1

HOW EMAIL WORKS

 Table of Contents
2

 Introduction
 E-mail System

 Working of E-mail

 Email Service Protocols

 Comparison of POP3 and IMAP

 Introduction
3

 Electronic mail (abbreviated as e-mail, email,

E-Mail, etc.) is a very old form of computer-
based communication.
 Email was, at that time, the equivalent of

today’s text message.

 Over time, it changed and evolved like

anything else; it has sender and receiver

info, a subject line, a message body, and
attachments, but emails are pretty simple
documents.
 Introduction
4

 Email sending and receiving is

controlled by the Email servers.
 All Email service providers configure

Email Server before any one can Sign

into his or her account and start
communicating digitally.
 E-mail System
5

 E-mail system comprises of the

following three components:
Mailer
MailServer
Mailbox
 Mailer
6

It is also called mail program,

mail application or mail
client.
It allows us to manage, read

and compose e-mail.

 Mail Server
7

 The function of mail server is to

receive, store and deliver the
email.
 It is must for mail servers to be
Running all the time because if it
crashes or is down, email can be
lost.
 Mailboxes
8

Mailbox is generally a folder



that contains emails and

information about them.
 Working of E-mail
9

 Email working follows the client server

approach.
 In this client is the mailer i.e. the mail

application or mail program and server

is a device that manages emails.
 Following example will take you through

the basic steps involved in sending and

receiving emails and will give you a better
understanding of working of email system:
 Example
10

 Suppose person A wants to send an email

message to person B.
 Person A composes the messages using a
mailer program i.e. mail client and then select
Send option.
 The message is routed to Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol (SMTP) to person B’s mail server.
 The mail server stores the email message on
disk in an area designated for person B.
 The disk space area on mail server is called

mail spool.
 Example
11

 Now, suppose person B is running a POP

client and knows how to communicate with
B’s mail server.
 It will periodically poll the POP server to
check if any new email has arrived for B.
 As in this case, person A has sent an email
for person B, so email is forwarded over the
network to B’s PC.
 This is message is now stored on person B’s
PC.
 The Steps By Step Process
12
 The Steps By Step Process
13

B
14
15

Email Service
Protocols
SMTP POP3 IMAP
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Post Office Protocol Internet Message Access Protocol
 1. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
16

 SMTP stands for Simple Mail

Transfer Protocol.
 SMTP is used when Email is
delivered from an Email client, such
as Outlook Express, to an Email
server or when Email is delivered
from one Email server to another.
 SMTP uses port 25.
 1. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
17

 SMTP is application level protocol.

 SMTP is connection oriented protocol.

 SMTP is text based protocol.

 It handles exchange of messages

between e-mail servers over TCP/IP
network.
 Apart from transferring e-mail, SMPT also
provides notification regarding
incoming mail.
 1. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
18

 It is a program used for sending messages to

other computer users based on e-mail
addresses.
 It provides a mail exchange between users on
the same or different computers, and it also
supports:
 It can send a single message to one or more
recipients.
 Sending message can include text, voice, video or
graphics.
 It can also send the messages on networks outside
the internet.
 1. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
19

 When you send e-mail, your e-mail client sends it to

your e-mail server which further contacts the
recipient mail server using SMTP client.
 These SMTP commands specify the sender’s and
receiver’s e-mail address, along with the message
to be send.
 The exchange of commands between servers is
carried out without intervention of any user.
 In case, message cannot be delivered, an error
report is sent to the sender which makes SMTP a
reliable protocol.
 1. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
20

 The main purpose of SMTP is used to set up

communication rules between servers.
 The servers have a way of identifying
themselves and announcing what kind of
communication they are trying to perform.
 They also have a way of handling the errors

such as incorrect email address.

 For example, if the recipient address is
wrong, then receiving server reply with an
error message of some kind.
 Components of SMTP
21
 Components of SMTP
22

 First, we will break the SMTP client and

SMTP server into two components such
as User Agent (UA) and Mail Transfer
Agent (MTA).
 The user agent (UA) prepares the
message, creates the envelope and then
puts the message in the envelope.
 The mail transfer agent (MTA) transfers

this mail across the internet.

 Components of SMTP
23

USER AGENT (UA)

MAIL TRANSFER AGENT (MTA).

 Components of SMTP
24

 SMTP allows a more complex

system by adding a relaying
system.
 Instead of just having one MTA at

sending side and one at receiving

side, more MTAs can be added,
acting either as a client or server to
relay the email.
 Components of SMTP
25
 2. POP3
26

 POP stands for Post Office Protocol.

