Talk:Message delivery agent

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Huston we have a problem[edit]

I just started an article on E-mail Letter. An E-mail Letter is an email which gets delivered like a real letter. The e-mail letter service provider prints the email, puts it into an envelope and sends it to the receiver by "snail mail".

The problem I have is that the postman delivering the letter could be called a mail delivery agent, so there's a thin line between postman and mail delivery agent, while the machine which is printing and envelopping the letter also could be referred to a mail transfer agent.

The problem I'm having is a differentiation between real world and cyberworld. Just like a letter can refer to a written message or a letter in the alphabet, a mail delivery agent could also be a postman, and a mail transfer agent could be the printer and envelopping machine which transfers the email into a letter.

I'd be happy, if you leave me a note on my talking page about your opinion and the decision you have made. Copies: Nehtefa talking page, mail transfer agent talk. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nehtefa (talk • contribs) 19:20, 25 November 2008 (UTC) Nehtefa (talk) 20:52, 25 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

While a postman might be called this way, no one does so, at least there is no notability for such usage, AFAIK. However, similar conflicts occur frequently in WP. They are handled with disambiguation pages when actually needed. Kbrose (talk) 19:19, 25 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Definition not clear[edit]

There are actually two processes involved in mail delivery - 1) the process which receives a message and saves it in the mailstore, and 2) the process which handles the recipient's request to view or download a message in the mailstore. Both these processes must run on the same server that has the mailstore disks. Are they both part of the MDA, or do we need a different name for programs like Dovecot that do it all? --Dave (talk) 18:57, 28 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There are lots of processes - and we have different names - The mail retrieval agent is the bit that receives the messages from remote mailboxes, the mail transport agent receives messages via a listening port. Both the MRA and the MTA can call the mail delivery agent for local delivery. 217.171.129.77 (talk) 10:46, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think that there is also a problem with the inclusion of the undefined MHS or message handling service. Isn't that a proprietary mechanism from Novell? Even the link takes one somewhere else. This does need clarification from more than one standpoint. - KitchM (talk) 21:35, 10 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Message Handling Service is ANSDIT terminology with the following definition:

message handling service:

   (1) An application service element that provides a generalized facility for exchanging electronic messages between systems. Synonymous with message-oriented text interchange system. (2) Service provided by a message handling system.

217.171.129.77 (talk) 10:46, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

courier-pop and courier-imap are not mail delivery agents, they are mail server programs. The mail delivery agent made by courier is known as courier-maildrop. My original entry for this was correct.

http://packages.debian.org/lenny/courier-maildrop

217.171.129.77 (talk) 10:55, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]