## Windows NT and UNIX and Mail Interoperation and Integration Issues

As long as Windows NT and UNIX Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs) use a common standard such as SMTP, they should interoperate compatibly. With POP3 and IMAP support, UNIX and Windows NT support common standards that enable Windows NT clients to integrate with UNIX e-mail servers and vice versa.

Most UNIX and Windows NT integration problems occur regarding the attachments option. It is common for users to send files as attachments through e-mail, probably because it is easier than conventional file transfer programs (such as FTP). However, problems arise when a user attaches a file in a form other than plain ASCII text. If the recipient does not share the same platform, program, or even the same version of the program, he or she may not be able to read the file. For example, if someone uses uuencode to encode a binary file attachment on a UNIX computer, and then sends it to a Windows NT computer, the recipient's e-mail program must have a uudecode function. Conversely, it is common for Windows NT users to attach a Microsoft® Word for Windows document or Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet that will create problems for the UNIX recipient because these programs are not available on UNIX. This becomes less of an issue between Macintoshes and Windows NT as between Windows NT and UNIX, but finding a common attachment-encoding scheme can still be a challenge. Microsoft Exchange Server supports the common standards for encoding attachments including Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME), uuencode, and BinHex. It performs attachment conversions, such as converting from Rich Text Format (RTF) to HTML.

Web-based MUAs will most likely become the common method for reading e-mail, as most platform issues disappear if you have a decent Web browser installed. Anybody with a Web browser also will have a viewer for non-text files such as GIF, TIFF, or JPEG.

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Last Updated: December 1, 1997