How do email attachments work?

aloysius · 8 Jan 2008, 03:01 AM

i want to know how a email attachment is sent to the recipient through
the internet. please help me if u know or please provide me a link
where i can study about it.

i am actually planning to build a mail server on my own. pls help!

hadaso · 8 Jan 2008, 06:34 AM

AN attachment is coded as text (usually using BASE64 encoding but attached text files might use quoted-printable encoding or no encoding at all) and then included in the email using a standard called MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) that is a special formatting that organizes the several parts a message is made of. You can read about it in the very detailed Wikipedia article (that includes links to the RFC documents that define the standards for the structure of an email message).

George_B · 16 Jan 2008, 04:23 AM

I might add the following:

1. It seems like you want to re-invent the wheel. Nothing wrong with that, just make sure you know what you are getting into

2. If you do want to go ahead, build according to the SMTP RFC: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0821.txt

3. If possible try and re-use libraries already written by others for certain tasks. It will definetely save you tons of time

Merovingian · 16 Jan 2008, 04:55 AM

don't have much to add to the technical question and answering,

but I wanted to wish a hearty "Welcome to the EMD Forums" to aloysius!!

brockadam · 8 Feb 2008, 02:38 PM

you can get all information about email attachment at: http://help.expedient.com/mailnews/attachments.shtml

8 Jan 2008, 03:01 AM	#1
aloysius Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1	How do email attachments work? i want to know how a email attachment is sent to the recipient through the internet. please help me if u know or please provide me a link where i can study about it. i am actually planning to build a mail server on my own. pls help!

8 Jan 2008, 06:34 AM	#2
hadaso Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Holon, Israel. Posts: 5,114	AN attachment is coded as text (usually using BASE64 encoding but attached text files might use quoted-printable encoding or no encoding at all) and then included in the email using a standard called MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) that is a special formatting that organizes the several parts a message is made of. You can read about it in the very detailed Wikipedia article (that includes links to the RFC documents that define the standards for the structure of an email message).

16 Jan 2008, 04:23 AM	#3
George_B Cornerstone of the Community Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 709 Representative of: PolarisMail.com	I might add the following: 1. It seems like you want to re-invent the wheel. Nothing wrong with that, just make sure you know what you are getting into 2. If you do want to go ahead, build according to the SMTP RFC: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0821.txt 3. If possible try and re-use libraries already written by others for certain tasks. It will definetely save you tons of time

16 Jan 2008, 04:55 AM	#4
Merovingian Master of the @ Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 1,583	don't have much to add to the technical question and answering, but I wanted to wish a hearty "Welcome to the EMD Forums" to aloysius!!

8 Feb 2008, 02:38 PM	#5
brockadam Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 5	you can get all information about email attachment at: http://help.expedient.com/mailnews/attachments.shtml