When setting up an Email account you need to provide information for both the Incoming(receiving) and the Outgoing(sending) servers.
When it comes the the Incoming there are two types of email delivery protocols. POP3 and IMAP
- POP3 is the old and rarely used method
- IMAP modern method used allowing multiple devices and webmail access.
So what are the differences.
Let’s Starts with POP3. This old protocol, now rarely used, would physically download and remove the mail from the server onto your PC or Tablet. Some people used to tick the option "leave a copy on the server", which allows people with two PC's to get the message on both. But never worked great. If you deleted the message on one PC, you normally then had to delete it on the second manually.
This also meant that if your PC failed or was destroyed, lost or stolen, there was no record of your emails and they would be lost for ever...
POP3 is no longer supported by CloudTree by default we block ports 110 and 995 on our firewalls.
IMAP
Newer and most common way of receiving emails, unlike POP3, emails are Synchronised rather than downloaded.
So this means that your PC, tablet, Phone, Laptop, webmail are all working on the same copy of the email on the server, rather than a local downloaded copy.
This has several benefits.
- You can make a change on one device, it is automatically applied to all others. i.e. move an email from your inbox to a folder. And it is automatically moved on all other devices.
- If you loose your phone, or your hard disk fails, your emails are safely stored on the server.
- You can access webmail and see ALL of your emails in their folders as you would on your laptop or phone.
So as you can see IMAP is the best option (and in fact now only option) for receiving emails.
Are there any downsides?
Not so much a downside but something we need to consider…
As our emails are now safely stored on the server, they will count towards our total disk quota. With the amount of emails, we receive every day, this can quickly build up…
Good email management using auto archive setting in outlook ensures that older emails are stored safely without them counting towards your mailbox quota.
As with every piece of data, taking regular backups is strongly advisable. There are many guides freely available online that will guide you through the process.
