Mail protocols - IMAP, PO3, SMTP

[MaGneTTo]

I guys, i'm here just to ask what are all those protocols used for, i know that pop3 is used to send, smtp to receive, but no idea why there are different protocols to do almost the same job, send/receive, as for the imap protocol, i know it's used by IMP and these webmail programs, but, what is it for ?? thanks i advance.

[chikn]

Actually you have it backwards, smtp is for sending and pop is for receiving.

IMP just utilizes IMAP, they arent related. IMAP is (Internet Message Access Protocol) another mail delivery protocol where the messages are actually stored on the remote computer vs the usual POP download messages locally. Plus IMAP lets you create folders on the server machine (ie to categorize mail)vs doing this locally with POP.

[msalerno]

SMTP is for sending e-mail messages between servers. This means sending and receiving. Pop3 and Imap is a way for retrieving e-mail.