170 likes | 381 Views
E-mail Past Present and Future: Migrating towards IMAP. Mark V Silis Manager Network Services April 19, 2005. Overview. History of Electronic Mail The Post Office Protocol (POP) The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). History of Electronic Mail.
E N D
E-mail Past Present and Future: Migrating towards IMAP Mark V Silis Manager Network Services April 19, 2005 Mark Silis
Overview • History of Electronic Mail • The Post Office Protocol (POP) • The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) Mark Silis
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The End • Questions??? • Comments • Or Donations Mark Silis