On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 23:10:30 +1200, you wrote: [snip] > >You can't login to SMTP to read mail. The SMTP server delivers the mail >locally and your mail client/pop/imap server allows you to read it. >Also, its very relevant as all the email you send goes through this >process. > If your isp requires you to read mail using SMTP, then it's a valid option. This was uncommon but happened in the past. Like I said, I don't know of any isps that still require this.
I think you'll find that SMTP is an mta, not a server. Your mail client, eg sendmail, oe, etc communicates with the mail server for the recipients domain ( as defined by the MX record in DNS ), and delivers your message to it, after a bit of idle chatter. The distinction between what we're saying is what is defined as local. The mail server at the isp is what you call local - to me the hardware that I have in the room is local. Steve [snip]
