mail server

[ub007]

Hello,

I have a coursework at my uni which is to measure the response time taken to download/receive an email from a courier imap server.


I've got an intranet of 6 ubuntu machines plugged into a switch.After reading the wiki for mail server,imap & courier-imap,i'm in a state of total confusion.....So I have come out with these questions

1)To undertake this project,should i be installing a mail server,eg
postfix + IMAP on my ubunu server;then send mails from the other PCs and start measuring the performance

2)or do i need only to install courier IMAP-i ruled that out cz then there would be no way to send the email in the first place

3)I understood what the MTA does,but cant really figure out what the role of an IMAP server is.....like in this case,5 PCs connected to a mail server,what does the IMAP server do,and where would it reside on?the server machine or on every client machine..?

And in the case of a web mail like Google,where does the IMAP server reside?


Thanks in advance...I'm new to networking,plz dont flame

Cheers
David

[countach44]

Sounds like you would only need to install an imap server and you can then populate it with local mail. What's the unit you are supposed to measure stuff in? That would give more insight into what it is you need to do...

3.) An IMAP server is designed for a client to connect to so it can synchronize mail against it. Say I had a desktop running Thunderbird and my gmail webmail account for when I am away from my workstation. I could achieve that by connecting my thunderbird to the gmail imap server (imap.gmail.com). So the imap server only goes on one machine, but the clients would each need imap client software.

Google imap server info:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/a...y?answer=78799