E-mail Past Present and Future: Migrating towards IMAP

1. E-mail Past Present and Future: Migrating towards IMAP Mark V Silis Manager Network Services April 19, 2005 Mark Silis

2. Overview • History of Electronic Mail • The Post Office Protocol (POP) • The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) Mark Silis

3. History of Electronic Mail • Originally developed as a method for the systems administrators to notify mainframe users of the system circa 1965 • Paradigm changed with the birth of ARPAnet in 1969, the goal was to extend the functionality of the original • By 1972 there were methods to send e-mail from one machine to another • Ray Tomlinson is frequently credited with inventing e-mail. Although can anyone identify his major contribution to e-mail? Mark Silis

4. From Mainframes to Workstations • By the early 1980s MIT’s project Athena and CMU’s project Andrew pioneer the concept of the workstation • E-mail paradigm also began to change from a workstation to workstation system into a client server application • Client server applications require standards and protocols…. Mark Silis

5. The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) • Also known as RFC 821 • Provides host to host mail transport over TCP/IP using internet port 25 • Allows users to send e-mail messages from their mail client to other users on the internet • Designed at a time where the Internet was a “safe place” and everyone was a “good guy”, much to our regret • Does not provide for authentication of submitted e-mail messages Mark Silis

6. The Post Office Protocol (POP) • Also known as RFC 1939 or POP3 • Allows for local clients retrieving e-mail messages from a remote server over TCP/IP • Several variations of POP exist, including SPOP, APOP and KPOP. • Kerberized POP or KPOP was developed here at MIT as part of the Athena computing environment • E-mail is only stored on the remote server temporarily until local client can pick up the messages, unless you use leave mail on server…. Mark Silis

7. Early Generation Mail Clients • Unix’s Mail Handler programs (MH) • MIT’s TechMail • Countless other homegrown clients • The early generation of e-mail client landscape was marked by variety • As desktop computers began to mature in the early 1990s and network connectivity became more common, we begin to see the first commercial e-mail clients Mark Silis

8. Qualcomm’s Eudora Pro • Introduced to the MIT community in the mid 1990s to replace TechMail • Supported Kerberos based POP (KPOP) • Provided support for hesiod based lookups of PO server based on username • Offered integration with our On-line directory using the finger and PH protocols • Supported both the Macintosh and Windows platforms • By 1997 the predominant e-mail client at MIT Mark Silis

9. Microsoft’s Outlook • First released as Outlook 97 in 1997 • Designed to work in conjunction with Microsoft’s Exchange 5.0 server • Lacked support for Kerberos POP (KPOP), hesiod and On-line directory integration • Early releases were not viable with MIT’s e-mail infrastructure Mark Silis

10. From Client Server to the WWW • In the late 1990s we see a trend towards more mobile computing as laptops become smaller, network connectivity is increasingly ubiquitous and the .COMs are booming • E-mail service providers (Hotmail, Yahoo etc…) begin offering their services to clients via the Web, and move away from thick clients • Web based e-mail services allow users easy access to their e-mail from anywhere in the world, and remove the burden of maintaining desktop software compatibility Mark Silis

11. MIT’s Webmail Service • Introduced to the MIT community in 2000 • Provides members of the MIT community access to their MIT e-mail from any web browser • Supports a user community accessing e-mail from more than one location • Presents new challenges as the traditional mail access methods (POP/KPOP) are designed for a single client accessing and storing their mail on a single workstation • A different protocol is necessary for this new paradigm… Mark Silis

12. Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) • Also known as RFC 2060 • Provides a method for local clients accessing a mail store on a remote share or server • Supports multiple computers accessing new and saved messages from multiple locations • Supports authentication with Kerberos and username password over an encrypted SSL connection Mark Silis

13. SMTP Authentication • Spammers take advantage of other site’s mail servers and “hijack” them for broadcasting their unwanted messages • Continued abuse of SMTP servers by spammers requires service providers to limit access to their resources • SMTP authentication provides a method for users to authenticate to their service provider before being permitted to send their message • E-mail client support for SMTP authentication initially limited Mark Silis

14. MIT Mail Client Standards • Support the IMAP protocol w/ SSL as the default for accessing mail stored on MIT’s mail servers • Utilize LDAP for accessing information in MIT’s on-line directory, instead of the finger or ph protocols • Support authenticated SMTP for sending mail using MIT’s outgoing mail servers Mark Silis

15. Migrating from POP to IMAP • A dwindling few vendors provide support for our KPOP implementation • IMAP is the strategic direction for e-mail client standards used by 3rd party vendor such as Microsoft and Apple • Provides better support for our user community as their computing continues to become truly mobile • POP puts a significantly higher load on the MIT mail server’s resources than IMAP • Majority of our user community has already migrated to IMAP at this time • Simplifies end user support and software maintenance Mark Silis

16. Next Generation Mail Clients • Microsoft’s Outlook client using IMAP w/ SSL • Apple’s Mail App • TechTime’s Oracle Connector for Outlook • Eudora Pro version 5.2.1 and later • Snapper Mail • Versa Mail • A wide variety of web based e-mail solutions Mark Silis

17. The End • Questions??? • Comments • Or Donations Mark Silis