Which domains does debonne.net host mail service for? Click on "Home" button to see the list. What is a mail server? A mail server is a program or a collective group of programs that handle e-mail (electronic mail), the exchange of computer-stored messages by telecommunication. (Some publications spell it email; most prefer the currently more established spelling of e-mail.) E-mail messages are usually encoded in ASCII text. However, you can also send non-text files, such as graphic images and sound files, as attachments sent in binary streams. E-mail was one of the first uses of the Internet and is still the most popular use. A large percentage of the total traffic over the Internet is e-mail. E-mail can also be exchanged between online service users and in networks other than the Internet, both public and private. Debonne.net supports SMTP, POP3 and IMAP protocols. The most popular protocol for sending e-mail is SMTP and a popular protocol for receiving it is POP3. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending and receiving e-mail. However, since it's limited in its ability to queue messages at the receiving end, it's usually used with one of two other protocols, POP3 or IMAP, that let the user save messages in a server mailbox and download them periodically from the server. In other words, users typically use a program that uses SMTP for sending e-mail and either POP3 or IMAP for receiving messages that have been received for them at their local server. Most mail programs such as Eudora let you specify both an SMTP server and a POP server. On UNIX-based systems such as debonne.net, sendmail is the most widely-used SMTP server (program) for e-mail. A commercial package, Sendmail, includes a POP3 server and also comes in a version for Windows NT. POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is the most recent version of a standard protocol for receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. Periodically, you (or rather your client e-mail program, ie; Claris, Eudora, etcetera) check your mail-box on the server and download any mail. POP3 is also built into the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. IMAP (Interactive Mail Access Protocol) An alternative protocol is IMAP (Interactive Mail Access Protocol). With IMAP, you view your e-mail at the server as though it was on your client computer. An e-mail message deleted locally is still on the server. E-mail can be kept on and searched at the server. With IMAP you can also create and manipulate folders or mailboxes on the server, delete messages, or search for certain parts or an entire note. IMAP requires continual access to the server during the time that you are working with your mail. POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service. IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server. POP and IMAP deal with the receiving of e-mail and are not to be confused with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a protocol for transferring e-mail across the Internet. You send e-mail with SMTP and a mail handler receives it on your recipient's behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP. Bottom Line? You send e-mail with SMTP and a mail handler receives it on your recipient's behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP.