MAIL


How mail routes in a Domino system
Diagram displaying the role of each component in a Domino mail system

These steps describe how mail routes in an IBM® Lotus® Domino® mail system.

1. Using a mail client, a user creates and addresses a mail message to a recipient.

2. The user sends the message.

3. The user's mail client does one of the following:

4. The Router finds the message in MAIL.BOX and determines where to send the message for each recipient. The Router checks its routing table to calculate the next "hop" for the message on the path to its recipients and determines the appropriate protocol -- either SMTP or Notes routing -- to transfer the message. 5. The Router on the recipient's server finds the message (in MAIL.BOX on a Domino server) and delivers it to the recipient's mail file.

6. Using a mail client, the user retrieves the message from the mail file. Depending on the type of mail client, one of the following protocols is used: Notes remote procedure calls, IMAP, POP3, or HTTP.

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