POP3 allows only one mailbox (the "inbox") and it's designed with the
intention of downloading e-mail from the server to the mail client, and
removing it from the server. (There are ways to work around this so
that the messages do remain on the server -- but it's not really the way
POP3 was designed to work.) It was really designed as a means of
downloading all new messages from that one folder -- the inbox -- and
removing them from the server.
IMAP4 (since we're using the version number in POP3, we may as well also
use it in IMAP4). Is designed as a means of organizing e-mail folders
on a web server and synchronizing them with the mail client.
(Synchronizing -- NOT downloading... the messages are kept in both places.)
IMAP4 can have many mail folders on the server, not just one inbox.
Messages are only deleted from the server when you push the delete
button in your client (in which case, they're deleted from both your PC
and the server simultaneously)
Personally, I use IMAP4 exclusively. I access my email from work, home
and sometimes from a hotel or conference. At home I have many different
computers that I use for e-mail. So, for me, IMAP4 is a no-brainer, I
want to access my e-mail from anywhere and always have the same messages
in the same folders, no matter where I am.
Using it in conjunction with a web-based mail client means that you'd be
able to have the same messages in the same folders from both the web
client and your Outlook/Mac mail/Entourage clients. Unfortunately, I
am not familiar with any of those mail clients, so I don't know how well
they work in conjunction with IMAP as opposed to POP.
Jon Paris wrote:
Joe's recent posts reminded me I had meant to ask you folks about
switching to IMAP.
Every time I have an email problem my ISP tells me that if I switched
from using POP3 to IMAP my problems would disappear.
Can someone give me the Coles Notes version of the differences and
why I should switch.
If it matters, Susan is using Outlook, I'm using the Mac Mail app
(and may go Entourage since I already own it). Right now we download
new mail (helps when on the road) and from time to time use the ISPs
web based mail client.
Jon Paris
www.Partner400.com
www.SystemiDeveloper.com
midrange.com
