Email jargon explained (Webmail, POP, IMAP, Exchange)

There are 4 ways of reading your email (Webmail, POP, IMAP, and Exchange). All of these methods provide a way to retrieve your email messages. POP is the most widely used and is the easiest to implement.  Nowadays, most email programs support both POP and IMAP for accessing email, although some older programs may not support IMAP. Exchange is the most difficult and is costly to implement.

What is Webmail?

Webmail (or web based email) is an email service accessed from a web browser, as opposed to a desktop email program such as Outlook or Thunderbird. This means you can check your email using any browser, from anywhere in the world. This makes webmail the ideal choice when travelling or using another person's computer.

What is POP?

POP stands for 'Post Office Protocol' and it is best to think of it like a Post Office system for email. When you open your email program, all (new) messages are retrieved from the Post Office (i.e. the server). Just like a real Post Office, the messages you have received are no longer stored by the post office. From the time you recieve them, they are stored on your computer where you can operate on them. This procedure works fine as long as you access your email from one computer.

What is IMAP?

IMAP stands for 'Internet Message Access Protocol' (so this doesn't tell us much I know). Email delivered using this method remains on the server, where message information is relayed to your computer. When you read a message you are simply viewing a copy of the mail stored on the server. IMAP provides all the features of POP plus the ability to download message headers only, set user-defined message flags, and add emails to folders. The main advantage of using IMAP is you can access your email using multiple computers/devices you have connected to your email account. Each device is able to synchronise with the mail server independently, enabling a seamless transition between your work and home PC. This makes IMAP the perfect choice for setting up concurrent access to a shared mailbox.

When using IMAP access, you will need to create regular archives of your email and clear the server copies.  This is because the server uses a growing portion of your mailbox disk space to store your emails. This storage includes any attachments you have sent and received. If you are using Thunderbird as your email program, you may find the following article useful for setting up an email archive (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Archiving_your_e-mail).  Alternatively you may contact Datasearch to upgrade your email storage capacity in order to alleviate the need for archiving.

The only real difference when setting up IMAP is the incoming server ports.  Most email programs will automatically set the port based on whether you choose IMAP or POP in the beginning of the set up.

What is Exchange?

Microsoft Exchange Server is the standard email and colloboration software for medium and large-scale enterprises. It is very robust and allows group collaboration of calendar, tasks, notes, public folders etc. in a group environment. Mail is kept on the server and kept in sync with mobile devices, PCs, and Outlook Web Access. Exchange is very expensive, however is gaining in popularity as it becomes more affordable.