Talk:Mail transfer agent

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Contents 1 MTA = ??? 2 MTA 3 MTA 4 simplify please 5 Why two protocols?

[edit] MTA = ???

Shouldn't it be Mail TRANSPORT Agent, and not Mail Transfer Agent?

The Postfix, Courier, and Exim projects each call their software a mail transfer agent but Debian and Fedora both classify those software packages as mail transport agents.

[edit] MTA

i think who ever wrote this article was having a laugh!

[edit] MTA

added message transfer agent per http://www.exim.org/ home page. xenoterracide 16:04, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] simplify please

I read this article and none of it made sense(too many abbreviations)210.50.101.206 00:41, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why two protocols?

Can someone write a paragraph explaining why MTAs operate with two protocols (SMTP and POP3)? I can understand that SMTP is used to transfer messages between servers, and POP3 is used to transfer messages from the server to a client, but it's a little obscure as to why users must then send messages to their local SMTP, as opposed to connecting directly to the receiving SMTP, or sending via POP3 to the local server. It seems like an inconsistent design and I don't know enough about the evolution of this system to explain it. Ham Pastrami (talk) 08:41, 23 February 2008 (UTC)