Mail client autoconfiguration
asked 2017-11-03 03:21:57 +0200
I see that email account configuration uses fixed list of big providers and their settings (mail servers, protocols...). I'm afraid it would not scale well, leaving many providers out, putting continous burden of said list maintenance on developers and making users' experience poor by asking for many parameters that are easy to obtain in automated way.
There are three (I know, two too much) widely recognized autoconfiguration methods:
- RFC 6186 - Use of SRV Records for Locating Email Submission/Access Services - very simple, DNS-based
- Mozilla Thunderbird method -- based on simple XML file
- Microsoft autodiscovery (contrary to popular belief not limited to Exchange servers) -- convoluted, but for standard e-mail nearly as simple as TB one.
With any of these methods, all user needs to know is e-mail address and password -- all other configuration details are published by providers; the list should serve only as fallback for the ones both big enough and lazy.
Some stats: out of 315 domains in current list, 46 seem to provide MS-style autodiscovery, 34 have RFC 6186 DNS records and 16 provide TB-style information (but their files mention also many domains missing from the list). Of course some overlap, so finally we have 65 domains providing at least one autoconfiguration method. Let's assume this 20% is a rough estimate of out-of-list domains percentage; still autoconfiguration of 20% email accounts globally seems a nice goal.