Linux Network Administratoramp;#039;s Guide (3rd Edition) [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Chapter 15. IMAP

Internet Message Access
Protocol
(IMAP)
was developed from a need for mobile email access. Many workers read
mail from a variety of locations (the office, home, hotel rooms, and
so on) and want such flexible features as the ability to download
headers first and then selectively download mail messages. The main
mail delivery protocols before IMAP, for the Internet, was POP, which
offers more rudimentary mail delivery-only functionality

With IMAP, traveling users can access their email from anywhere and
download it or leave it on the server as desired. POP, on the other
hand, does not work well when users access email from many different
machines; users end up with their email distributed across many
different email clients. IMAP provides users with the ability to
remotely manage multiple email boxes, and store or search as well as
archive old messages.