What is IMAP

WHAT IS IMAP?

IMAP means Internet Message Access Protocol. IMAP is a process of accessing electronic mail or bulletin board messages that a kept on a mail server. IMAP was developed at the Stanford University in 1986. It did not get very popular till after a decade.



It allows a client email program - software installed on your computer - to access remote messages that are stored on the server as if they were local messages stored on your computer.



An email that is stored on an IMAP server can be accessed from a desktop at home, a workstation at office or a laptop computer. There is no need to transfer messages back and forth between different systems.



This ability of IMAP to access saved and new messages from more than one system is very important with the increasing reliance on electronic messaging. It saves space, and makes sure that the mailboxes are synchronized wherever you access emails from.



The Key Advantages of IMAP are:

1. It is fully compatible with Internet Messaging Standards like MIME.

2. It allows you to access and manage messages from more than one system.

3. It allows access to your messages without reliance on less efficient file access protocols.

4. It provides support for online, offline and disconnected access modes.

5. It supports concurrent access to shared mailboxes allowing multiple people to access the mailbox at the same time.

6. The client software need not have any knowledge about the server's file store format.



IMAP is a protocol that includes operations for creating, deleting and renaming mailboxes. It lets people check new messages, permanently remove messages, it lets you set and clear flags and it also allows selective fetching of message attributes, texts, and portions thereof for efficiency. Essentially giving you the freedom to do just about anything you may want to do with your messages, from anywhere and at any time.

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About the author:
Tanya Smith is an expert on domain name registration and web hosting at Ballistic Domains, USA. Ballistic Domains provides domain name registration, domain transfer, domain parking, dedicated web hosting and related services.