Add a POP3 Server for Win2000's SMTP Server

The Problem

There are three parts to setting up an email server. You need a SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) server for sending your email, a POP (Post Office Protocol) for collecting your email, and name resolution. The most common version of POP is version three so it's referred to as POP3. Name resolution is a method other computers can use to find your computer.

For a while Microsoft has been shipping a SMTP Server with Windows NT Server Option Pack and has included it in all versions of Windows 2000. If you have Windows 2000, any version, just go to Control Panel > Add Remove Programs, click the Add/Remove Windows Components, Select the Internet Information Services (IIS) and look for SMTP. You can find the documentation in the help directory \WinNT\Help\mail.chm after you install it. The problem is that Windows 2000 doesn't have a POP3 Server. So while the SMTP server will ship your email anywhere in the world there is no way to pick it up should you receive some messages back (See Concepts).

*NEW* See the new POPS server for MS SMTP here:  POP3 Server for Windows 2000/XP

There is a freeware email server called IMS. This software originates from the European Microsoft Windows NT Academic Centre (EMWAC), located at Edinburgh University Computing Service. You can get a copy there or they will list a download site where it is available. The problem with the IMS software is that it allows relaying. At one time this may not have been a problem. But today there are lots of people looking to abuse your email system by relaying SPAM through it. There is a Support Group for IMS and they have some solutions for the relaying problem with IMS server. The Microsoft SMTP server on the other hand seems quite resistant to relaying and has several options to configure it to best suit your situation.

The Solutions

One solution of course is to run a Linux box on your LAN - just kidding. While most versions of Linux include an industrial strength version of sendmail or other email server that includes both the SMTP and POP3 components, that is not always an option.

The first solution I offer here is to use the best of both worlds. It uses the SMTP server from Microsoft and the POP3 server from IMS. I wrote a small agent service that makes the two work together. The agent collects the mail from the SMTP server and puts it into a format that the IMS POP3 server can use. The best thing is that part of the software comes with the operating system (Windows 2000) and the POP3 server is available as freeware from EMWAC. Almost as good as Linux I suppose.

Last updated: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 - Visits since April, 2001: 6109