OpenMail Protocol Support - IMAP and SMTP

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AOL supports full IMAP and SMTP access. IMAP, Internet Mail Access Protocol is a rich, standard protocol for accessing e-mail. SMTP, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is a standard for sending mail messages. Through these standards, AOL allows users to use essentially any e-mail client to access their e-mail, including Outlook and Thunderbird. For info on AOL's implementation of IMAP, see http://www.postmaster.aol.com/imap/. For info on sending e-mail to AOL, see: http://www.postmaster.aol.com/faq/index.html


AOL Postmaster

In addition, AOL supports special relationships with other e-mail servers. For example:

  • CertifiedMail support
  • Whitelisting of servers
  • Feedback loops for abuse reporting
In addition, AOL offers tools for debugging issues when sending mail to AOL, SPF Information, MIME formatting best practices, and more.

See AOL Postmaster for details.



IMAP and SMTP reference links

IMAP and SMTP are IETF sanctioned standards that are related to several other RFCs. The three main RFCs are listed below for reference, but most implementors will want to start with an existing IMAP/SMTP implementation.