What are IMAP and POP and why should I care?
The two most widely known Internet-based email protocols are POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). POP is the oldest and consequently the best known. IMAP offers good support for both online and offline remote mail access. POP was designed to support “offline” mail processing. In the offline paradigm, mail is delivered to a server, and a personal computer user periodically invokes a mail “client” program that connects to the server and downloads all of the pending mail to the user’s own machine. Thereafter, all mail processing is local to the client machine. If you use Eudora or Outlook, it is likely you are accessing our server using POP. The default configuration for Eudora and Outlook is to have the messages deleted from the server after downloading to your machine. Though this is the default, during installation, some clients get configured to leave messages on the server. Messages left on the server can, over time, contribute to heavy mail spool u
