network, is no longer a limiting factor for e-mail submission or delivery. Modern SMTP servers typically use a client's credentials (authentication) rather than a client's location (IP address), to determine whether it is eligible to relay e-mail.
Server administrators choose whether clients use TCP port 25 (SMTP) or port 587 (Submission), as formalized in RFC 4409, for relaying outbound mail to a mail server. The specifications and many servers support both. Although some servers support port 465 for legacy secure SMTP in violation of the specifications, it is preferable to use standard ports and standard ESMTP commands[14] according to RFC 3207 if a secure session needs to be used between the client and the server. Some servers are set up to reject all relaying on port 25, but valid users authenticating on port 587 are allowed to relay mail to any valid address. A server that relays all e-mail for all destinations for all clients connecting to port 25 is known as an open relay and is now generally considered a bad practice worthy of blacklisting.
Some Internet service providers intercept port 25, so that it is not possible for their users to send mail via a relaying SMTP server outside the ISP's network using port 25; they are restricted to using the ISP's SMTP server. Some independent SMTP servers support an additional port other than 25 to allow users with authenticated access to connect to them even if port 25 is blocked. The practical purpose of this is that a mobile user connecting to different ISPs otherwise has to change SMTP server settings on the mail client for each ISP; using a relaying SMTP server allows the SMTP client settings to be used unchanged worldwide.
SMTP transport example
A typical example of sending a message via SMTP to two mailboxes (alice and theboss) located in the same mail domain (example.com) is reproduced in the following session exchange.
For illustration purposes here (not part of protocol), the protocol exchanges are prefixed for the server (S:) and the client (C:).
After the message sender (SMTP client) establishes a reliable communications channel to the message receiver (SMTP server), the session is opened with a greeting by the server, usually containing its fully qualified domain name (FQDN), in this case smtp.example.com. The client initiates its dialog by responding with a HELO command identifying itself in the command's parameter with its FQDN (or an address literal if none is available).[2]
S: 220 smtp.smtpserver.com ESMTP Postfix
C: HELO relay.examplesmtpserver.org
S: 250 Hello relay.example.org, I am glad to meet you
C: MAIL FROM:<bob@examplesmtpserver.org>
S: 250 Ok
C: RCPT TO:<alice@examplesmtpserver.com>
S: 250 Ok
C: RCPT TO:<theboss@examplesmtpserver.com>
S: 250 Ok
C: DATA
S: 354 End data with <CR><LF>.<CR><LF>
C: From: "Bob Example" <bob@examplesmtpserver.org>
C: To: "Alice Example" <alice@examplesmtpserver.com>
C: Cc: theboss@examplesmtpserver.com
C: Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:02:43 -0500
C: Subject: Test message
C:
C: Hello Alice.
C: This is a test message with 5 header fields and 4 lines in the message body.
C: Your friend,
C: Bob
C: .
S: 250 Ok: queued as 12345
C: QUIT
S: 221 Bye
{The server closes the connection}
The client notifies the receiver of the originating email address of the message in a MAIL FROM command. In this example, the email message is sent to two mailboxes on the same SMTP server: one each for each recipient listed in the To and Cc header fields. The corresponding SMTP command is RCPT TO. Each successful reception and execution of a command is acknowledged by the server with a result code and response message (e.g., 250 Ok).
The transmission of the body of the mail message is initiated with a DATA command after which it is transmitted verbatim line by line and is terminated with an end-of-data sequence. This consists of a new-line (<CR><LF>), a single full stop (period), followed by another new-line. Since a message body can contain a line with just a period as part of the text, the client sends two periods every time a line starts with a period; correspondingly, the server replaces every sequence of two periods at the beginning of a line with a single one. Such escaping method is called dot-stuffing.
The server's positive reply to the end-of-data, as exemplified, implies that the server has taken the responsibility of delivering the message. A message can be doubled if there is a communication failure at this time, e.g. due to a power shortage: Until the sender has not received that 250 reply, it must assume the message was not delivered. On the other hand, after the receiver has decided to accept the message, it must assume the message has been delivered to it. Thus, during this time span, both agents have active copies of the message that they will try to deliver[15]. The probability that a communication failure occurs exactly at this step is directly proportional to the amount of filtering that the server performs on the message body, most often for anti-spam purposes. The limiting timeout is specified to be 10 minutes.[16]
The QUIT command ends the session. If the second recipient were located elsewhere, the client would QUIT and connect to the appropriate SMTP server after the first message had been queued. The information that the client sends in the HELO and MAIL FROM commands are added (not seen in example code) as additional header fields to the message by the receiving server. It adds a Received and Return-Path header field, respectively.
Optional extensions
Although optional and not shown in this example, many clients ask the server for the SMTP extensions that the server supports, by using the EHLO greeting of the extended SMTP specification (RFC 1870). Clients fall back to HELO only if the server does not respond to EHLO.