 It is generally used to support a

single client.
 There are several versions of POP
but the POP 3 is the current
standard.
 2. POP3
27

 As we know that SMTP is used as a message

transfer agent.
 When the message is sent, then SMPT is used
to deliver the message from the client to the
server and then to the recipient server.
 But the message is sent from the recipient

server to the actual server with the help of the

Message Access Agent.
 The Message Access Agent contains two types

of protocols, i.e., POP3 and IMAP.

 2. POP3
28

 Suppose sender wants to send the mail to receiver.

 First mail is transmitted to the sender's mail server.
 Then, the mail is transmitted from the sender's mail server to
the receiver's mail server over the internet.
 On receiving the mail at the receiver's mail server, the mail is
then sent to the user.
 The whole process is done with the help of Email protocols.
 The transmission of mail from the sender to the sender's mail
server and then to the receiver's mail server is done with the
help of the SMTP protocol.
 At the receiver's mail server, the POP or IMAP protocol takes
the data and transmits to the actual user.
 Mail Transmitted
29
 2. POP3
30

 POP3 allows an Email client to download an

Email from an Email server.
 The POP3 protocol is simple and does not

offer any features except for download.

 Its design assumes that the Email client

downloads all available Email from the server,

deletes them from the server and then
disconnects.
 POP3 uses port 110.
 2. POP3
31

 POP is an application layer internet standard

protocol.
 Since POP supports offline access to the messages,
thus requires less internet usage time.
 POP does not allow search facility.
 In order to access the messaged, it is necessary to
download them.
 It allows only one mailbox to be created on
server.
 It is not suitable for accessing non mail data.
 POP commands are generally abbreviated into
codes of three or four letters. Eg. STAT.
 3. IMAP
32

 IMAP stands for Internet Message Access

Protocol.
 IMAP shares many similar features with POP3.
 It, too, is a protocol that an Email client can use to
download Email from an Email server.
 However, IMAP includes many more features than
POP3.
 The IMAP protocol is designed to let users keep
their Email on the server.
 IMAP requires more disk space on the server and
more CPU resources than POP3, as all Emails are
stored on the server.
 3. IMAP
33

 By default, there are two ports used by

IMAP:
Port 143: It is a non-encrypted IMAP
port.
Port 993: This port is used when IMAP
client wants to connect through IMAP
securely.
 3. IMAP
34

 IMAP stands for Internet Message

Access Protocol. It was first proposed
in 1986. There exist five versions of
IMAP as follows:
1. Original IMAP
2. IMAP2
3. IMAP3
4. IMAP2bis
5. IMAP4
 3. IMAP
35

 IMAP allows the client program to

manipulate the e-mail message on the
server without downloading them on
the local computer.
 The e-mail is hold and maintained by
the remote server.
 It enables us to take any action such as
downloading, delete the mail without
reading the mail.
 3. IMAP
36

 It enables us to create, manipulate and

delete remote message folders called
mail boxes.
 IMAP enables the users to search the e-

mails.
 It allows concurrent access to multiple

mailboxes on multiple mail servers.

 Comparison of POP3 and IMAP
Sr. No. Key POP3 IMAP
37 Full Post Office Protocol 3 Internet Message Access
1
Form Protocol.
Compl POP3 is simple and only IMAP is complex and
exity mails can be allows to see all the
2
downloaded from your folders on the mail
inbox to local computer. server.
Ports POP3 listens on 110 and IMAP listens on 143 and
3 POP with SSL, POP3DS IMAP with SSL, IMAPDS
listens on 995 port. listens on 993 port
Multia POP3 suppots single IMAP supports multiple
ccess device to access the mail devices which can
4
at a time. access the mail at a
time.
 Comparison of POP3 and IMAP
Sr.38No. Key POP3 IMAP
Download In POP3, mail to be In IMAP, mail can be
5 downloaded first partially read before
then can be read. complete download.
Mail Mails cannot be IMAP allows to
6 Organize organized on mail organize mails on
server using POP3. mail server.
Update Mails cannot be IMAP allows to
Email created / updated create / update
7
/ deleted on mail /delete mails on mail
server using POP3. server.
 Comparison of POP3 and IMAP
Sr.No Key POP3 IMAP
39
Search Mail content cannot be Mail content can be
Content searched on mail server searched on mail server
8 using POP3. To search, using IMAP.
mail to be downloaded
first.
Downlo All message are Mail message header
ad downloaded at once. can be previewed
9
before a message is to
be downloaded
Change Using local email A mail can be updated
10 software, a mail can be via a web interface or
updated. email software.
40

Thank You . . . . . !