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Chapter 22

Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol
(SMTP)
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SMTP concept
(RFC 821, ISI, USC 1982)

Can send text, graphics, voice, video

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UAs and MTAs

User agent
(mail reader, prepares
the message, creates the
envelope, puts the
message in the envelope)

UA periodically checks
the milboxes and
informs the user by
giving a notice

Commonly used UNIX

MTA is sendmail

File
system

Mail transfer agent

(transfers the
commands, replies
and mail across the
Internet)

Ephemeral
port

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Well-known
TCP port 25

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Relay MTAs
The receivers server may be down and the
relaying MTA can store the mail and make
repeated attempts later to deliver mail to the
server for several days. If the recipient's
server is still unavailable, the mail will be
returned to the sender.

File
system

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File
system

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Mail gateway
Relaying system allows
connection between
parties who may or may
not have TCP/IP protocol
suite.

File
system

Protocol other
than SMTP
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USER AGENT (UA)

22-6

UA is defined by SMTP but the implementation is left to vendors.

Popular UA programs:
MH (Message Handler, Rand corporation)
BerkeleyMail
Elm
Zmail
Mush
Some user agents have an extra user interface (GUI):
Microsoft Outlook Express
Eudora
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USER AGENT (cont.)

22-7

Format of an E-mail

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USER AGENT (cont.)

E-mail address

Must define the local

physical network, the
host computer and the
user mailbox

marko@cs.sdsu.edu

Name of the mail

gateway in the
DNS data base

Mail server (Mail Exchanger):

cs.sdsu.edu (130.191.226.116)

Host ID: sciences.sdsu.edu (130.191.226.112)

User mailbox ID: marko
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Sender-site delay

22-9

SMTP allows delayed delivery

Messages stored before being sent. The mail

transfer system periodically (10 30 min)
checks if the mail can be sent (if the IP address
of the mail server has been obtained from the
DNS). After 3 5 days, the unsent mail is
returned to the sender.

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Receiver-site delay

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Mail received by the SMTP server is

stored in mailbox. User can read the mail
at her/his convenience.

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Aliases
SMTP allows that a single name
represent several different e-mil
addresses (one-to-many-alias
expansion)

SMTP also allows that

several e-mail addresses are
assigned to the same mailbox
(many-to-one-alias
expansion)

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One-to-many expansion

alias group john@nett.com joe@deanza.edu janet@mcgraw.com

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Many-to-one expansion

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Complete Email System

22-14

SMTP is a bidirectional
e-mail system, therefore both
ends must have an MTA
client and an MTA server.

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Commands and responses

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SMTP Commands

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Mandatory commands
(every implementation must support these)

SMTP Commands

Description

HELO cs.sdsu.edu

Client identifies itself, receiver sends back its domain n.

MAIL FROM: marko@cs.sdsu.edu

Initiate the mail transaction

RCPT TO: masc0860@rohan.sdsu.edu

Identify a single recipient. Multiple RCPT can be sent

DATA text CRLF . CRLF

The lines following DATA are the message, buffered

QUIT

Ask the receiver to send an OK and to close the connection

RSET

Abort the current transaction, reset the connection

SEND FROM: marko@cs.sdsu.edu

Message to be delivered to recipient's terminal, not to mbox

SOML FROM: marko@cs.sdsu.edu

Send or mail; to terminal if logged on, otherwise to mbox

SAML FROM: marko@cs.sdsu.edu

Send and mail; to terminal (if logged on) and to mbox

VRFY masc0860@rohan.sdsu.edu

Verify the address of the recipient

EXPN <mailing list (alias)>

Ask receiver to return the membership of the mailing list

HELP: <command>

Ask receiv. to send the information about indicated command

NOOP

Ask the receiver to send an OK

TURN

Most of the implementations do not support this

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Responses
Code

Descrition

Code

Descrition)

211

System status or help reply

354

Start mail input

214

Help message

421

Service not available

220

Service ready

450

Mailbox not available

221

Service closing transmission channel

451

Command aborted, local error

250

Request command completed

452

Command aborted, insufficient

storage

251

User not local, the message will be

forwarded

2xx Positive Completion Reply

3xx Positive Intermediate Reply
4xx Transient Negative Completion Reply
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Responses (cont.)
Code

Descrition

Code

Descrition)

500

Syntax error: unrecognized

command

550

Command not executed, mailbox not

available

501

Syntax error: bad parameters

551

User not local

502

Command not implemented

552

Requested action aborted: exceeded

storage location

503

Bad sequence of commands

553

Requested action not taken: mailbox

name not allowed

504

Command temporarily not

implemented

554

Transaction failed

5xx Permanent Negative Completion Reply

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Mail transfer phases:

Connection establishment
Message transfer
Connection termination

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Connection establishment

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Message transfer

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Message transfer (cont.)

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End of the text

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22-23

Connection termination

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Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)

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(RFC 2047, Univ. of Tennessee, 1996)

SMTP can send messages only in NVT 7-bit ASCII format
(problem with foreign languages that are not supported
by 7-bit ASCII. Cant send binary files and audio/video.)
Therefore the MIME is added on top of SMTP to allow
for non-ASCII data to be sent through SMTP.

MIME transforms data between

non-ASCII and NVT ASCII

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MIME header
MIME is a set of software functions that transform non-ASCII data to NVT
ASCII data and vice versa. Therefore the transformation parameters have to be
defined. This is done through an additional header.

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Data Types and Subtypes in MIME

Type

Description

Text

Plain

Unformatted text

Image

JPEG

Image is in JPEG format

GIF

Image is in GIF format

MPEG

Video is in MPEG format

Video

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Subtype

.......... ...........

..............................

Audio

Basic

Single channel voice encoding at 8 KHz

Application

PostScript

Adobe PostScript

Octet-Stream

General 8-bit data (8-bit bytes)

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Content-Transfer-Encoding
Type

Very
popular

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Description

7-bit

NVT ASCII characters and short lines (less than 1000

characters)

8-bit

Non-ASCII characters and short lines

binary

Non-ASCII characters with unlimited-length lines

Base64

6-bit blocks are encoded into 8-bit ASCII characters

Quotedprintable

Non-ASCII characters are encoded as an equal sign

followed by an ASCII code

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Base64
Has 1 at the
beginning

8*3 = 6*4

Binary values
are converted
into printable
ASCII characters
(see next slide)

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Numbers
between
0 and 63

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Base64 Encoding Table

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22-30

Email delivery

Remote server
The remote server receives
mail from the local server,
then stores it into users
mailbox
The client send the mail to the local
server (the remote server may not be
available, therefore the mail is stored in
local server until it can be sent). Local
server acts then as a client and sends the
mail to the remote server
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The remote UA uses a

mail access protocol
(POP3 or IMAP4) to
access the mailbox

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Post Office Protocol (POP3)

SMTP is a push
protocol
(it pushes mail
from the sender
to the receivers
mail box.

Another mail access

protocol is IMAP4
(Internet Mail Access
Protocol).
Has more features

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POP3 is a mail
access protocol
(mail reader)
which is not
part of the
SMTP.
POP3 is a
pull protocol
(the receiving
user is pulling
the mail from
the mailbox)

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