Chapter 10: Configuring and Maintaining E-Mail Services

Overview

E-mail services are an important part of most Internet, intranet, and extranet server operations. Often, you’ll find that applications installed on a server generate e-mails that need to be delivered or users connected to a server need to be able to send or receive e-mail. Microsoft Windows Server 2003 ships with several components that make this possible, including Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3).

SMTP is used to transfer and route e-mail messages. SMTP is available for installation as a component of Internet Information Services (IIS). Most organizations use the SMTP features in IIS to send e-mail rather than to allow World Wide Web servers to receive e-mail—and this is the purpose for which the SMTP service was designed. If you want to receive e-mail and store it on the server so that users and applications can retrieve it, you need to install POP3.

SMTP and POP3 are two of the three components that make up a typical e-mail system. The other component is a POP3 e-mail client that actually sends or receives e-mail using these protocols. Managing SMTP and POP3 is very different from any administration process you must perform in your normal duties as a Web administrator. Instead of managing content or file transfers, you’re managing the way in which e-mail messages are handled and delivered. Before diving in to core administration tasks, let’s look at fundamentals. A discussion of fundamentals will help build the essential background for successful e-mail services administration.