There are advantages and disadvantages to using a POP3
account.
One of the advantages of POP3 is that if your internet
connection is down you will still be able to view the messages that were
downloaded prior to your internet service being disconnected. A disadvantage of
using POP3 is that you will not have access to your email from another location
or device such as another computer, laptop, smart phone or tablet. Although
many email clients do have an option to “leave a copy of messages on the
server”
POP3 is becoming outdated. Today most users access their
email from different locations and devices, for example their computer, tablet
and smart phone. When using more than one device to access email IMAP is the
preferred choice.
IMAP: IMAP stands for Internet Mail Access Protocol. Using
an IMAP account setup in a local client you can view your messages in the local
client but the email is stored on the server. Unlike POP3 your email is not
download to your computer and removed from the server. The advantage of using
an IMAP account is that you can access your email from other locations and
devices since the messages are never removed from the server. IMAP allows you
to login to your account using many different local clients, web based email or
using a smart phone or table.
Email Clients and Webmail: Gmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail
are all examples of webmail. Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Windows Live Mail and
Thunderbird are examples of an email client.
When you use an email client you install a program locally
on your computer. You setup a mail account in that program. Some providers
support both POP3 and IMAP, some don’t.
Using webmail you do not install a program on your computer.
You access your email through a web browser. All of your email is stored on the
server. Nothing is downloaded to your computer. You can log into your email
account on any computer or device with internet access.
