Internet mail standard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Internet e-mail functions through the use of internet standards. Although many more standards actually apply to e-mail, virtually all mail servers and e-mail clients support at least the following basic set.
- SMTP (or RFC 2821) specifies the protocol by which e-mail is transmitted
- RFC 2822 specifies the basic format for e-mail
- MIME supplements the e-mail formatting rules to allow non-English text in both e-mail headers and bodies, and defines a mechanism for including non-textual attachments in e-mail bodies
- POP3 and IMAP4 specify e-mail retrieval protocols used by e-mail clients
