IMAP and POP are protocols or technologies that use which you can download messages from your computer’s mail server and access them with the help of a mail client like Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, etc. The main advantage of this technology is that you can access your email through a feature-rich browser independent mail client. In the case of POP, you also have offline access to old messages.
Difference between IMAP and POP
IMAP and POP are two different protocols. There are many differences between these two. The main difference is that IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) always syncs with the mail server so any changes you make in the mail client (Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird) will immediately appear on your webmail inbox.
On the other hand, in POP (Postal Protocol), your mail client account and mail server are not synchronized. That means that any changes you make to your email account in the mail client will not be delivered to the webmail inbox.
Simply put, if you’re using IMAP and marking a message as read, it’s also marked as read in your web-based inbox (because the changes are happening on the server). However, this won’t happen if you’re using POP, because the mail is downloaded to your PC and the changes won’t reflect on the server.
How to enable these protocols
Different mail services have different settings for handling protocols. In Gmail you can find options to enable both protocols: POP and IMAP (Go to settings -> Forwarding and POP/IMAP). In Hotmail, there is only POP and it does not support IMAP.
Here’s a screenshot of Gmail’s POP/IMAP settings.
IMAP
The biggest advantage of using IMAP is that you can access your messages from multiple mail clients, and each client will detect the change in real time. Let’s say a mail server is connected to two different mail clients (say Client 1 and Client 2) on different computers. If a user deletes a message in mail client 1, the change is immediately visible on the mail server and also on mail client 2. In IMAP, all messages from the mail client and the server are synchronized with each other.
POP MUSIC
You can download email from your mail server to your PC using POP. Once downloaded, the original message is deleted from the server and therefore you cannot access it from another computer (Note: In Gmail there is an option to keep a copy of the messages in the inbox. Thunderbird also offers the option to leave the messages on the server until you delete them). But there are a lot of other options missing (for example, if you send a message from a mail client, you won’t find it in the sent items in your mailbox).
Which one is better? POP or IMAP?
If given the choice, I would use IMAP. That’s because IMAP provides a two-way connection. Changes are synced to the server and you don’t have to worry about carrying your mail client everywhere. However, if you are someone who hardly checks mail on any other computer then you can also use POP.
So what do you use? POP or IMAP?
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
