POP3 vs IMAP

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vera
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 2:00 am

POP3 vs IMAP

Post by vera »

Hi guys,

I know I can google it up for the comparison of POP3 and IMAP. I did, but I'm still quite unclear of the difference of them.

I researched on it, it said IMAP is good for slow connection and download only the emails I wish to read, I assume, they only download the header, and not the content of the email?
some said, I could even create folders on it, (POP3 can't?) then it's also good for one email account with multi email clients

POP3 it's good if there's only one email client and it download the content from the sever. Is that's all the features of POP3 has?
Please correct me if I'm wrong. thanks

And I also would like to hear the views of the people here, and when & why of which situtation, we should use POP3 or IMAP.

Thanks
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Jeff
Admin / Developer
Posts: 9227
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2001 9:46 pm

Re: POP3 vs IMAP

Post by Jeff »

You've got it about figured out. POP3 is good for permanent storage, and that's about it. Imap is especially good for people who access their email from different locations. It's also the best protocol for notification because it has the IDLE command. This allows the email client to know instantly when new email arrives.

As far as POP Peeper is concerned -- PP doesn't support half the capabilities that Imap is capable of (most notably, folders). However, it does take advantage of the benefits as far as email notification. So if you have the choice between POP3 and Imap for accounts in POP Peeper, use Imap without hesitation, and don't forget to enable IDLE.

it said IMAP is good for slow connection and download only the emails I wish to read, I assume, they only download the header, and not the content of the email
That's not exactly accurate. Both POP3 and Imap provide the ability to download just the header; however, the default for POP3 email clients is to download the entire message and the default for Imap clients is to download the header. In fact, if I was on a slow connection, I'd prefer POP3 because then I can just download them (and do something else while doing so) and read them immediately, whereas with Imap I'd have to wait to download each message when I wanted to read it. The options available in PP make this moot, btw; you should still use Imap :)
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