Special Edition Using TCP/IP, Second Edition

POP

SMTP is used as a standard for transferring mail to a recipient. Transferring mail is the process of sending mail to the mailbox of the user. Accessing mail refers to the process of reading and manipulating mail from the mail server. Accessing mail is not a functionality of SMTP. The protocols that are used for accessing mail from a mail server are Post Office Protocol (POP) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). SMTP needs a connection to be active for transferring mail. This will be a constraint on the users because they cannot be expected to be online all the time. Mailboxes are accessed only when required and not otherwise. Thus, to make the process of accessing mail user-friendly, POP and IMAP have been created to support ...