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What mail protocols does Oracle B2C Service use for mail transfer?

Environment:

Outgoing / Incoming Email

Resolution:

There are two protocols Oracle B2C Service uses for mail transfer -- SMTP and POP3.

Mail is sent by the Oracle B2C Service CGI program through SMTP. ALL outgoing email is sent through SMTP at the time the CGI runs. This means that while the CGI is running (before the next page is loaded), the outgoing mail is sent to the various people. A slow SMTP connection will result in some pages loading slowly in your application if mail is sent at the same time.

POP3 is used by Oracle B2C Service and the techmail utility for mail coming into the Oracle B2C Service application, that is mail sent to a mailbox configured in your site. SMTP is used in the process only when sending the receipts for new incidents. POP3 works well through a network -- dial-up is not necessary. POP3 is fast enough to work with a high volume Oracle B2C Service site.

 

Troubleshooting tips include:

	To test your POP3 mailbox, set up a truly POP3 compliant client. This should not be Outlook if your mail server is Exchange. Use Netscape Messenger or Mozilla Thunderbird to connect to your mailbox account. If the connection does not go through, then Oracle B2C Service cannot work.
	You can also use Netscape Messenger to test your outgoing SMTP connection.
	If your server is Exchange, be sure to load all the requirements for a POP3 compliant mailbox. This is not the default for Exchange.