| If you examine the "Internet Mail and Utilities" section of CPAN, you'll find a bewildering array of similarly named modules. This is a quick guide to the major components . Net::SMTP This allows you to interact directly with mail transport daemons in order to send Internet mail via the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). The module also provides access to some of the other functions of these daemons, such as expanding e-mail aliases. MailTools This is a higher-level way to create outgoing e-mail. It uses a variety of local mailer packages to do the grunt work. MIME-Tools This is a package of modules for creating, decoding, and manipulating Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), commonly known as attachments. Net::POP3 This is a client for the Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3). It provides a way to retrieve a user 's stored mail messages from a central maildrop . Net::IMAP This is a client module for the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), a sophisticated protocol for storing and synchronizing e-mail messages between mail drops and clients . This chapter discusses tools involved in creating outgoing mail, including Net::SMTP and MIME-Tools. Chapter 8 covers the Net::POP3 and Net::IMAP modules, both of which are involved in processing incoming mail. | 
