In a scenario where Rainmail Email Server is deployed with an external Email server (Secondary/primary), Rainmail Email Server can pull emails from external mail server using the following ways:
- Catchall Account In this case, the Email service provider (who provides the Email server in Internet), gives account name and password of a Single email box. The service provider places all incoming emails from Internet in this mailbox. Rainmail Email Server will download the emails from this single mail box and distribute it to local email boxes. This mechanism is represented diagrammatically as below
- Individual POP Accounts In this mechanism, Email service provider provides one email box per user. Each box will then have an user name/password. Rainmail Email server, once configured with all these accounts will:
- Login to each mail box
- Download emails in the mail box
- Place the downloaded emails into local mail box of the user. This mechanism is represented diagrammatically as below
Using the Catchall mechanism is faster as only one login is done for all emails. In POP account mechanism, the system has to authenticate into each mail box to download emails. Catchall mechanism is more secure as Individual user passwords are not required to download emails. Rainmail Email Server can be deployed to use either of the mechanism during install time.
