On Thu, Jan 11, 2007 at 09:14:57AM +0000, Andrew Critchlow wrote: > Hello all, I'm busy finding out and setting up exim4 on debian. I just had a > few questions: > > Does exim4 not accept any client connections such as pop3/imap/web interface > or do you have to install 3rd part applications for this functionality? >
correct, exim and other mta's do not accept these connections. They are push technology servers. If they recieve a piece of mail, they look at the address and do one of three things with it: 1) determine that it belongs in a local mailbox and pushes it over there, 2) determines that it needs to go to another computer and pushes it there, 3) determines its junk (spam, virus etc through use of 3rd party tools) and pushes it into the blackhole. That's all mta's do. all the other things: pop, imap, webmail are pull technology. they pull the mail from a local mailbox somewhere (details vary) for you to read. MUA, mail user agents, do two things -- 1) talk to a pull service to get you your mail or 2) talk smtp to the mta system to push your mail into it. enjoy A
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