What are POP3 and IMAP?
According to whatis.com, POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is the most recent version of a standard protocol for receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. Periodically, you (or your client e-mail receiver) check your mailbox on the server and download any mail. POP3 is built into the Netmanage Suite of Internet products and is one of the most popular e-mail products, Eudora. It’s also built into the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. An alternative protocol is IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). With IMAP, you view your e-mail at the server as though it was on your client computer. An e-mail message deleted locally is still on the server. E-mail can be kept on and searched at the server. POP can be thought of as a “store-and-forward” service. IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server. POP and IMAP deal with the receiving of e-mail and should not be confused with the Simple Mail Transfer
