What are the two main protocols used by computers to move e-mails around?

Question

Its a question I need to answer for my I.T homework. I cant find the answer, can you help?

Answer 1

smtp & pop

look at this site, it might help you out:
http://www.opus1.com/www/presentations/EMAILPROTO/

Answer 2

The primary protocol used to move e-mail around is SMTP, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It is responsible for the transfer of messages between servers and delivery to the end-user's mailbox.

There are several protocols in wide use for moving mail from a user's mailbox to their mail client. Others have mentioned POP3 (Post Office Protocol, version 3) but I'd hazard a guess that the most common protocol used for displaying e-mail today is actually HTTP. If you read your e-mail in a web browser as most Yahoo users do, you're using HTTP, the protocol of the web.

If you use an e-mail client such as Outlook Express then by far the most commonly used protocol is POP3. Most clients also support IMAP4, a protocol that keeps copies of all mail on the mail server by default and provides a bit of redundancy -- if your machine crashes you won't lose all of your e-mail. For whatever reason it never really took off though I prefer it to POP3. Many also support secure versions of POP3 and IMAP4.

In the corporate workspace lesser known protocols are in wide use and may actually be more popular that their more widely known cousins as a function of total message traffic. X400 over RPC is used by Microsoft Exchange when it communicates with Outlook clients in its native mode.

The short answer for your "IT homework" is probably SMTP and POP3, but that is really an incomplete answer

Answer 3

In our days you can't just say 2.

There is a new one called, IMAP, even google is using imap now to connect the new ipone to the gmail.

So the main 3 are:

SMTP Protocol:
The SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) protocol is used by the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) to deliver your eMail to the recipient's mail server. The SMTP protocol can only be used to send emails, not to receive them. Depending on your network / ISP settings, you may only be able to use the SMTP protocol under certain conditions (see incoming and outgoing mail servers

POP3 Protocol:
The POP (Post Office Protocol 3) protocol provides a simple, standardized way for users to access mailboxes and download messages to their computers.

When using the POP protocol all your eMail messages will be downloaded from the mail server to your local computer. You can choose to leave copies of your eMails on the server as well. The advantage is that once your messages are downloaded you can cut the internet connection and read your eMail at your leisure without incuring further communication costs. On the other hand you might have transferred a lot of message (including spam or viruses) in which you are not at all interested at this point.

And finally IMAP Protocol:
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) – Is a standard protocol for accessing e-mail from your local server. IMAP is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. As this requires only a small data transfer this works well even over a slow connection such as a modem. Only if you request to read a specific email message will it be downloaded from the server. You can also create and manipulate folders or mailboxes on the server, delete messages etc.

I hope it helps.

Quiosque Virtual
http://www.quiosque-virtual.pt

Answer 4

Simple mail transfer protocol-Port 25 and Post Office Protocol-Port 110

Answer 5

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) - To send emails
Post Office Protocol (POP) - Used to retrive emails

Answer 6

The two main protocols are SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

Answer 7

http://www.rebol.com/docs/core23/rebolcore-13.html

Answer 8

Pop3 and SMTP