When are IMAP, POP & SMTP Protocols Used?
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IMAP
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IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. This is a protocol (language of computers) that is used to access messages from a server. A message will be stored on a server until the mail client computer requests the message. IMAP can be used by any computer configured to use IMAP and it is especially useful if you have more than one client computer that needs to access and read messages. IMAP was designed to work with all standard Internet messages (MIME) and allow client computers to access the messages without knowing anything about the server configuration.
POP
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POP stands for Post Office Protocol. POP operates on the application layer of the seven-layer OSI model of computing, and it works only by using a TCP/IP connection (which is the type of connection you must use to connect to the Internet). The current version of the POP protocol is POP 3. Most often, this protocol is used when you have one client computer that connects to your mail server for your email. Clients that connect with the POP method will, by default, download the mail from the server, transfer it to the client and then delete it from the server. This is most useful when you only use one computer to access a particular email account.
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SMTP
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SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. This is, as the name implies, designed to be a very simple process to connect and read mail. The process is all-text and was primarily designed to be used over the Internet using relatively slow connections. This process was developed when the Internet was young, and when the primary purpose of the Internet was to provide a way to share documents and information. At that time, no one cared much about security or spamming, as that was not an issue. SMTP is used today by a number of spammers because of the lack of security and the lack of any way to detect or verify the source of the email.
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