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How mail is received and sent

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
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
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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