XFOR: Current Microsoft Internet Mail Products

• Microsoft Exchange Server, version 4.0
• Microsoft Mail Gateway to SMTP, version 3.0
• Microsoft Windows 95
• Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95
• Microsoft Exchange Internet Provider

SUMMARY

There are currently four products available from Microsoft that use the SMTP protocol to access Internet mail. This article outlines how these products differ and what support options are available to customers.

The four products are:

• Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Connector
• Microsoft Mail Gateway to SMTP Version 3.0
• Windows Messaging (Formally Microsoft Internet Mail Service for Windows 95 Exchange)
• Microsoft Internet Mail 1.0

MORE INFORMATION

The four different Internet mail products enable users to access SMTP mail and fit into two basic types of products. The first type of product are Enterprise connectors which enable workgroups or entire operations to access Internet mail without direct connectivity to the Internet and connectors that attach to enterprise e-mail systems and retrieve SMTP mail for an entire domain. The second type of Internet mail product enables a user to directly send Internet mail using the SMTP protocol and to retrieve e-mail using the POP3 protocol. POP3 is Post Office Protocol version 3 and is used for clients that are not permanently connected to the Internet and are not part of an enterprise messaging system.

Enterprise Connectors

Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Connector (IMC) Part #: 67743.

Included with Microsoft Exchange Server Enterprise Edition. Part #:67742 Protocol Support: SMTP, MIME, UUENCODE, DNS Supported by: Microsoft Information Exchange Support

The Internet Mail Connector (IMC) is the Internet mail component for Microsoft Exchange Server. Microsoft Exchange is a world class enterprise messaging system. The IMC is a robust connector that can directly connect to the Internet to retrieve and send SMTP mail. The IMC can also use another SMTP host on the Internet to deliver and receive Internet mail. This allows the intermediate SMTP server to act as a proxy on behalf of the IMC. This robust connector can facilitate simultaneous outgoing and incoming SMTP mail transfers and can be configured to support MIME and UUENCODE file attachments and supports rich text formatting.

This product fully integrates with Microsoft Exchange Server as a Windows NT service. This gives the messaging service administrator the ability to configure SMTP mail options for the entire enterprise.

MICROSOFT MAIL GATEWAY TO SMTP VERSION 3.0 Part #: 56770.

Protocol Support: SMTP, UUENCODE Supported by: Microsoft Information Exchange Support

The Microsoft Mail Gateway is the Internet mail component for Microsoft Mail. Microsoft Mail is the legacy shared file system (SFS) enterprise messaging system. The gateway enables users of Microsoft Mail to send and receive SMTP mail. The gateway must use another SMTP host (smarthost) on the Internet to deliver Internet mail. The SMTP gateway is an MS-DOS program that runs on a dedicated PC. It can handle one connection at a time. Because of this limitation, it is recommended that the SMTP smarthost also receive mail on behalf of the gateway by implementing an MX record on the smarthost DNS server. This directs other SMTP hosts on the Internet to deliver mail bound for the gateway to the smarthost for more robust performance.

This product does not support the MIME protocol for file attachments and does not implement DNS.

POP3 CLIENTS

WINDOWS MESSAGING (Formally Microsoft Internet Mail Service for Windows 95 Exchange)

Included with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and on the Microsoft World Wide Web server (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software). Protocol Support: SMTP, POP3, MIME, UUENCODE, DNS Supported by: Microsoft Answer Point Desktop Support

Windows Messaging is the electronic mail client that is included with Windows 95. The client was originally called Microsoft Exchange for Windows 95 but this has caused confusion with the Microsoft Exchange Server products.

Windows Messaging is a client that can be extended with services that integrate with the product. Multiple services can be added to allow connectivity to different mail systems, including the Internet. The service for SMTP mail is Microsoft Internet Mail Service for Windows 95. Once installed, the client must directly connect to the Internet and connect to a POP3 server to retrieve mail.

Windows Messaging must have access to an SMTP server to send mail and a POP3 server to retrieve mail. The POP3 service is usually provided and supported by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that also provides dial-up Internet access.

MICROSOFT INTERNET MAIL 1.0 *BETA PRODUCT*

Available on the Microsoft World Wide Web server (http://www.microsoft.com/ie/imn/). Protocol Support: SMTP, POP3, MIME, UUENCODE, DNS Supported by: No formal Microsoft support while in beta. Peer to peer on Microsoft's NNTP server:

   news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internet.mail
   news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.internet.news

Microsoft Internet Mail must have access to an SMTP server to send mail and a POP3 server to retrieve mail. The POP3 service is usually provided and supported by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) that also provides dial-up Internet access.

THIS PRODUCT IS CURRENTLY IN BETA. Support is limited to the NNTP newsgroups listed above.