Monday, September 3, 2007

September 5, 2007 POP3, IMAP, SMTP

Hello everybody,

I have been trying to get my guestbook to work without subscribing to an ISP that requires cash to access the necessary implementation to run it. I've looked through some emails which use different protocols like POP3, IMAP and Windows Live. Yahoo! mail, GMail and MS Outlook use POP3. Fastmail.fm and AIM (AOL's email) use IMAP.

For each of them, you must change the Control Panel (throught User Accounts), if you change the mail server you use.

Today, we'll look at the following mail servers: POP3, IMAP, and SMTP email...
POP3 is Post Office Protocol, an application-layer Internet standard protocol for TCP/IP connections. POP3 differs from earlier versions of POP, POP1 and POP2, in that they allow users to retrieve e-mail when connected to the Internet and view/ manipulate the retrieved messages without staying connected.
In POP, mail stays on the server until it is collected by the client. Even if the client leaves some or all messages on the server, the client's message store is considered authoritative.


IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol differs in that it can be used by more than one person. Fewer ISP Internet Sevice Providers support IMAP.
For IMAP4, the client may store local copies of the messages, but these are considered to be a temporary cache. The server's store is authoritative.
IMAP, by design, assumes MIME-formatted e-mail(meaning attachments are standard and non-ASCII is contained in the email).

Both POP3 and IMAP are used to RECEIVE messages. SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is used to SEND messages.
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I found an interesting page about emails. Here is an excerpt:
http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2006/04/how-to-use-gmail-over-imap
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"The problem: I like mail applications better than web-based mail. I am especially not fond of the way Google’s threads work. … a Gmail account is great to have because of its free storage, spam filtering, separation from my own domain, and search capabilities. So very conveniently, Google enabled POP access to Gmail accounts several months ago. That’s great, except I don’t like POP either. It’s fine for people who only use one computer, but the second you begin using multiple machines, it’s a synching nightmare.

"Enter IMAP e-mail. With Dreamhost’s IMAP e-mail setup, I can maintain an unlimited number of e-mail accounts with over 20 gigs of storage space and keep it all automatically synched between as many computers as I want. Awesome.

"The only problem is that while Gmail supports retrieving of e-mail via POP, they don’t via IMAP. So what can I do if I want to continue using my Gmail address for filling out forms on the web and benefit from its excellent spam/phishing filters? Easy! Set it to automatically forward to a special IMAP account! Since Gmail’s auto-forwarding feature leaves headers for the most part intact, I can now receive fully synched, fully intact copies of all my Gmail messages to any computer I happen to be on. Here’s how:

"1. Set up a new IMAP mailbox with your mail provider. The address could
be 'abcdefg@yourdomain.com'… doesn’t matter. It’s not public-facing.
2. Set your incoming mail server to its normal settings.
3. Set your outgoing mail server to 'smtp.gmail.com', check 'Use SSL', and use
port 465.
4. Go to Gmail’s POP/Forwarding settings panel.

Turn on forwarding and forward to the special address you’ve set up.
Set Gmail to archive your mail after forwarding.

That’s it. You’re done. Gmail over IMAP. That such an obvious solution has escaped me...by Mike Davidson"
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Hmmm...
...Did you try it?

Evelyn

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posted by evelyn @ 1:45 AM