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POP3

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- POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is the most recent version of a standard protocol for receiving e-mail. POP3 is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. Periodically, you (or your client e-mail receiver) check your mail-box on the server and download any mail, probably using POP3. This standard protocol is built into most popular e-mail products, such as Eudora and Outlook Express. It's also built into the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers.

POP3 is designed to delete mail on the server as soon as the user has downloaded it. However, some implementations allow users or an administrator to specify that mail be saved for some period of time. POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service.

An alternative protocol is Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP). IMAP provides the user more capabilities for retaining e-mail on the server and for organizing it in folders on the server. IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server.

POP and IMAP deal with the receiving of e-mail and are not to be confused with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), a protocol for transferring e-mail across the Internet. You send e-mail with SMTP and a mail handler receives it on your recipient's behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP.

The conventional port number for POP3 is 110.

Getting started with POP3

To explore how POP3 is used in the enterprise, here are some additional resources:

Exchange Server and POP3 FAQs: Learn about several common Exchange and POP3 troubleshooting issues, from downloading and forwarding POP mail to migrating hosted POP3 mail accounts.

A primer on messaging standards: SMTP, POP and IMAP: A brief introduction to three of Exchange's more commonly used messaging standards: SMTP, POP and IMAP.

Missing POP3 email 'tails' may torment Microsoft Outlook: Outlook clients may hang when trying to retrieve POP3 email from Exchange if the POP3 messages are not formatted with a proper termination sequence or "tail."

Free third-party POP3 connector for Exchange Server: If you have no choice but to use a POP3 configuration in your Exchange Server environment, you may be interested in a free third-party POP3 connector tool.

Learn more about Email Protocols

Enabling protocol logging for Exchange Server: Protocol logging lets you see the commands that clients are sending to Exchange so you can detect suspicious traffic patterns. Protocol logs are also an excellent forensic tool.
A primer on messaging standards: SMTP, POP and IMAP: A brief introduction to three of Exchange's more commonly used messaging standards: SMTP, POP and IMAP.
Improve Exchange 2003 Internet connectivity, mail flow and performance: Learn how to configure SMTP virtual servers, connectors, bridgeheads and routing groups to improve Exchange 2003 Web connectivity and email performance.
A primer on SMTP and ESMTP servers and commands: Learn about Simple Message Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Extended SMTP (ESMTP), common commands and how each protocol works.
How to use SMTP queues to troubleshoot mail flow: Find out how you can use SMTP queues to diagnose and troubleshoot Exchange Server mail flow and email performance issues.
How Exchange Server performs Active Directory LDAP queries: Exchange MVP Brien Posey describes the three services Exchange Server uses to perform Active Directory LDAP queries: DSAccess, DSProxy and the SMTP categorizer.
How to analyze Exchange Server SMTP log files in Microsoft Excel: Exchange MVP Brien Posey explains two approaches for analyzing your Exchange Server SMTP log files in Microsoft Excel to determine bandwidth consumption.

LAST UPDATED:

28 Oct 2008

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More resources from around the web:

-	The POP3 protocol is specified in RFC 1939.
-	SearchExchange.com offers a FAQ about Exchange Server and POP3.
-	Also from SearchExchange.com, a POP3 Reference Center.

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