Email Protocols

IMAP4 protocol

POP3 protocol

The main difference between IMAP4 and POP3 protocols is the way in which IMAP4 or POP3 controls your email inbox. When you use IMAP4 you are accessing your email on the school's central email server. IMAP4 does not actually move the messages to your computer. You can think of an email programme using IMAP4 as a window to your messages on the server. Although the messages appear on your computer while you are working with them, they remain on the school's email server.  POP3 does the opposite. Instead of just showing you what is on the email server, it checks for new messages, downloads them to your computer and then deletes them from the server. 

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