TCP/IP Direct Server Email Access

This final portion of the journey of a TCP/IP email message is usually the job of an email access and retrieval protocol like POP3 or IMAP4. These are customized protocols, by which I mean that they were created specifically for the last step of the email communication process. However, there are also several generic methods by which an email client can gain access to a mailbox, without the use of a special protocol.

These methods are all variations of the online email access model. They generally work by establishing direct access to the server where the mailbox is located. The mailbox itself is just a file on a server somewhere, so if that file can be made available, it can be viewed and manipulated like any ...

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