POP vs IMAP

E-mail infrastructure has always been one of those things that I've never really taken the time to think about. You set up your client to use POP, or IMAP, or Exchange, and don't think twice about it. I've always been more familiar with how POP (post office protocol) works, as it is one of the oldest methods of e-mail retrieval, but IMAP has always been a bit more obscure to me, simply because I never really needed to use it because I always just used POP.

Well after reviewing this article, I've learned that IMAP may in fact be the superior protocol, at least for my purposes. IMAP, unlike traditional POP, supports online processing, using a more interactive client-server model. The obvious advantage to IMAP is that it allows users to access their email from different machines at different times (similar to just using a web mail client), wheras the POP paradigm is best suited for individuals that use only one client computer all the time.

So next time, given the choice, I will opt for IMAP over POP.