IMAP

 

IMAP is convenient for our users who will be accessing their email from multiple computers. If you have one computer at work and a different one at home, possibly also a laptop for travel, or a mobile device, then IMAP will work best for you. Similar to POP3, email is delivered to a main server, but the mail client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) does not copy it all at once and then deletes it from the server. Messages on the main server are marked with status flags, such as “deleted" or "answered", moved to folders on a local computer or on the server, and they will stay on the server until removed by the user. This allows the messages to be viewed from other computers in all the locations you may use until they are marked for deletion or downloaded to a folder on a computer.

 

POP3

POP3 works best for those who are planning to use a single computer all of the time. When using POP3, mail is delivered to a central server, then to the email "client" program (Eudora, Outlook, etc.) that connects to the server and downloads all of the pending mail to your machine. Once delivered to your computer, the messages are deleted from the mail server (unless you configure your client to temporarily leave your mail on the server).

Using POP3 in multiple locations is not the most beneficial way to check your email as messages in one location will be downloaded to that machine and deleted from the server, therefore not available on any other machines you may be using POP3 for the mailbox.