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J&P Group > J&P InfoSol > Applications > Mail - Email

Mail - Email

 

Introduction <top>

Section started in July 2009 for an overview to email communications - clients, servers. protocols, synchronization, ...

Related topics: Personal Information Management, Synchronizing , Mail Servers

  • Clients
  • Mac
    • Apple Mail - included in Mac OS X (free)
    • MS Entourage - part of MS Office ($$$) but is also available stand-alone (~$110 or so)
    • Mozilla Thunderbird, and many other
  • MS Windows
    • MS Outlook Express (free, included in MS Windows)
    • MS Outlook ($$$, part of MS Office, also available stand-alone)
    • Mozilla Thunderbird, and many other
  • Web-based - many, many, providers out there with cost from zero and up, a few example include:

 
  • Servers

For personal users, hosted service is absolutely most common.

Sending and receiving emails via a internet service provider.

 
    • Hosted

Hosted Servers or Services.

Thousands and thousand if not more to choose from. Every ISP, every web hosting hotel,

around the world, can provide hosted email services. Also manufacturers like Apple and Microsoft.

Cost can range from free, to a few dollars, to tens of dollar, and even more, per user and month. Depending on features, storage, bandwidth, add-ons. More in our mail servers section. Examples:

 
    • Own
 ###

Protocols <top>

POP or IMAP

Brief Overview, more detail below table:

Protocol Long Name Brief Functional Description

Keep

email on

server

Multiple

Clients,

Devices

Folders

on

Server
POP (POP3) Post Office Protocol (version 3)
  • Incoming emails arrive and are kept on server
  • Email client fetches and deletes emails on request by client.
 No No No
IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol
  • Incoming emails arrive and are kept on server
  • Email client can fetch but also keep emails on server
  • Can have multiple folders on server for (e.g.) spam filter to place spam-marked emails into
 Yes Yes Yes

(Descriptions taken from 1&1 and slightly modified.)

POP or POP3 - Post Office Protocol version 3.

When an e-mail is sent to you, it is stored on a server (called the POP3 server) until it is downloaded via your e-mail client (Outlook, Netscape mail, etc.). After the e-mail has been downloaded to your client, it is removed from the server.

(faq.1and1.com/e_mail/general_information_on_e_mails_/2.html - include examples for configuring different clients.)

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)

A more advanced and modern protocol for sending and receiving e-mail. It is a method of accessing e-mail messages which are stored on a mail server.

E-mail stored on an IMAP server can be accessed from different computers using an e-mail client such as Outlook or Eudora. This is possible because the messages are stored on the server, unlike POP3, where you have to download the messages to your local system.

A strong advantage of IMAP over POP3 is the ability for users to set up IMAP directories on the server. Incoming mail can then be organized into the correct directory. This is especially helpful if the IMAP e-mail account is shared by more than one user or device.

Please note: At the moment, it is not possible to set up automatic filter rules on the server. This means the sorting of the e-mail still has to be done manually using your client e-mail program.

(http://faq.1and1.com/e_mail/general_information_on_e_mails_/3.html - include examples for configuring different clients.)

 

More Protocols

Aside POP and IMAP, there are other protocols that are of interest.

Protocol Long Name User For Origin Client Applications (e.g.) Servers (e.g.)
Basic (core email protocols)        
POP Post Office Protocol Get email Internet Std All email apps supports[1] All servers supports[2]
IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol Get email Internet Std All email apps supports[1] All servers supports[2]
SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Send email Internet Std All email apps supports[1] All servers supports[2]
Advanced (email and more)        
MAPI/RPC Messaging Application Programming Interface

Get/send email,

and more

 Microsoft proprietary
  • MS Entourage (Mac)
  • MS Outlook (MS Windows)
ActiveSync.. ActiveSync Exchange

Get/send email,

and more

 Microsoft proprietary Selected mobile devices
? (IBM Lotus Notes proprietary protocol)

Get/send email,

and more

 IBM proprietary Lotus Notes IBM Lotus Domino
Other (supporting services)        
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol Directory info Interned Std All email apps supports[1] Often dedicated[3]

[1] All major applications - email clients - support; may exist exceptions
[2] All servers supports protocol, also proprietary servers like MS Exchange and Lotus Domino as complement to proprietary protocol(s)
[3] LDAP often require separate server appl. Some (e.g.) MS Exchange incl support.

  POP IMAP SMTP LDAP MAPI/RPC ActiveSync other file
(std) (std) (std) (std) (Microsoft) (Microsoft) (standards)  
Mail Get Get Send - Get/Send Get/Send (POP or IMAP and SMTP are the primary protocols) .eml (E-mail)
Contacts - - - X X X
  • (LDAP is the primary protocol 
  • GroupDAV groupware protocol, subset of WebDAV 

vCard,

.vcf, .vcard
Calendar - - - - X X

iCalendar,

.ical, .ics, .ifb,

.icalendar, .ics,

Notes - - - - X X ? (GroupDAV groupware protocol, subset of WebDAV ?)  
Task - - - - X X ? (GroupDAV groupware protocol, subset of WebDAV ?)  

 

 

Push Email <top>

For iPhone, see Push Email on iPhone.

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