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Thor's section The TCP system type modules uses Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to
transfer your outgoing mail to your SMTP server machine, which in turn
uses SMTP to send your mail to the rest of the Internet. Mail from
the Internet arrives on your incoming Post Office Protocol (POP) mail
server, where it waits for Thor to pick it up with POP version 3. The
mail Thor sends and receives is constructed in accordance with RFC 822
and RFC 2045 (MIME). (See section MIME support in THOR.)
Outgoing mail
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When you send an e-mail message to someone, Thor uses SMTP to send the
mail to your local SMTP server computer. That computer then sends the
mail to your recipient's computer, also (usually) by means of the SMTP
protocol. Why doesn't Thor talk directly to your recipient's
computer? For one thing, it would take a lot longer for your mail to
leave your computer, because your computer would have to call up each
recipient's computer and deliver your mail. For another, some
computers are "hard to find"; it's much better to let another computer
"hunt" for your recipient than to make your computer do it. Finally,
sometimes your recipient's computers won't be available when you want
to send mail. The SMTP server handles this by holding your mail until
the other computer is ready to accept it, eliminating the
inconvenience of having unsent messages hanging around on your
computer. Usually, the SMTP server will hold your outgoing mail for
upto 5 days. If the mail could not be delivered within 5 days, the
mail is sent back to you with a descriptive error message (a so-called
"bounced mail").
Incoming mail
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When somebody sends you mail, other computers use the SMTP protocol to
deliver the mail to your POP server. Your POP server puts mail in
your "mail drop", where it stays until the Thor program picks it up.
When you check your mail, Thor uses POP version 3 to pick up your mail
and move it to your Amiga. Why doesn't Thor use SMTP to receive your
mail? SMTP works best when the computers it knows about are always
ready for mail. Unless you wanted to run Thor 24 hours per day, seven
days a week, SMTP wouldn't work very well for you. However, some
Internet providers offer mail via SMTP even on dialup connections (eg.
Demon UK). Thor will work well with this setup aswell, but you need a
separate SMTP server on you Amiga to receive mail with, but you can
still read the mail in Thor. Please see the Thor FAQ for further
information.
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