Programming Internet Email

Programming Internet Email

The Internet's "killer app" is not the World Wide Web or Push technologies: it is humble electronic mail. More people use email than any other Internet application. As the number of email users swells, and as email takes on an ever greater role in personal and business communication, Internet mail protocols have become not just an enabling technology for messaging, but a programming interface on top of which core applications are built.Programming Internet Email unmasks the Internet Mail System and shows how a loose federation of connected networks have combined to form the world's largest and most heavily trafficked message system.Programming Internet Email tames the Internet's most popular messaging service. For programmers building applications on top of email capabilities, and power users trying to get under the hood of their own email systems, Programming Internet Email stands out as an essential guide and reference book. In typical O'Reilly fashion,Programming Internet Email covers the topic with nineteen tightly written chapters and five useful appendixes.Following a thorough introduction to the Internet Mail System, the book is divided into five parts: Part I covers email formats, from basic text messages to the guts of MIME. Secure email message formats (OpenPGP and S/MIME), mailbox formats and other commonly used formats are detailed in this reference section. Part II describes Internet email protocols: SMTP and ESMTP, POP3 and IMAP4. Each protocol is covered in detail to expose the Internet Mail System's inner workings. Part III provides a solid API reference for programmers working in Perl and Java. Class references are given for commonly used Perl modules that relate to email and the Java Mail API. Part IV provides clear and concise examples of how to incorporate email capabilities into your applications. Examples are given in both Perl and Java. Part V covers the future of email on the Internet. Means and methods for controlling spam email and newly proposed Internet mail protocols are discussed. Appendixes to Programming Internet Email provide a host of explanatory information and useful references for the programmer and avid user alike, including a comprehensive list of Internet RFCs relating to email, MIME types and a list of email related URLs. Programming Internet Email will answer all of your questions about mail and extend your abilities into this most popular messaging frontier.

Postfix: The Definitive Guide

Postfix is a Mail Transfer Agent (MTA): software that mail servers use to route email. Postfix is highly respected by experts for its secure design and tremendous reliability. And new users like it because it's so simple to configure. In fact, Postfix has been adopted as the default MTA on Mac OS X. It is also compatible with sendmail, so that existing scripts and programs continue to work seamlesslyafter it is installed.Postfix was written by well-known security expert Wietse Venema, who reviewed this book intensively during its entire development. Author Kyle Dent covers a wide range of Postfix tasks, from virtual hosting to controls for unsolicited commercial email.While basic configuration of Postfix is easy, every site has unique needs that call for a certain amount of study. This book, with careful background explanations and generous examples, eases readers from the basic configuration to the full power of Postfix. It discusses the Postfix interfaces to various tools that round out a fully scalable and highly secure email system. These tools include POP, IMAP, LDAP, MySQL, Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL), and Transport Layer Security (TLS, an upgrade of SSL). A reference section for Postfix configuration parameters and an installation guide are included.Topics include: Basic installation and configuration DNS configuration for email Working with POP/IMAP servers Hosting multiple domains (virtual hosting) Mailing lists Handling unsolicited email (spam blocking) Security through SASL and TLS From compiling and installing Postfix to troubleshooting, Postfix: The Definitive Guide offers system administrators and anyone who deals with Postfix an all-in-one, comprehensive tutorial and reference to this MTA.

Programming Internet Email