Technical data

Conﬁguring and Managing the POP Server

The Post Ofﬁce Protocol (POP) server and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

(SMTP) server software work together to provide reliable mail management in a

client/server environment.

The POP server acts as an interface to the mail repository. It accepts and stores

mail messages for you, even when your client system is not connected, and

forwards those messages to you at your request. POP is used mostly by PC

clients to ensure that mail is received and retained even when the system is not

connected to the network.

After the POP server is enabled on your system, you can modify the default

characteristics by deﬁning logical names.

This chapter reviews key POP concepts and describes:

• How to start up and shut down the POP server (Section 18.2)

• How to modify POP server characteristics (Section 18.3)

• How to enable MIME mail using POP (Section 18.4)

• How to solve POP problems (Section 18.5)

18.1 Key Concepts

The POP server is an implementation of the Post Ofﬁce Protocol Version 3 server

(the public domain IUPOP3 server) speciﬁed in RFC 1725.

The POP server is intended to be used as a mail repository for:

• PC systems that may not be connected to a network for periods of time

• Smaller nodes that may not have sufﬁcient resources to keep an SMTP server

and associated local mail delivery system resident and continuously running

With POP, mail is delivered to a shared mail server, and a user periodically

downloads unread mail. Once delivered, the messages are deleted from the

server.

The POP server is assigned port 110, and all POP client connections are made to

this port.

The following sections review the POP process and describe how the TCP/IP

Services software implements POP. If you are not familiar with POP, refer to RFC

1725 or introductory POP documentation for more information.

Conﬁguring and Managing the POP Server 18–1