Modern clients may use the ESMTP extension keyword SIZE to query the server for the maximum message size that will be accepted. Older clients and servers may try to transfer excessively-sized messages that will be rejected after consuming network resources, including connect time to network links that is paid by the minute.
Users can manually determine in advance the maximum size accepted by ESMTP servers. The client replaces the HELO command with the EHLO command.
S: 220 smtp2.examplesmtpserver.com ESMTP Postfix
C: EHLO bob.examplesmtpserver.org
S: 250-smtp2.example.com Hello bob.examplesmtpserver.org [192.0.2.201]
S: 250-SIZE 14680064
S: 250-PIPELINING
S: 250 HELP
Thus smtp2.examplesmtpserver.com declares that it will accept a fixed maximum message size no larger than 14,680,064 octets (8-bit bytes). Depending on the server's actual resource usage, it may be currently unable to accept a message this large. In the simplest case, an ESMTP server will declare a maximum SIZE with only the EHLO user interaction.
Security and spamming
Main article: Anti-spam techniques (e-mail)
The original SMTP specification did not include a facility for authentication of senders. Subsequently, the SMTP-AUTH extension was defined by RFC 2554.[17] The SMTP extension (ESMTP) provides a mechanism for email clients to specify a security mechanism to a mail server, authenticate the exchange, and negotiate a security profile (Simple Authentication and Security Layer, SASL) for subsequent message transfers.
Microsoft products implement the proprietary Secure Password Authentication (SPA) protocol through the use of the SMTP-AUTH extension.
However, the impracticality of widespread SMTP-AUTH implementation and management means that E-mail spamming is not and cannot be addressed by it.
Modifying SMTP extensively, or replacing it completely, is not believed to be practical, due to the network effects of the huge installed base of SMTP. Internet Mail 2000 was one such proposal for replacement.
Spam is enabled by several factors, including vendors implementing broken MTAs (that do not adhere to standards, and therefore make it difficult for other MTAs to enforce standards), security vulnerabilities within the operating system (often exacerbated by always-on broadband connections) that allow spammers to remotely control end-user PCs and cause them to send spam, and a lack of "intelligence" in many MTAs.
There are a number of proposals for sideband protocols that will assist SMTP operation. The Anti-Spam Research Group (ASRG) of the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) is working on a number of E-mail authentication and other proposals for providing simple source authentication that is flexible, lightweight, and scalable. Recent Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) activities include MARID (2004) leading to two approved IETF experiments in 2005, and DomainKeys Identified Mail in 2006.
Implementations
Main article: List of mail servers
Related Requests For Comments
* RFC 1123 – Requirements for Internet Hosts—Application and Support (STD 3)
* RFC 1870 – SMTP Service Extension for Message Size Declaration (оbsoletes: RFC 1653)
* RFC 2505 – Anti-Spam Recommendations for SMTP MTAs (BCP 30)
* RFC 2920 – SMTP Service Extension for Command Pipelining (STD 60)
* RFC 3030 – SMTP Service Extensions for Transmission of Large and Binary MIME Messages
* RFC 3207 – SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security (obsoletes RFC 2487)
* RFC 3461 – SMTP Service Extension for Delivery Status Notifications (obsoletes RFC 1891)
* RFC 3462 – The Multipart/Report Content Type for the Reporting of Mail System Administrative Messages (obsoletes RFC 1892)
* RFC 3463 – Enhanced Status Codes for SMTP (obsoletes RFC 1893 )
* RFC 3464 – An Extensible Message Format for Delivery Status Notifications (obsoletes RFC 1894)
* RFC 3834 – Recommendations for Automatic Responses to Electronic Mail
* RFC 4409 – Message Submission for Mail (obsoletes RFC 2476)
* RFC 4952 – Overview and Framework for Internationalized E-mail
* RFC 4954 – SMTP Service Extension for Authentication (obsoletes RFC 2554)
* RFC 5068 – E-mail Submission Operations: Access and Accountability Requirements (BCP 134)
* RFC 5321 – The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (obsoletes RFC 821 aka STD 10, RFC 974, RFC 1869, RFC 2821)
* RFC 5322 – Internet Message Format (obsoletes RFC 822 aka STD 11, and RFC 2822)
* RFC 5336 - SMTP Extension for Internationalized Email Addresses (updates RFC 2821, RFC 2822, and RFC 4952)
* RFC 5504 - Downgrading Mechanism for Email Address Internationalization
See also
* Bounce messages (SMTP non-delivery reports), bounce address
* Comparison of mail servers
* E-mail authentication
* E-mail encryption
* Extended SMTP (ESMTP)
* Ident
* List of mail servers
* POP before SMTP / SMTP after POP
* Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
* SMTP-AUTH (ESMTPA)
* Variable envelope return path
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