In technology, it’s accepted for progress and tradition to clash. Often the absolute interests are very high.
E-mail is no exception. On the other side of tradition there is the POP3 Protocol, It is an old but accurate way of transmit E-mail. No matter how old tradition it is but still it is used as most common protocol. But it has drawbacks, and those are compelling many organizations to look for better ways to handle and organize their E-mail — ways that simplify, save money and reduce the consumption of time it takes to organize many messages coming across the typical desk at the particular company. An alternative that’s gaining an increasing amount of attention is IMAP( Internet Message Access Protocol). IMAP is a Client E-mail Protocol with a complicated but user friendly capacity to share, organize, and enable flexible access to multiple Email users. To an increasing number of organizations IMAP is the next step in E-mail hosting.
Difference between IMAP and POP3 Email Hosting
In order to understand the benefits of IMAP protocol, it is very necessary to understand the way E-mail is sent across and stored. When Ryan the sales manager sends an E-mail to Sean the Sales Operator, it goes from Ryan’s mail client on his local machine to a sending SMTP Server, a computer connected to the Internet that’s dedicated to storing and forwarding E-mail. SMTP Servers work in collusion with IMAP or POP3. Once the E-mail is sent, it’s the job of the Sending SMTP Server to deliver the message to Sean’s Receiving SMTP Server or organize that message in case the receiving server is not available at that moment. Once the SMTP Server accepts the message it is then forwarded to the appropriate mailbox or email account. To handle final delivery there are 2 ways. This is where POP3 Email Hosting and IMAP Email Hosting contrast with each other. Even after Sean reads the E-mail, IMAP makes sure that this message stays on the server. POP3, however, downloads all the pending messages to Sean’s local computer, deleting everything from the server.
So practically, what is the major difference between IMAP and POP3? Why are most of the companies switching to IMAP Email Hosting? It’s a matter of distillation, organization and flexibility. As E-mail becomes more of a contact management and organization tool it becomes very necessary to make sure it is stored and organized in ways that make sense.
Posted under email hosting
This post was written by admin on January 19, 2010
