Chapter 2: A Guide to E-Mail Standards

Chapter 2: A Guide to E-Mail Standards

Overview

One respect in which the electronic mail market is no different from any other communications product is that it?s packed with incompatible standards. If you pick the wrong software package, there?s a good chance that it won?t let you expand later or send messages to another mail system.

If you want a self-contained mail system, with no interface to any other one, then you?re in a safe position and unlikely to be worried by which standard the software uses. However, most companies will want to expand their mail system. Perhaps they need to send mail to a new supplier, they?ve bought another company with a different system, or they need to add in remote users. Whichever way you want to expand your e-mail system and connect to other networks and message formats, you?ll come up against the incompatibility of e-mail standards.

This chapter covers the main standards and messaging systems used to transfer e-mail. For coverage of addressing schemes and directory standards, read Chapters 3 and 4 .

Compatibility

Why do we need standards for e-mail? The standards generally define two parts of the e-mail jigsaw. Their prime use is to provide a fixed method of defining the e-mail header that contains the sender?s name and address, the name and address of the recipient, and the message itself. In addition to these basic details are extras that provide level of service (normal or urgent delivery), receipt, attachments, and so on. The...

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Chapter 2: A Guide to E-Mail Standards

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