【 IMAP 】What is it and how does it work to send emails? ▷ 2022

To be able to enjoy emails on our mobile or computer, there are different protocols that allow the servers of these emails to work in a synchronized way. Thanks to these tools, we can have a perfect gear in sending and receiving messages.

An important theme that characterizes protocols is the distinction they make regarding the hosting of emails on the server. According to each one of them we will be able to see the header of the mail before opening it or downloading them directly and just reading them.

we will teach you what are the IMAP protocols, and and how they work in our emails. In addition, we will indicate how you should configure your Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo! Post.

What is IMAP or Internet Message Access Protocol and how does it work?

IMAP is the acronym for “Message Access Protocol”, for its acronym in English. It consists of a set of certain rules which apply to the storage of email messages on the Internet mail server.

Thanks to this tool, you can work directly from the server sidesince it allows you to remotely access and create, modify or delete folders and files.

our devices, download only the header of the , while the rest of the message remains on the server. In this way, users can choose which email to see and which not, being able to modify the folder of received files.

In addition, it has the advantage that all the devices with which we can access the server of our email account, are updated automatically. This is because the synchronization is permanent, according to the requirement of the mail platform.

The same does not happen with POPwhich is another protocol used to receive email, since it works directly on our devices and its synchronization is done in certain periods.

At which layer of the OSI model does IMAP operate and with which protocols does it interact?

Both IMAP for email recovery and SMTP, used to send emails interact at the “seventh layer or level” of the OSI Model. That, although it is true, the user does not work directly with this level, he uses different software or programs so that these are the ones that interact to reduce the complexity that occurs in the coding.

Remember that this level of the OSI model consists of offering all applications to access the different services of the other layers and thus achieve the exchange of data. In this way, we can realize that IMAP interacts with protocols such as SMTP or POP (which we have already discussed).

But we can also name others, those used in file transfers such as the either to translate the codes of Internet domains, or others used to access web pages, such as http.

What are all the versions of the IMAP protocol that exist?

The existing versions of the IMAP protocol are:

IMAP2 protocol: In the first version and it was launched in 1988. Its main function was to establish different mechanisms for emails.
Third version or IMAP3: It entered the technology market in 1991, but it did not have much acceptance since it was in opposition to the RFC 1176 access protocol.
IMAP2 encore: This version had some limitations, such as if the user lost the data on a computer, he could not recover the electronic messages, since it allowed only one PC to interact with the emails.
IMAP4: It is the current version that is used. It was designed as a contrast to the IMAP3 version of 1991. Thanks to this, the protocol for users changed, since they can now handle emails directly from the server.
IMAP4rev1: Emerged in 2003. It brings the advantage of being able to previously listen to emails before downloading them completely.

How to configure POP3 of the main email services?

We can configure POP3 of the main email services on our mobile device on the PC. To do this, we must perform different steps according to each of these email service operators.

Check out!

Google Gmail

To configure POP3 in your Google account, you must enter and follow this guide:

go to “Setting”this option is located at the top right of the screen and is represented by a gear icon.
In the top menu, choose the tab “Accounts and importation”.
Then go to “Add an email account”.
At this time you must enter your email address that you want to attach to Gmail.
press “Following”.
Once you have entered your address, press “Import emails from my other account (POP3)” and press “Following”.
go to “Data on POP server”. You will have to write your username password and in POP Server, you will have to write the name of the Port. For example, if you have a free Orange account, you will have to enter “pop.orange.es” Y “110” These data can be found on your particular mail server.
In this step you will have to choose whether or not you want to keep a copy of your downloaded mail on the server. To do this you will have to check or not the option “Leave a copy of the message on the server.”
Choose “Use SSL”where you must enable or disable this option according to your preferences.
It’s time to confirm that you want to send the emails from your Google account. For that you must choose “Yes, I wish I could send mail as…” and then select “Following”.
Enter the sender’s name and the SMTP server data. If we continue with the example of Orange, you will have to write in “Outgoing server (SMTP)” the number “25”.
Once you have done all these steps you should go back to “Add Account”.
Choose “Gmail Confirmation – Send Email As…”.

Copy the email confirmation code, which will be sent directly to you by Google. Once you have entered this code, you will have to review the personal settings, in order to verify that the configuration is correct.

Microsoft Outlook/Hotmail

Before starting the configuration you must authorize your POP account. For this you will have to do this little guide:

You must go to “Options”in “Mail” choose “Accounts” and then select “POP or IMAP”. Once you have done these steps you will have to choose “Allow devices and apps to use POP” and then you will have to allow “Deleting messages in Outlook”. Click on “Save”.

After these steps, you should just open Outlook and follow these instructions:

Go to Outlook and click on “File, Archive”.
then select “Add account”.
Choose “Manual configuration or additional server types”.
Click on “Following” and choose “POP or IMAP”.
In “IMAP and POP account settings”you must fill in the details of your name and other information such as the password and remember them.
Click on “Behind”.
Select outgoing server and choose “Use the same settings as my incoming mail server.”
Click on “To accept” and head to the flap “Advanced”.
In “Incoming server (POP3)” write “995” and in “Outgoing server (SMTP)”you must enter “587”.
Choose “TSL” in “Use the following type of encrypted connection.”
Next, select the setting you want if you want to leave a copy of the messages on the server or not.
To finish click on “To accept”.

Yahoo!

In the case of mail the configuration is the same as that of Gmail, you only have to change the “Incoming mail server (POP3)”where you will have to write “pop3.mail.yahoo.com”in the port “993”.

In “Outgoing mail server (SMTP)” you will introduce “smtp.mail.yahoo.com” and in the port “587”.

In both mail servers you must write “Yes” in “SSL is required”. In this way, you will have configured your Yahoo! mail in a very simple way. Remember that if you have synchronization problems, we recommend that you start all the steps again. This will make the setup a success.

IMAP vs POP3 How are they different and which one is better for accessing online messages?

The differences that exist between IMAP and the third version of POP are very clear, according to the way their parameters operate.

We show you the most outstanding ones below:

IMAP works constantly with a connection to the mail server. This allows us to immediately have a warning on our devices that an email has arrived. The same does not happen with POP3, since its way of working has a default connection to the server over time, which we can configure it in intervals of 5 minutes when we enter the account to our devices.

Other important differences that arise is that with IMAP we can see between two and three lines of the message of the incoming email. And if it contains attachments, they will not be downloaded automatically, since we will be able to see their name and format. The same does not happen in the case of POP3, since we do not have the possibility to see the message because the body of the message and the attached files are downloaded together when we access the new incoming mail.

The storage that occurs, through IMAP, is done on the server. In this way we can modify different folders, such as sent or drafts remotely. When working with a POP3 protocol, the storage occurs on our devices and we do not have the option to modify anything on the server.

If we need to have more than one device accessing the server, we can do it without any problem with IMAP, since the information in each of them will be updated. Not so in POP3.

All folders and drafts can be read directly with IMAP, not so when using POP3. Unless it is already located in our email inbox.

One of the most outstanding advantages of IMAP is that it Allows you to tag emails according to different categories, either by the sender’s criteria or by giving them a different importance. All these labels are stored in the email server, so it is not necessary to modify it again when we have to enter with another device that is not the main one.

POP3 allows you to always have space on the server, so we should not worry about deleting all the emails that remain hosted in it, in this way we have the advantage of always receiving emails. This is not the case with IMAP, since if we forget to delete the mails from the server storage, we will not be able to accept messages…