RFC 1081 (rfc1081) - Page 1 of 16

Post Office Protocol: Version 3

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Network Working Group                                            M. Rose
Request for Comments: 1081                                           TWG
                                                           November 1988

                    Post Office Protocol - Version 3


Status of this Memo

   This memo suggests a simple method for workstations to dynamically
   access mail from a mailbox server.  This RFC specifies a proposed
   protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and
   suggestions for improvements.  Distribution of this memo is
   unlimited.

   This memo is based on RFC 918 (since revised as RFC 937).  Although
   similar in form to the original Post Office Protocol (POP) proposed
   for the Internet community, the protocol discussed in this memo is
   similar in spirit to the ideas investigated by the MZnet project at
   the University of California, Irvine.

   Further, substantial work was done on examining POP in a PC-based
   environment.  This work, which resulted in additional functionality
   in this protocol, was performed by the ACIS Networking Systems Group
   at Stanford University.  The author gratefully acknowledges their
   interest.

Introduction

   On certain types of smaller nodes in the Internet it is often
   impractical to maintain a message transport system (MTS).  For
   example, a workstation may not have sufficient resources (cycles,
   disk space) in order to permit a SMTP server and associated local
   mail delivery system to be kept resident and continuously running.
   Similarly, it may be expensive (or impossible) to keep a personal
   computer interconnected to an IP-style network for long amounts of
   time (the node is lacking the resource known as "connectivity").

   Despite this, it is often very useful to be able to manage mail on
   these smaller nodes, and they often support a user agent (UA) to aid
   the tasks of mail handling.  To solve this problem, a node which can
   support an MTS entity offers a maildrop service to these less endowed
   nodes.  The Post Office Protocol - Version 3 (POP3) is intended to
   permit a workstation to dynamically access a maildrop on a server
   host in a useful fashion.  Usually, this means that the POP3 is used
   to allow a workstation to retrieve mail that the server is holding
   for it.




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