Chapter 1. Understanding Mail Services

As system administrator, you may need to expand an existing mail service or set up a new one. To help you with these tasks, this chapter introduces what's new with Solaris 8 mail services, defines mail services terminology, and describes the components of the mail service.

NOTE

The information in this chapter has been extensively revised and updated.

This chapter defines the following terms and describes how they are used in the mail services.

• Systems in a mail configuration.

  • Gateway.

  • Mail hub.

  • Mail client.

• Mail user agent (MUA).

• Mail transport agent (MTA)

• Mail delivery agents (sometimes called mailers).

• Domains.

• Mail addressing.

• Mailbox.

• Aliases.