<P>Hi, Thomas</P> <P>Thank you so much for your help and suggestions. I had seen your initial response and spent quite some time searching for something suitable.</P> <P>I found there were two problems - first, most comprehensive references are at least 10 years out of date, and second, those that were not were geared to particular software implementations. Although I have no doubt Sendmail <EM>et al.</EM> are excellent mail server programs, I don't want to learn them if I have no intention of using them.</P> <P>I will purchase Johnson's work - the reviews seem quite positive.</P> <P>Thanks again, I really appreciate it.</P>

<P>Hello</P> <P>Can anyone recommend a <EM>comprehensive</EM> SMTP reference work please? Although the web is full of information it is scattered across many sites. It would be good to be able to read a single reference that collects <U>everything</U> together.</P> <P>Something similar in scope to Kozierok's TCP/IP Guide would be great.</P> <P>I've read through the main RFC's etc but these explain how everything *should* work. It would be great to be able to refer to something that discusses all the various elements of SMTP and email delivery - including things like SPF, BATV, DKIM, ADSP. I'm finding that the more I know, the less I know. I've been managing our Mercury mail servers for just over four years now (along with everything else on our network), and although I have managed to sort out the majority of the issues (with lots of help from the Mercury/Pegasus forum members), I could do with a professional reference work.</P> <P>What would you people recommend?</P> <P>Cheers!</P>

<p>You are not really looking for an SMTP book, you are looking for a comprehensive book on the implementation of e-mail including SMTP (ESMTP), POP3, IMAP4, MIME, HTML, Anti-spam/virus, blacklisting,  As far as I can determine this book simply does not exist.  There are a number of books that say they do this sort of thing but it becomes painfully apparent that they've not read the RFCs pertaining to e-mail.</p><p>You might try the tome from O'Reilly on Sendmail since it is certainly comprehensive.</p><p>You are certainly correct though that the more you know about e-mail just means that you know that there is a lot more to learn.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

<p>Here's a listing of books that I have found.</p><ul><li><span class="citation book">Hughes, L (1998). <i>Internet e-mail Protocols, Standards and Implementation</i>. Artech House Publishers. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0890069395" title="Special:BookSources/0890069395">0890069395</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Internet+e-mail+Protocols%2C+Standards+and+Implementation&rft.aulast=Hughes&rft.aufirst=L&rft.au=Hughes%2C%26%2332%3BL&rft.date=1998&rft.pub=Artech+House+Publishers&rft.isbn=0890069395&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol"></span></li><li><span class="citation book">Johnson, K (2000). <i>Internet Email Protocols: A Developer's Guide</i>. Addison-Wesley Professional. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0201432889" title="Special:BookSources/0201432889">0201432889</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Internet+Email+Protocols%3A+A+Developer%27s+Guide&rft.aulast=Johnson&rft.aufirst=K&rft.au=Johnson%2C%26%2332%3BK&rft.date=2000&rft.pub=Addison-Wesley+Professional&rft.isbn=0201432889&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol"></span></li><li><span class="citation book">Loshin, P (1999). <i>Essential Email Standards: RFCs and Protocols Made Practical</i>. John Wiley & Sons. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0471345970" title="Special:BookSources/0471345970">0471345970</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Essential+Email+Standards%3A+RFCs+and+Protocols+Made+Practical&rft.aulast=Loshin&rft.aufirst=P&rft.au=Loshin%2C%26%2332%3BP&rft.date=1999&rft.pub=John+Wiley+%26+Sons&rft.isbn=0471345970&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol"></span></li><li><span class="citation book">Rhoton, J (1999). <i>Programmer's Guide to Internet Mail: SMTP, POP, IMAP, and LDAP</i>. Elsevier. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1555582125" title="Special:BookSources/1555582125">1555582125</a>.</span><span class="Z3988" title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Programmer%27s+Guide+to+Internet+Mail%3A+SMTP%2C+POP%2C+IMAP%2C+and+LDAP&rft.aulast=Rhoton&rft.aufirst=J&rft.au=Rhoton%2C%26%2332%3BJ&rft.date=1999&rft.pub=Elsevier&rft.isbn=1555582125&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol"></span></li><li><span class="citation book">Wood, D (1999). <i>Programming Internet Mail</i>. O'Reilly. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number" title="International Standard Book Number">ISBN</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1565924797" title="Special:BookSources/1565924797">1565924797</a>.</span></li></ul><p> All of these have flaws and according the Amazon they run from ~$40 to ~$150.  All have problems but the least bad reviews that I see are of the Rhoton and Johnson books.  FWIW, the Kindle editions are significantly cheaper and you can use Kindle for the PC to read them as online references. </p><p> </p>