E-mailThis chapter is (Personal web server) all about using PHP (and,
E-mailThis chapter is all about using PHP (and, in some cases, databases) to send and receive e-mail. It assumes a very basic familiaritywith e-mail systems and protocols such as POP, IMAP, and SMTP. Understanding E-mailE-mail is obviously one of the killer apps of the Internet, and it s beenaround in basically the same form for years. But judging from postingsto the PHP and other mailing lists, there are few more misunderstoodor frustrating topics even now. Because recent developments such ascheaper connectivity, free server operating systems, and the explosionof new domains have made it possible for everyone and his grand- mother to run their own mail servers, there s a lot of frustration togoaround. We don t have the space or the expertise to explain every detail ofe-mail. If you become fascinated with the topic after our necessarilyshort synopsis, you will want to immediately visit the Web site of theInternational Mail Consortium, at www.imc.org, which will explain indizzying detail every abstruse jot and tittle of Internet mail that themost exacting computer scientist s heart could desire. In the mean- time, we ll stick to the quickest and dirtiest of conceptual explanations. To help you visualize the considerable number of moving partsinvolved, we re going to build a simple model mail server. This explanation will mostly use Unix terms, for the simple reasonthat the vocabulary of e-mail was perfected long before Microsoft orLotus came along. Exchange Server is quite likely very similar under- neath it even has a daemon called sendmail but who knows forsure, because we can t lift the hood. Vendors of proprietary softwarealso have the annoying habit of making up their own terminology forthings rather than using the names everyone knows already, a practicethat considerably hinders anyone trying to understand these systemsin an abstract, cross-platform way. Finally, most proprietary mail sys- tems these days are incorporated into very powerful groupwarepackages that confuse the issue even more. For these reasons, Unixmail servers are undoubtedly easier to learn from and implement. We are mentioning specific products so that you can contact the man- ufacturers directly to learn more about these pieces of the puzzle. This does not constitute a recommendation. We have deliberatelychosen to list only products that are available without monetary cost. 3737CHAPTER …In This ChapterUnderstanding e-mailReceiving e-mail with PHPSending e-mail with e-mailapplicationsE-mail gotchas …
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