POP3 and IMAP4

POP3 and IMAP4 are Internet email protocols that a wide variety of clients and servers support. Fans of these protocols love the lightweight nature of their connections, which is one of the reasons they have long been the protocols of choice for free email services such as Outlook.com and Gmail (Hotmail-supported POP3; Gmail supports both protocols). POP3 is the older and less functional protocol. IMAP4 is more functional than POP3 but less functional than MAPI.

Nevertheless, modern IMAP4 clients, including Outlook, can build a rich range of features around the rudimentary but superefficient communications to download messages from a server. Of course, unlike MAPI, POP3 and IMAP4 are both protocols that clients use to retrieve messages ...

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