[ih] Chatting about email

[Dave Crocker]

I'd been ignoring the current focus on the latest AI wonder, but finally 
broke down and as a single question twice, with one significant change.  
Both answers look credible to me, though I continue to kick myself for 
not making RFC 822 have an acronym...

what is the design of internet mail?

The design of internet mail is based on the concept of sending messages 
between devices on a network using a standardized protocol. This allows 
devices on different networks to communicate with each other by sending 
and receiving messages through a network of servers that use the 
protocol to transmit the messages from one device to another. The 
protocol used for internet mail is called the Simple Mail Transfer 
Protocol (SMTP). This protocol defines a set of rules and commands that 
are used to send and receive mail messages between devices on a network.

dhc2 at dcrocker.net
what is the architecture of internet email

The architecture of internet email involves several different components 
that work together to enable the sending and receiving of email 
messages. Here is a brief overview of the main components of the 
internet email architecture:

  *

    Mail user agents (MUAs): These are the client applications that
    users interact with to compose, send, receive, and read email
    messages. Examples of MUAs include email programs like Microsoft
    Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird, as well as web-based email services
    like Gmail and Yahoo Mail.

  *

    Mail transfer agents (MTAs): These are the servers that are
    responsible for transmitting email messages between different
    networks. When a user sends an email message using an MUA, the
    message is passed to an MTA, which then delivers the message to the
    appropriate MTA on the recipient's network.

  *

    Mailbox servers: These are the servers that store email messages on
    behalf of users. When an MTA delivers an email message to a
    recipient's network, the message is passed to the recipient's
    mailbox server, which then stores the message in the user's mailbox.

  *

    Message store: This is the database or file system where the mailbox
    server stores the email messages for each user.

  *

    Protocols: The architecture of internet email relies on a number of
    different protocols to facilitate the transmission and storage of
    messages. The most important of these protocols are SMTP, which is
    used to transmit messages between MTAs, and the Post Office Protocol
    (POP) or the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), which are used
    by MUAs to retrieve messages from the mailbox server.

Overall, the architecture of internet email is designed to allow users 
to send and receive messages quickly and reliably, regardless of the 
devices they are using or the networks they are connected to.

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
mast:@dcrocker at mastodon.social