POP3

POP3

POP (Post Office Protocol) is used to provide simple remote access to mailboxes. POP3 is the latest version of POP. With POP3, once mail clients connect and download their messages, the messages are typically removed from the server and stored on the client's local machine. POP3 is an internet-based standard for retrieval of e-mail by a user from an e-mail server. POP1 and POP2 were made obsolete by POP3, which has been popular for many years now.

The POP3 service performs the tasks of message download and request handling on a Windows-based server, where message download consists of transmitting the messages from a folder in the file system to clients and request handling is performed according to the POP3 protocol, which defines how the server responds to requests sent from an e-mail client.

When you send mail, your server first checks to make sure you are a valid user, queues up the message to be sent, and then contacts the recipient's mail server. For receiving e-mail, you initiate a connection with the server, your username and password are sent, and then the server responds with your queued e-mail as a batch.

POP3 works fine in a mostly offline environment, checking for new messages manually or periodically according to your client's configuration. The primary competitor to POP3 is IMAP: Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP is a more flexible, modern protocol when compared to POP3, and is designed more toward an always-on network connection to the mail server. IMAP servers retain messages on the server by default, and allow the user to organize their mail into folders.

Since POP3 allows a client computer to retrieve electronic mail from a POP3 server via a (temporary) TCP/IP or other connection, it does not provide for sending mail, which is assumed to be performed via SMTP or some other method.

Depending on the type of hosting package preferred, most of the quality web-hosting providers offer their customers with POP3 accounts. With the POP3 accounts, users can have mailboxes on a server with their domain name. Most e-mail applications also known as an e-mail clients use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol).

Once the user has understood what exactly are the functions of POP3 email accounts and its uses, he can choose a hosting package that offers POP3 email accounts with their respective support. For most web masters, POP3 accounts are indispensable and therefore it becomes imperative to opt for a web hosting service that offers this feature.