Pop or IMAP?

Pop or IMAP?

When you setup your email (whether it is outlook, on your computer or your phone) – You will have choices on which email setup you want to do. This might look very daunting – but when you host your email with us, you really just have to choose between Pop3 or Imap. The rest is easy as 1-2-3, follow the steps.

But first, understand the settings and what is the email server?

The Email Server

The mail server, is a computer system that sends and receives email. The storage and settings of your email, is kept (Hosted) with the company you have chosen to host your domain. For example if you want a website name www.thisisme.co.za -> this is your domain, and all data related to this domain (for example your website) is kept on a server. On this same server we can use your domain to create as many emails for you as you like, for example ella@thisisme.co.za / hello@thisisme.co.za / etc.

When you host your email with us (or any provider) – we will give you the following settings, which you must try to save somewhere safe.

EMAIL SERVER SETTINGS

Your username will always be your email address. And the password is extremely important to keep safe and make it as complicated as possible. BEST PRACTICE for Password Rules are:
* At least 8 characters or longer
* Add some capitalization and punctuation
* Don’t make passwords easy to guess
* Avoid common words, or names
* Change your password regularly, or at the very least once a year.

The Incoming and Outgoing Server with us will always be the same name : mail.yourdomainname.co.za. The outgoing port number might differ (depending on your hosting security features). The same for the income, but also whether you have chosen POP3 or IMAP feature.

Mail Protocols

So the difference between POP and IMAP is the protocol that is used to receive your emails.

POP

POP stands for Post Office Protocol, sometimes written as POP3 (third iteration). See this protocol as a typical post office service. Here the server will deliver your message and forget about it – in other words, the server doesn’t store your emails. Your emails gets dropped on your phone or computer in your mail Inbox, and that is the end of that. If you want to access you mails from anywhere else, you cannot – only where the mail has been dropped. So you can setup your mail on your phone and your computer – both will get the mail – but they don’t talk to each other, so your computer won’t know if you deleted or read the mail on your phone. There is also no backups of your emails – so you have to ensure you make backups on your computer.

IMAP

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. This protocol involves syncing emails and information between all your devices that have been setup for your email. So if you read your mail on your phone, and access your computer later on – it will display as your email has been read. What is happening here, is your mails are actually kept on the mail server. So the server is in control here, and syncs to your devices (phone/computer). The server emails are backed up regularly as well.
Advantage 1 : if you ever choose to change your host, your emails can be moved quickly from one server to another over the internet by your hosting providers without any hassles or struggle.
Advantage 2 : your emails are backed up automatically for you.
Advantage 3 : you don’t need your phone or computer to access your emails, as long as you have your password, you can access your email remotely from any device via any browser (like chrome) – you just need to save the link somewhere (like a website address).
DISAdvantage : as the mails are saved on the host, it uses up space. Your hosting service provider (which is us), will let you know if space is running out on the server, and you need to upgrade to more space.

If you have any any questions – please feel free to contact us on info@printandwebdesigns.co.za

Leave a Reply