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I am Newbie to e-mail software and protocols. I have done the programming languages but never used the e-mail protocol, hence I am not having enough idea about it. I want to know the difference between the IMAP and POP along with the proper explanation. Please provide me with the detailed information. I also want to know that can I use an IMAP instead of POP..?? Hoping that someone hanging out there would be interested in helping me.
When you connect through a modem, the software release all your mails before you can view them. This is especially annoying when you receive emails containing large annexes. If your computer crashes or you change, you lose all your mail. When you access your mail from multiple locations, you do not have all your mail in your mailbox. There is an option to tell with Eudora email program to leave a copy of messages on the server but this does not solve all problems. Instead, additional problems arise when the box reaches its maximum size. It is not so easy to remove only some of the messages on the server. Actually, if you do not really need this feature, do not use them and prefer using IMAP to check your mail.
- IMAP :
With this alternative method of access :
- The mails are no longer dumped on your computer but remain on the server. When you find your mail, you see only the headers and only when you want to see its contents and schedules the transfer between the server and your machine instead.
- The contents of your mailbox and it remains the same, regardless of the location from where you check your email, since all mail remains on the server.
- When your computer crashes or you want to change all your mail is on the server, nothing is lost.
- POP :
The main idea of this protocol is to empty the entire contents of your mailbox when you raise. Nothing then remains on the server. This feature creates some limitations due in particular to the fact that the mail is stored on your computer.
You should know that there are three levels of deletion when a user deletes a message using IMAP :
- The user marks the email as deleted. Either he still sees the message but with a red (or other distinguishing by e-mail software used), or the message is moved to the trash. In both cases, the place is not freed from the server.
- The email software compresses files. This compression is to ask the server to delete messages marked as deleted by the user. Messages are pending deletion on the server. After this compression, the user can not see the mail.
- The server decides to physically remove the file for the mail server. This physical removal is done when the server has nothing better to do.
Concerning the choice between POP3 and IMAP, it will depend crucially on the work of the user, whether it needs to access their messages from multiple workstations in the school or elsewhere, or if Nobody reads his messages since his only job and therefore has no reason to make the management of messages on the server. In the first case, the user will select the IMAP protocol and the second, the POP3 protocol. There is obviously no ideal protocol for all. IMAP is particularly useful to all those who travel often and want to check their mail from any computer connected to the Internet. POP was designed to allow offline processing of email. In the offline mode, mail is delivered to a shared server and personal computer periodically connects to the server using a mail client program to repatriate all mail waiting to user's machine . Subsequently, all transactions relating to these couriers carried locally on the client machine.
- POP (Post Office Protocol) allows, as its name suggests going up her mail on a remote server (POP server). It is a protocol that was designed in order to collect the messages offline. By default, messages are downloaded to the workstation of the user. It is used for simplicity and effectiveness of the protocol. Management of messages by the email clients which local search and sort more efficient.
- IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol) is an alternative protocol to POP3 protocol which allows the user to the management of its messages directly on the mail server. It is used for simplified management in case of access to his mail from multiple locations. Possibility of switching of mail client.