RFC 1985 (rfc1985) - Page 1 of 7

SMTP Service Extension for Remote Message Queue Starting

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Network Working Group                                       J. De Winter
Request for Comments: 1985                     Wildbear Consulting, Inc.
Category: Standards Track                                    August 1996


                         SMTP Service Extension
                   for Remote Message Queue Starting

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This memo defines an extension to the SMTP service whereby an SMTP
   client and server may interact to give the server an opportunity to
   start the processing of its queues for messages to go to a given
   host.  This extension is meant to be used in startup conditions as
   well as for mail nodes that have transient connections to their
   service providers.

1.  Introduction

   The TURN command was a valid attempt to address the problem of having
   to start the processing for the mail queue on a remote machine.
   However, the TURN command presents a large security loophole.  As
   there is no verification of the remote host name, the TURN command
   could be used by a rogue system to download the mail for a site other
   than itself.

   Therefore, this memo introduces the ETRN command.  This command uses
   the mechanism defined in [4] to define extensions to the SMTP service
   whereby a client ("sender-SMTP") may request that the server
   ("receiver-SMTP") start the processing of its mail queues for
   messages that are waiting at the server for the client machine.  If
   any messages are at the server for the client, then the server should
   create a new SMTP session and send the messages at that time.










De Winter                   Standards Track
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