What is a POP email Account?

POP stands for Post Office Protocol. It is a standard network protocol that is supported by DOS/Windows and Macintosh software for managing Internet electronic mail. You then use software on your DOS/Windows or Macintosh computer to read your mail and send replies, using a friendly and familiar graphical user interface (GUI); you never have to "log in" or type any obtuse and difficult to remember commands.

What is IMAP email?

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is a standard protocol for accessing e-mail from your local server. IMAP (the latest version is IMAP4) is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. You (or your e-mail client) can view just the heading and the sender of the letter and then decide whether to download the mail. You can also create and manipulate folders or mailboxes on the server, delete messages, or search for certain parts or an entire note. IMAP requires continual access to the server during the time that you are working with your mail.

What is the difference between POP3 and IMAP?

With POP3, your mail is saved for you in your mailbox on the POP3 email server. When you read your mail, all of it is immediately downloaded to your computer and no longer maintained on the server. Where as IMAP is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your IMAP email server.

IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server. POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service.

What is SMTP?

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a protocol for transferring e-mail between points on the Internet. Users typically use a program that uses SMTP for sending e-mail and either POP3 or IMAP for receiving messages that have been received for them at their local server.

You send e-mail with SMTP and a mail handler receives it on your recipient's behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP. POP and IMAP are use to deal with the receiving of e-mail from your local server and are not to be confused with SMTP,

What is Webmail?

Webmail is a web (HTTP / HTTPS protocols, Hypertext Transfer Protocol / Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol) interface providing access to your email account host by your Email hosting service provider using a web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape. With using the Webmail, users can take advantage of the Internet to access their mailboxes anywhere using any other computers connected to the Internet.

What is an email forward?

An email forward is an email address that simply forwards the email sent to it to a different address. These come in useful when you don't want to worry about managing too many e-mail addresses.

What is an e-mail mailing list?

An e-mail maling list is an address that you can set up to send mail to which will automatically send the messages to anyone you have specified on the list. This can be very useful when sending a message to a group of people, such as everyone within a company, or maybe even just a department within a company.

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