What Is SMTP & IMAP?
SMTP versus IMAP SMTP is the protocol for sending email, whether from the client or between servers, to distribute the email to the intended destination. In comparison, IMAP is a protocol that deals with managing and retrieving e-mail messages from the server. SMTP and IMAP are two email protocols that are involved in the transmission of electronic messages. SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, while IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol.
The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an email protocol that is used to access e-mail on a remote web server from a local client. IMAP and POP3 are the two most commonly used Internet mail protocols to retrieve e-mail. Both protocols are supported by all modern email clients and web servers. POP3 doesn’t let you organize email in the mail server’s mailbox, whereas IMAP allows you to organize it.
Since SMTP’s main function is different overall, the dilemma of choosing the better protocol usually only includes IMAP and POP3.IMAP works between server and client for communication, while SMTP works between servers to transfer information. On the other hand, IMAP stores the message on a server and synchronizes the message across multiple devices. Continue reading this POP3 vs IMAP article to see what happens behind the scenes when you send and receive an email. I’ve tried to explain things as simply as possible so that everyone would get the idea behind the external SMTP services.
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Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is then used by the recipient’s email client to retrieve your message from the email server and send it to the inbox. IMAP stores the message on a server and synchronizes the message across multiple devices, while POP3 downloads the email from a server to a single computer and then deletes the email from the server. If you use and use Java, Secure iNet Factory includes some easy-to-use Java-based components for developing applications that support SMTP, IMAP, POP3, and several other network protocols. SMTP is required to send an electronic message from a sender to an email server and then transfer the message between two email servers.
To do so, you must enter your data such as your username and password along with the SMTP and IMAP host and port. If you’re wondering how email works, it’s a good start to understand the differences between POP3 and IMAP and the role of SMTP. Both POP3 and IMAP are incoming e-mail protocols that email clients use to retrieve messages from email servers. An email message goes through at least two core SMTP servers, which are senders and recipients.