POP vs. IMAP - How to check your email - InMotion Hosting

In our previous tutorial, we showed you how to create an email account. Before we show you how to setup your email account so you can send and receive email we first need to go over the basics of which tools you can use for that.

Most users are familiar with desktop email clients, such as Microsoft Outlook or Mac Mail.

If you have a mobile device, such as an iPhone or a BlackBerry, you can check your email on those as well.

Another option you have is checking your email in your web browser, using webmail.

You can use more than one tool to check your email, and this leads us to POP and IMAP. POP and IMAP are different protocols for using your email.

When using POP, email is downloaded and removed from the server. As the email is downloaded to your computer, you can switch between emails much faster than you can using IMAP. You can also store much more email because the email is being stored on your hard drive. One downfall however is that as the email is removed from the server, if you check your email from another device such as an iphone, you won't be able to see all of your old email.

This leads us into IMAP. As IMAP keeps email on the server, you can sync multiple devices like an iphone and a desktop email client, and you'll be able to see the same emails from all locations. A downfall of IMAP however is that it does load slower because each time you check your email it must connect to the server to sync the messages. If you receive many emails with large attachments, this also slows down that syncing.

In upcoming videos, we'll show you how to setup your email in various email clients, such as an Microsoft Outlook and Mac Mail

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• pop
• imap
• difference
• setup
• email
• InMotion
• Hosting