* Marc Perkel wrote (03/08/06 14:39):
Tony Finch wrote:
The reason that message submission is done with SMTP is because of the
number of SMTP extensions that the MUA will want to use, in particular
DSNs, deliver-by, deliver-after, message tracking, and whatever else may
be invented in the future. If you want to make message submission a part
of IMAP and POP then you'll have to re-do all these SMTP extensions twice,
which is a colossal waste of time.
Not really - what I'm proposing is that the IMAP connection just pipe
the message into an SMTP server. The IMAP is acting only and an
authenticated connection back to SMTP. I'm not suggesting replacing
SMTP. What I'm suggesting is that POP/IMAP can be used as a transport to
get the mail there because it's an existing connection, is already
established, is already authenticated with the credentials of the email
account, and it isn't a port that people would block like port 25 is.
I'm not trying to replace SMTP. I'm just trying to suggest a better way
for end users to get outgoing email to the SMTP server.
What if I set up an SMTP server at home behind my ADSL router, collect
my vanity-domain mail there, and access it via IMAP or POP3? It seems I
only have one option, which is to send my mail via IMAP to my home
server. Which then sends via SMTP to... the Internet (or via a
smarthost). And the home server sending via SMTP is going to look a bit
like a MUA sending via SMTP. How would you tell the difference? Is a
home mail server outlawed in the brave new world? Or does my SMTP server
have to learn to talk IMAP to make message submissions to the ISP's server?
Chris
