As part of my COMP348 “Java Network Programming” course at Athabasca University, the students complete a research/development project that involves researching and using the Java mail API.

Most students test their email programs using a gmail account, as these are relatively easy to obtain. However, gmail has now implemented connection security as have most email servers. This is to prevent or at least reduce ‘spoofing’ of emails – sending emails pretending to be someone else. On the whole, it’s a good thing, but it does make connecting and testing email programs a lot more complex.

Today I marked a COMP348 project that took a different turn. The student researched open source email server test programs, and chose GreenMail – a free, open source mail server that  runs in a tomcat instance.

It looked good enough that I just had to try it, and it worked exactly as advertised. I am most impressed with this small footprint mail server that I will be doing more work with it in the near future. For  now, simply mark this web page http://www.icegreen.com/greenmail/ as something of value if you need a test mail server.