Review:

1

• Review
• How do we address a network end-point?
• What services are provided by the Internet?
• What is the network logical topology observed by
  a network application?
• Describe how an application is associated with a
  network end-point.
• What is the sequence of system calls in a server?
• What is the sequence of system calls in a client?
• When is the connection established?
• This class
• the email system

2
Electronic Mail

• Four major components
• user agents
• mail servers
• Internet message format
• mail transfer protocol SMTP
• User Agent
• a.k.a. mail reader
• composing, editing, reading mail messages
• e.g., Eudora, Outlook, elm, Netscape Messenger
• outgoing, incoming messages stored on server

3
Electronic Mail mail servers

• Mail Servers
• mailbox contains incoming messages for user
• message queue of outgoing (to be sent) mail
  messages
• SMTP protocol between mail servers to send email
  messages
• client sending mail server
• server receiving mail server

4
Electronic Mail SMTP RFC 2821

• uses TCP to reliably transfer email message from
  client to server, port 25
• direct transfer sending server to receiving
  server
• three phases of transfer
• handshaking (greeting)
• transfer of messages
• closure
• command/response interaction
• commands ASCII text
• response status code and phrase
• messages must be in 7-bit ASCII

5
Scenario Alice sends message to Bob

• 4) SMTP client sends Alices message over the TCP
  connection
• 5) Bobs mail server places the message in Bobs
  mailbox
• 6) Bob invokes his user agent to read message

• 1) Alice uses UA to compose message and to
  bob_at_someschool.edu
• 2) Alices UA sends message to her mail server
  message placed in message queue
• 3) Client side of SMTP opens TCP connection with
  Bobs mail server

1
2
6
3
4
5
6

• SMTP commands
• HELO
• MAIL FROM
• RCPT TO
• DATA
• QUIT
• And some others

7
Sample SMTP interaction
S 220 hamburger.edu C HELO crepes.fr
S 250 Hello crepes.fr, pleased to meet
you C MAIL FROM ltalice_at_crepes.frgt
S 250 alice_at_crepes.fr... Sender ok C RCPT
TO ltbob_at_hamburger.edugt S 250
bob_at_hamburger.edu ... Recipient ok C DATA
S 354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line
by itself C Do you like ketchup? C
How about pickles? C . S 250
Message accepted for delivery C QUIT
S 221 hamburger.edu closing connection
8
Try SMTP interaction for yourself

• telnet servername 25
• see 220 reply from server
• enter HELO, MAIL FROM, RCPT TO, DATA, QUIT
  commands
• above lets you send email without using email
  client (reader)

9
A few words about SMTP

• SMTP uses persistent connections
• SMTP requires message (header body) to be in
  7-bit ASCII
• SMTP server uses CRLF.CRLF to determine end of
  message
• To facilitate user communication (between
  different user agents), we need a uniform message
  format in addition to SMTP.

10
Mail message format RFC 822
header

• RFC 822 standard for text message format
• header lines, e.g.,
• To
• From
• Subject
• different from SMTP commands!
• body
• the message, ASCII characters only

blank line
body
11
Message format multimedia extensions

• MIME multimedia mail extension, RFC 2045, 2056
• additional lines in msg header declare MIME
  content type

MIME version
method used to encode data
multimedia data type, subtype, parameter
declaration
encoded data
12

• In the mail folder, more header lines are usually
  added
• Date Wed, 24 Aug 2005 164215 -0400 (EDT)
• From Xin Yuan ltxyuan_at_cs.fsu.edugt
• To Xin Yuan ltxyuan_at_cs.fsu.edugt
• Subject example
• Message-ID ltPine.GSO.4.61.0508241642001.1679_at_diab
  lo.cs.fsu.edugt
• MIME-Version 1.0
• Content-Type TEXT/PLAIN charsetUS-ASCII
  formatflowed
• X-Spam-Checker-Version SpamAssassin 2.63
  (2004-01-11) on mail.cs.fsu.edu
• X-Spam-Level
• X-Spam-Status No, hits-4.9 required8.0
  testsBAYES_00 autolearnno
• version2.63
• Status RO
• X-Status
• X-Keywords
• X-UID 1
• This is an example.

13
Mail access protocols
SMTP
access protocol
receivers mail server

• SMTP delivery/storage to receivers server
• Mail access
• Sharing the file system with the server.
• No common file system, need mail access protocol
• POP Post Office Protocol RFC 1939
• authorization (agent lt--gtserver) and download
• IMAP Internet Mail Access Protocol RFC 1730
• manipulation of stored msgs on server
• HTTP Hotmail , Yahoo! Mail, etc.

14
POP3 protocol
S OK POP3 server ready C user bob S OK
C pass hungry S OK user successfully logged
on

• authorization phase
• client commands
• user declare username
• pass password
• server responses
• OK
• -ERR
• transaction phase, client
• list list message numbers
• retr retrieve message by number
• dele delete
• quit

C list S 1 498 S 2 912
S . C retr 1 S ltmessage 1
contentsgt S . C dele 1 C retr
2 S ltmessage 1 contentsgt S .
C dele 2 C quit S OK POP3 server
signing off
15

• The UNIX mail utility and its implementation
  issues.
• Read message
• Mail folder format
• Compose
• SMTP requires Sender/Receiver
• Message body.
• Reply
• Forward
• List