What are Mail Servers, Mail Clients and Mail Protocols

E-mailing is the most suitable approach to communicate with friends, family members, employees and colleagues, etc. For now days it becomes the first choice for professionals to sending or sharing information within organizations.

Today’s I am going to explain what techniques are used behind the emailing process. Mail servers, mail clients and mail protocols play a vital role to send or receive an email internally. So read this article and get the complete details about Mail clients, types & difference of mail clients, Mail servers, Mail protocols and types of protocols etc.  

 

What About Mail Server?

A mail server is a computer that is used to send, receive or store emails for its users. It’s also known as MTA (mail transfer agent), an internet mailer or a mail router that allows receiving incoming emails from local users and forwarding emails for delivery.

1. Every ISP has at least 1 mailbox on its server.
2. This mailbox has:

• A unique name called as the logon name.
• The email address that comprises of the logon name and the domain name of the ISP. E.g.:- xyz@example.com

Where xyz is the logon name & example.com is the domain name.

What is Mail Client?

 

The mail client is a program in the computer that has access to the emails on the server like Outlook Express, MS Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird and Apple mail, etc. It allows users to send, receiving and accessing emails through the browser as well as desktop.

There are 2 Kinds of Email Clients:

 

1. Web Based Email Client: Web based email allow the user to access emails by web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, etc. when you want to download emails; they are downloaded on the server and not in your hard disk. The emails remain on the server until you download them and once you do so the emails on the server are deleted.Examples: - Gmail, Yahoo mail, etc.
2. Desktop Based Email Client: Desktop based email clients are the programs in your computer which you use to access your emails. In this you can save your emails on the hard disk and can utilize them in future. Examples: - MS Outlook, Thunderbird.

Difference B/W Web Based & Desktop Based Email Client

1 Default storage: In web-based email you can save your emails on the server and not on the desktop, whereas in desktop based email client you can save your emails on your hard disk and server.

2) Access to emails: Web based email client you cannot have access to your emails when you are offline. Whereas in desktop based mail client you can access your emails in offline mode also.

3) Size limit: There is usually a size limit in web based email client as the server can store emails up to some limit. Whereas you can store limitless data on your hard drives to save your emails.

4) Sending & receiving mails: In web based mail client you can send & receive mails, but you cannot send & receive mails in a desktop based client in case offline.

Detailed Information About Mail Protocols

 

In order to work with your email you need use a mail client to access a mail server. Generally Protocols are the rules for interacting between a mail server and a mail client. Some of the most used protocols are discussed below:

There are Mainly 4 Types of Protocols

 

1) POP3 (Post Office Protocol): It is a widely used protocol used for retrieving mails from the server. In this the mails are stored on the server till the time you have not downloaded them.

As soon as you download the mails, the client signals the server to delete the server’s copy. Microsoft Outlook uses POP3 protocol.

2) SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): SMTP is responsible for sending all the emails. But these emails are infected with viruses. Thus to prevent spam and fraudulent the ISP have put restrictions on using SMTP servers. Methods for detecting authorized users:

• Configuration of SMTP server to receive emails from computers that are connected to modem, cable, etc.
• Use the sender’s address and rejection of all the emails from other addresses that haven’t been hosted by ISP.
• Use the same logon name and password as that of POP3 to access SMTP.
• POP3 before SMTP i.e. first log in with POP3 and then access to SMTP for some time is given.

3) IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): It has the same function as that of POP3 but varies in the fact that by default keeps a copy of the received email on the server. When you delete an email, you are deleting both the local copy and the server copy. Thus to prevent accidental deletion it has got a purge command and undelete command.

• Advantage: As compared to POP3, IMAP gives you the advantage of working on your emails anytime & anywhere. You can also arrange the emails in an organized manner.
• Disadvantage: Since the ISP provide a limited amount of space in a mailbox; the IMAP mailbox will fill quickly than a POP3 mailbox.

4) HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol):  The most common email provider which uses HTTP is MS Outlook. It works in the same manner as IMAP; saves the email to the client & on the server as well. But the only way in which it differs from IMAP is that it does not have purge option or undelete option. You can retrieve your deleted messages by dragging it back to the inbox.

Conclusion: All the basic concepts related to emailing process are discussed above. By reading the entire article you will able to identify what is an email client, email server and email protocols, etc. If you like the above listed information then share your experience through putting a comment below. Or if you have any query related to the post, then discuss your query through comments we will be happy to help you :)