TCP/IP Email
Email is one of the most important users of
TCP/IP.
You Don't
When you write an email, you don't
use TCP/IP.
When you write an email, you use
an email program like Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook
or Netscape Communicator.
Your Email Program Does
Your email program uses different
TCP/IP protocols:
-
It sends your emails using
SMTP
-
It can download your emails
from an email server using POP
-
It can connect to an email
server using IMAP
SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol
The SMTP protocol is used for the
transmission of e-mails. SMTP takes care of sending
your email to another computer.
Normally your email is sent to an
email server (SMTP server), and then to another
server or servers, and finally to its destination.
SMTP can only transmit pure text.
It can not transmit pictures or sound or movies.
POP - Post Office Protocol
The POP protocol is used by email
programs (like Microsoft Outlook) to retrieve emails
from an email server.
If your email program uses POP,
all your emails are downloaded to your email program
(also called email client), each time it connects to
your email server.
IMAP - Internet Message Access
Protocol
The IMAP protocol is used by email
programs (like Microsoft Outlook) just like the POP
protocol.
The main difference between the
IMAP protocol and the POP protocol is that the IMAP
protocol will not automatically download all your
emails each time your email program connects to your
email server.
The IMAP protocol allows you to
see through your email messages at the email server
before you download them. With IMAP you can choose
to download your messages or just delete them. This
way IMAP is perfect if you need to connect to your
email server from different locations, but only want
to download your messages when you are back in your
office.
|