Why IMAP?

[MMiz]

So my college has switched from their old POP3 / Telnet / Pine system to IMAP. Besides being more "secure" and allowing us more space, Im not sure why anyone would want IMAP. Im in the minority that uses Outlook to check mail, but I have to be online to view messages, I cant delete messages, they are just striked through, and it seems everything takes longer.

Why would someone want IMAP, what are the applications?

Thanks!

-Matt

[net-trend]

IMAP has significant advantages over POP3. It has been said to replace POP3 even.

- With IMAP you can download your mails like in POP3.

- You can choose not to download mails like POP3 and store them in the server, which allows for reading everywhere you go and from any computer you choose to use.

- Only read the mails you want to read without having to download all the mails before hand. Hence saving time and transfers.

- Marking a mail for deletion in IMAP will get the mail deleted.

- Poeple love and use IMAP because it gives them so much more freedom when compared to plain old POP3.

[Protollix]

I prefer IMAP and use it for all my hosting-related business email accounts (support, sales, etc).

In outlook, after you "delete" a message (it strikes it out) go to the View menu and select "purge delete messages".

As well, if you can remember to purge them every once in a while, you can change your view so that it hides the deleted emails (the ones with the line through them).

I really like IMAP because it pops the email in your inbox as soon as it arrives (because IMAP is a statefull protocol.. ie: a constant connection is established with the server).

Although, IMAP can be a little slow when you have a bunch of accounts in Outlook ;) Being able to store the mails on the server and use a client or webmail to manage it all is very nice. I prefer SquirrelMail for the webmail interface. :)

[JeremyV]

Yep, IMAP will take a bit extra to configure in your mail program, but once setup, you really won't notice much difference over POP3. My biggest use for IMAP is backup purposes. Now if my OS dies or I feel like reformatting and forget to backup my mail... no problem, everything is on the server :)

[no1v2]

Taken from IMAP.org (http://www.imap.org/):
What is IMAP?

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. It is a method of accessing electronic mail or bulletin board messages that are kept on a (possibly shared) mail server. In other words, it permits a "client" email program to access remote message stores as if they were local. For example, email stored on an IMAP server can be manipulated from a desktop computer at home, a workstation at the office, and a notebook computer while traveling, without the need to transfer messages or files back and forth between these computers.

IMAP's ability to access messages (both new and saved) from more than one computer has become extremely important as reliance on electronic messaging and use of multiple computers increase, but this functionality cannot be taken for granted: the widely used Post Office Protocol (POP) works best when one has only a single computer, since it was designed to support "offline" message access, wherein messages are downloaded and then deleted from the mail server. This mode of access is not compatible with access from multiple computers since it tends to sprinkle messages across all of the computers used for mail access. Thus, unless all of those machines share a common file system, the offline mode of access that POP was designed to support effectively ties the user to one computer for message storage and manipulation.

IMAP is great, unfortunately most IMAP clients are not. So far out of all the MUAs I've tried only Pine and Mulberry do IMAP well. I don't think it's a coincidence that they were also the only ones designed to use IMAP in the first place (whereas most MUAs were originally designed for POP). Still, IMAP is great as long as you have broadband. After using it for so long POP has become just a bad memory.

[Lamont]

Mozilla has the best IMAP mail client I've ever used. It's great to be able to access all my emails from any of my computers.

[MMiz]

See, this is the kind of input that I really like. THANK YOU! Ive really searched the internet, and all I get are techie answers. I think that I would better be able to use IMAP if I wasnt on a dial up connection, and had ~10 accounts to check each time. Any other input on that? Is there any way to speed up an imap connection?

I now realize how nice it is to have all the emails stored on the server. Thanks! PS, does cPanel support IMAP

[net-trend]

Originally posted by MMiz:

I now realize how nice it is to have all the emails stored on the server. Thanks! PS, does cPanel support IMAP

Yes cPanel does support IMAP.

[net-trend]

Originally posted by Lamont:

Mozilla has the best IMAP mail client I've ever used. It's great to be able to access all my emails from any of my computers.

That's right! It's rock solid alright. I had to convert several customers using Outlook for IMAP to Mozilla.

[Lamont]

Originally posted by net-trend:
That's right! It's rock solid alright. I had to convert several customers using Outlook for IMAP to Mozilla.
The only thing Mozilla can't do better than Outlook is spread viruses. I converted my whole office over to it just to get rid of the worry of a virus taking out the network. Everyone loves it.

Try the Walnut skin. It's my favorite.


MMiz,

IMAP works best for dial-up because it just downloads the headers at first. You don't get the whole message until you click to read it. You can also sync the folders for off-line reading and replying. Once you try it, you won't go back.

[net-trend]

Originally posted by Lamont:

Try the Walnut skin. It's my favorite.


My favourite skin has got to be Orbit. :cool:

[no1v2]

Mozilla is an above-average IMAP client (certainly better than Outlook & OE), but it still has some problems. The biggest is its lack of support for only downloading the headers for the part of the index you're viewing. It also doesn't support marking messages as replied. It has some problems that aren't IMAP related too of course, but then so does every MUA (size and stability in Mozilla's case, though from what I hear the latter has improved in recent versions). It's still the best IMAP client I've tried for most users who aren't tech-savvy though.

[Lamont]

Originally posted by no1v2: It also doesn't support marking messages as replied.
Yes, it does.

[no1v2]

Ah good, they've improved it in recent versions then. I think I last tried the mail client in it in 1.2 beta. Do you remember what version it was added in? Also, has it been stable in recent versions? The browser has been very stable for a while now, and it was a shame that the MUA kept crashing it.