Mail Transfer Agents (MTA) have built the communications backbone of the internet and changed the way we communicate with others. The most frequently used MTA is sendmail . PoMec's client communication package uses sendmail as the MTA of choice. MTA's have the function of transferring mail from one machine connected to the internet to another. All of this is done in the background. This process can be very simple to very complicated with the addition of authenticaion or encryption.

Mail Deliever Agents (MDA) take the e-mail that has been transferred to the machine and route it to a specific user's mail box. procmail is the MDA of choice but there are others that work well too.

POP3 Agents (Post Office Protocol) function in the background on a mail server waiting for a user to check his e-mail. POP3 agents deliver e-mail to the users desktop computer. dovecot or cyrus-imap are both opensource software that performs this task.

Mail User Agents (MUA) like Outlook , Outlook Express , or Evolution communicate with the POP3 servers to bring a users e-mail to the desktop as well as with the MTA to send a users e-mail to any place on the internet.

In order to become indepedent of your isp's (internet service provider) domain name, we like to use Linux/Unix computers set up with MTA, MDA, and POP3 servers. Linux is recognized as one of the most reliable operating system while at the same time has a great economical rating too. Linux e-mail servers are configured to work with Microsoft desktop's, just as well as Linux/Unix desktops.

If you want an E-Mail server
We can set one up for you