mailing protocols

[rookie1010]

Hello,

My understanding is that SMTP is used for sending mail and IMAP4 and POP3 are used for mail retreival.

 

[Nothinman]

Your understanting would be mostly correct. There are other protocols like UUCP, Submission, LMTP, etc that can be used for various parts of the journey but SMTP, IMAP4 and POP3 are the most popular.

 

[rookie1010]

thanks for the reply,

so SMTP can not be used for retrival of mail

and IMAP4 and POP3 can not be used for sending mail, correct?

 

[Nothinman]

No, SMTP is only for delivery.

POP3 or IMAP4 might be able to do delivery with some hacks. Like say you setup a special IMAP folder that's scanned by another daemon periodically and any messages in there are forwarded to another SMTP server for delivery. But in general, no you don't use them for delivery.

 

[rookie1010]

thanks for the clarification.