Internet e-mail Protocols, Standards and Implementation (Artech House Telecommunications Library) [Hardcover]

Lawrence Hughes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0890069395 | ISBN-13: 978-0890069394 | Publication Date: July 31, 1998

Aims to strengthen the reader's knowledge of the fundamental concepts and technical details necessary to develop, implement, or debug e-mail software. The text explains the underlying technology and describes the key Internet e-mail protocols and extensions such as SMTP, POP3, IMAP, MIME and DSN. It aims to help the reader build a sound understanding of e-mail archtitecture, message flow and tracing protocols, and includes real-world examples of message exchanges with program code that they can refer to when developing or debugging their own systems. The reader should also gain valuable insight into various security topics, including public and secret key encryption, digital signatures and key management. Each chapter begins with a detailed definition list to help speed the reader's understanding of technical terms and acronyms. The CD-ROM contains a listing of related Internet RFCs, as well as RSA PKCS documents, Eudora 3.0 freeware client, and the free user version of Software.com.Post.Office Server for Windows NT 3.0.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lawrence Hughes has more than 20 years of experience in the computer industry and is currently a regional consulting engineer for Inacom Information Systems, Atlanta, Georgia. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from Florida State University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 488 pages
• Publisher: Artech House Publishers (July 31, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890069395
• ISBN-13: 978-0890069394
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,681,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Windows NT specific, poorly written, and not comprehensive, August 15, 1999

By 

Robert D. C. Shearer (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Internet e-mail Protocols, Standards and Implementation (Artech House Telecommunications Library) (Hardcover)

My initial complaint, which I realized within the first chapter, is that the author is *extremely* biased towards WinNT, not simply ignoring other platforms, but actually taking several pages to explain why they should all be ignored. He claims that Apple doesn't let programmers write compatible software and will sue those who try, and that the single newline character used on UNIX systems is an anachronism from when computers didn't have enough memory for the more correct CR LF sequence. (The first of which is clearly absurd and the second of which is directly contradictory to the universally accepted truth that CRLF is a holdover from teletype days.) This seems very strange since internet email is almost by definition a cross-platform (or even UNIX-specific) venture; and the newline comment is extremely worrying since this is a major issue in email which the author completely ignores.

Even for NT-specific programming this book doesn't seem useful. The author includes incredibly rudimentary material (including a section on how binary works and what bits are) yet jumps straight to rather sophisticated constructs with no explanation of those construts at all: I fear neither novice users nor experienced programmers would like this book.

The section on domain names consists of nothing more than instructions on configuring one specific WinNT DNS server. The protocol explanations include ridiculous side notes ("now is the time to clear your input buffers") which are clearly specific to the one product the authors claims to have written, yet not a single line of code appears in the book.

This book could at best have a been a decent compilation of RFC's, but the protocols are not detailed completely and there are multiple blatant errors. Any time saved by using this book instead of scrounging the internet will be lost ten times over in debugging time.

This is the first book I've ever returned to Amazon, and is the last one I will ever buy from this publisher.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book. Highly recommend it., November 27, 1999

By 

booklover "booklover" (Arlington, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Internet e-mail Protocols, Standards and Implementation (Artech House Telecommunications Library) (Hardcover)

I had to implement a POP-3 mail client and this book saved my life.

The material in the book is overly oriented towards NT and you have to take with a grain of salt its NT bias. Its technical content however is superb. The mail protocols it describes work on UNIX without change. The one thing you have to watch out for is the different circumstances under which NT and UNIX produce "\r".

The well organized CD is in and of itself worth the price of the book. The book gave me a tutorial which explained what I needed to do. The CD gave me the details.

I am an experienced programmer and I'm not sure this book will help beginners though for beginners it has very useful glossaries.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars well written, thorough, but with Windows NT bias, August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Internet e-mail Protocols, Standards and Implementation (Artech House Telecommunications Library) (Hardcover)

Hughes has written an excellent book. He explains the protocols and standards extremely well. Which is the diamond of this book. (i.e. why you should buy it.) But the implementation illustrations are mostly Windows NT with a mention of a UNIX counter part. He even explains how to install Microsoft DNS and Proxy. The NT explanation is like a double edged sword. If you know *NIX, all you will need is the P+S. Hughes points out how M$ has gone of the track of the standards and screwed up. (like how Exchange is a single file message store mail server incompatible with POP3 and SNMP) The cd-rom has the RFC documents created by the IETF. If you are looking for a book that explains the ins and outs of Internet e-mail without missing a pin-drop, this is the book for you. All the best!