Please Whitelist This Site?

I know everyone hates ads. But please understand that I am providing premium content for free that takes hundreds of hours of time to research and write. I don't want to go to a pay-only model like some sites, but when more and more people block ads, I end up working for free. And I have a family to support, just like you. :)

If you like The TCP/IP Guide, please consider the download version. It's priced very economically and you can read all of it in a convenient format without ads.

If you want to use this site for free, I'd be grateful if you could add the site to the whitelist for Adblock. To do so, just open the Adblock menu and select "Disable on tcpipguide.com". Or go to the Tools menu and select "Adblock Plus Preferences...". Then click "Add Filter..." at the bottom, and add this string: "@@||tcpipguide.com^$document". Then just click OK.

Thanks for your understanding!

Sincerely, Charles Kozierok
Author and Publisher, The TCP/IP Guide


NOTE: Using software to mass-download the site degrades the server and is prohibited.
If you want to read The TCP/IP Guide offline, please consider licensing it. Thank you.

The Book is Here... and Now On Sale!

Enjoy The TCP/IP Guide? Get the complete PDF!
The TCP/IP Guide

Custom Search







Table Of Contents  The TCP/IP Guide
 9  TCP/IP Application Layer Protocols, Services and Applications (OSI Layers 5, 6 and 7)
      9  TCP/IP Key Applications and Application Protocols
           9  TCP/IP File and Message Transfer Applications and Protocols (FTP, TFTP, Electronic Mail, USENET, HTTP/WWW, Gopher)
                9  TCP/IP Electronic Mail System: Concepts and Protocols (RFC 822, MIME, SMTP, POP3, IMAP)
                     9  TCP/IP Electronic Mail Access and Retrieval Protocols and Methods
                          9  Other TCP/IP Electronic Mail Access and Retrieval Methods

Previous Topic/Section
TCP/IP Direct Server Electronic Mail Access
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
2
Next Page
Usenet (Network News) and the TCP/IP Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
Next Topic/Section

TCP/IP World Wide Web Electronic Mail Access
(Page 1 of 2)

I don't know about you, but I was pretty darned glad when bell bottoms went out of style… and then, rather mortified when they came back in style a few years ago! That's the way the world of fashion is, I suppose. And sometimes, even in networking, “what's old is new again”. In this case, I am referring to the use of the online TCP/IP e-mail access model.

Most e-mail users like the advantages of online access, especially the ability to read mail from a variety of different machines. What they don't care for is direct server access using protocols like Telnet (“Tel-what?”), UNIX (“my father used to use that I think…” J) and non-intuitive, character-based e-mail programs. They want online access but they want it to be simple and easy to use.

In the 1990s, the World Wide Web was developed and grew in popularity very rapidly, due in large part to its ease of use. Millions of people became accustomed to firing up a Web browser to perform a variety of different tasks, to the point where using the Web became almost “second nature”. It didn't take very long before someone figured out that using the Web would be a natural way of providing easy access to e-mail on a server. This is now sometimes called Webmail.

How Web-Based E-Mail Works

This technique is straight-forward: it exploits the flexibility of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to informally “tunnel” e-mail from a mailbox server to the client. A Web browser (client) is opened and given a URL for a special Web server document that accesses the user's mailbox. The Web server reads information from the mailbox and sends it to the Web browser, where it is displayed to the user.

This method uses the online access model like direct server access, because requests must be sent to the Web server, and this requires the user to be online. The mail also remains on the server as when NFS or Telnet are used.


Previous Topic/Section
TCP/IP Direct Server Electronic Mail Access
Previous Page
Pages in Current Topic/Section
1
2
Next Page
Usenet (Network News) and the TCP/IP Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
Next Topic/Section

If you find The TCP/IP Guide useful, please consider making a small Paypal donation to help the site, using one of the buttons below. You can also donate a custom amount using the far right button (not less than $1 please, or PayPal gets most/all of your money!) In lieu of a larger donation, you may wish to consider purchasing a download license of The TCP/IP Guide. Thanks for your support!
Donate $2
Donate $5
Donate $10
Donate $20
Donate $30
Donate: $



Home - Table Of Contents - Contact Us

The TCP/IP Guide (http://www.TCPIPGuide.com)
Version 3.0 - Version Date: September 20, 2005

© Copyright 2001-2005 Charles M. Kozierok. All Rights Reserved.
Not responsible for any loss resulting from the use of this site.