Electronic Message Transport System Guidelines

Version: 1.0

Status: Updated 8/11/1998

PURPOSE

This guideline was developed to assist in implementation of the electronic messaging and future groupware applications(s).
As the new VCCS messaging infrastructure develops, it will be the option of each college to purchase, implement and manage a campus based SMTP/POP3 server or elect to use the SMTP/POP3 server(s) located in the Utility. By adhering to the Inter/Intranet Standards, integration will be maintained between post offices located at the Colleges and the Utility.
The process of adding and removing username and passwords will be automated upon the completion of the directory services application. The Directory Services Model allows students, faculty or staff to request a Kerberos and Electronic Mail account.
The following standards will provide the foundation for our evolving computing environment.

Electronic Messaging Standards Supported

The SMTP protocol (RFC 821) is designed around the way traditional business correspondence are generated. SMTP messages have two parts; a heading area and a message body. The message body is an arbitrarily large block of text (or other enclosures when enhanced with the MIME standard). The message heading area consists of a group of defined special fields that identify the message, its recipients, the sender, the time sent, and other useful information. These well-defined headers are what makes the SMTP standard so portable, yet even a user unfamiliar with the standard can still deduce most of the useful information contained in the headers.
 
SMTP headers follow traditional business correspondence, the kind you typically find on the heading of company memos or bulletins. The important factor as far as interoperability though is in defining exactly which headers are always required and defining a non-ambiguous meaning for each header so as to be understood by implementations across all computing platforms. The most important headers (from a user's standpoint) are the From: header, which as you probably guessed, defines who the message is from; the To: which defines who the intended recipients of the message are (along with the traditional Cc: (carbon copy recipients); and a Subject: line.
 
SMTP addresses are in a format of: username@hostname.domain.organization.
Post Office Protocol (POP) is an Internet mail server protocol that provides message transfer to multiple clients, using SMTP as a transport rather than a server. The POP3 standard is defined further by RFC 1725. As an extension to the POP3 standard, a more robust, scalable and manageable protocol was developed called the Internet Messaging Access Protocol (IMAP). IMAP4, defined by RFC 1730, offers easier mail adminstration and the ability to create and manage mail folders over the Wide Area Network (WAN) allowing selective reading of messages.
 
In order to support MIME (Multi Internet Mail Extensions), SMTP/ POP3 or IMAPv4 servers allow the transfer of any arbitrary file type, from audio, video, fax, application data files, multimedia or arbitrary bit stream files.
 
The transport protocol used in messaging that provides reliability, scalability, security, and management of directory services is the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). RFC 1777 defines these requirements and allows E-mail clients to browse the directories of any LDAP-compliant directory - not just the messaging server the E-mail client uses.
Where necessary, security may be implemented that support secure messaging across the Internet and Intranet. Encryption methods using cryptographic standards, DES, MD5, RSA, SSL 3.x etc, can be utilized to ensure desktop to desktop secure communication using the messaging transport. Also, a way to secure message attachments is by using Secure Multi Internet Mail Extensions (SMIME). Browser displays (Netscape or Explorer) are secured through the Secure Hyper Text Transport Protocol (SHTTP) protocol. Authentication may be provided, at the server through Kerberos and to the client through a certificate authority (X.509v3 protocol). These tools can deliver the level of security to meet each business security requirements.
 
The guideline outlined in this document defines the minimum set of objectives and will be reviewed as necessary to reflect changes in technology and customer requirements.

Uninterruptable Power Supply recommended for all servers.
APC 1400 ($1000.00)

Minimum Hardware:

Software:

or

SMTP Server Software:

Suggested POP3 compliant Email Client Software:

Web Enabled Email:

Web enabled Email allows a standard browser to replace the email client on the desktop. IMAP is utilized to store the user's messages on the server. Server products which enable access to the mail server via a standard Web browser include:

Standards with which all VCCS Email software should comply :

Server: IMAP4 and POP3 compliant with SMTP mailer based on the following RFCs and Internet standards:

Suggested Modifications to SMTP standards:

GENERAL

Attempt to transmit mail every 10 minutes
Delayed delivery status notification

Always send to originator, send if message cannot be delivered within 120 minutes

TIMEOUTS

Try 2 times every 20 minutes then
try 1 time every 40 minutes then
try 3 times every 60 minutes then
try every 60 minutes for up to 48 hours

INCOMING MAIL SETTINGS

Advertised SMTP settings
Support SIZE command
Support 8 bit MIME
Delivery status Notifications (RFC 1891)
Command pipelining (RFC 1854)
Extended TURN (RFC 1985)
Other SMTP extensions
Enable EXPN command
Enable the VRFY command

OUTGOING MAIL SETTINGS

Enable extended SMTP (send EHLO)
8 bit data transfer automatic

MAILBOXES

Default Maximum disk utilization
1024 KB per student
10240 KB per staff/faculty

EMAIL FORMATTING

Word-processing documents should be stored in Rich Text Format (RFT) when used as email attachments.  Other formats may be used if negotiated with email recipients ahead of time.  When necessary, information should be included included in email message(s) identifying the application that is needed to manipulate file attachments.  Non-standard formatting in email such as Eudora's Enriched Text Format should NOT be used.