Tuesday, 17 April 2012

Common Email Protocols

A protocol can be defined as a set of rules or language for performing a specific task. E-mail has it's own set of rules or protocols to control its travel over the Internet. In order to deal with your email you must use a mail client to access a mail server. The mail client and mail server can exchange information with each other using a variety of protocols. The most common of these e-mail protocols are listed below.


POP3 Protocol:
The POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) protocol provides a simple, standardized way for users to access mailboxes and download messages to their computers. When using the POP protocol all your email messages will be downloaded from the mail server to your local computer. You can choose to leave copies of your emails on the server as well. The advantage is that once your messages are downloaded you can disconnect the Internet connection and read your email at your leisure without incurring further data costs. On the other hand you might have transferred a lot of message (including Spam or viruses) in which you are not at all interested at this point.

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol):
Is a standard protocol for accessing e-mail from your local server. In IMAP the e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. As this requires only a small data transfer this works well even over a slow connection such as a modem. Only if you request to read a specific email, the message will it be downloaded from the server. You can also create and manipulate folders or mailboxes on the server, delete messages etc.

SMTP Protocol:
The SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used by the Mail Transfer Agent (MTA) to deliver your email to the recipient's mail server. The SMTP protocol can only be used to send emails, not to receive them. The vast majority of mail servers use SMTP. SMTP is used to send the e-mail to a mail server whilst POP3 is used to retrieve or download the same e-mail.

HTTP Protocol:
The HTTP protocol is not a protocol dedicated for email communications, but it can be used for accessing your mailbox. Also called web based email, this protocol can be used to compose or retrieve emails from  your account online.

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