In most cases, it should not be necessary for you to know the details of your mail delivery system. Nonetheless, it is useful to understand the difference between mail clients and mail servers. A mail client usually refers to the software that you use to receive, read, compose and send your email messages. It may also include features such as address books and email distribution lists. These productivity features usually record personal information and store it on your personal computer.
A mail server is a computer that manages the distribution and storage of email messages. In addition to managing mail distribution, mail servers can also be used to store information for productivity features. However, the information stored on a server can be shared automatically by many users in a network. For example, everyone in a small company (up to 2500 mail users) with a Caldera Volution Messaging Server installed could share their home phone numbers using the same database as their mail server; it would take a long time for everyone to collect and share this information individually.
The Caldera Volution Messaging Server allows mail client users to access information and features on the server using the Preferences Manager graphical interface.
The Preferences Manager is a program that runs in your Internet browser (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, and many others), and provides access to shared information that is stored on the Messaging Server. You would use it occasionally to provide services not available from your mail client software, as described in the following sections:
A mail administrator is the person responsible for managing mail accounts and ensuring that incoming email is delivered properly. Their duties usually include:
creating your email account.
instructing you about using your email software.
responding to your questions and solving mail problems.
protecting your mail account against unsolicited email (spam) and viruses.
In a Messaging Server environment, it is the mail administrator who enables you to access the Preferences Manager and use the Messaging Server shared information and capabilities.
The mail administrator also sets policy for:
where received messages are stored. For example, your mail client software can probably be configured either to read and store messages on the mail server (an IMAP server) or download and store messages on your desktop machine (a POP server).
mailbox quotas.
size and type of attachments.
multiple account support.