What Is the Internet Message Access Protocol?

Internet Information Access Protocol (abbreviated as IMAP , formerly known as Interactive Mail Access Protocol ) is an application layer protocol used to access mail on remote servers from local mail clients (such as Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Foxmail, Mozilla Thunderbird).

IMAP and

Designed by Mark Crispin, IMAP provides another option for mail access over the widely used POP3 mail protocol. Basically, both allow a mail client to access the information stored on the mail server. Some important aspects that only exist in IMAP include: ^[2]

• Email client

• Internet Mail 2000, an alternative proposal for mail

• IMAP4 is the latest version of IMAP, and its main features are as follows:

  • Fully compatible with Internet messaging standards, such as: MIME;

  • Allow multiple computers to access and manage mail at the same time;

  • Allow access through inefficient file access protocols;

  • Provide support for "online", "offline" and "connectionless" access methods;

  • Support concurrent access to shared mailboxes;

  • The client software does not need to know the file storage format on the server.

  Similar to the POP3 protocol, IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) also provides user-oriented mail collection services. The commonly used version is IMAP4. IMAP4 improves the shortcomings of POP3. Users can browse the header to decide whether to receive, delete and retrieve specific parts of the message. They can also create or change folders or mailboxes on the server. In addition to supporting offline operation mode of the POP3 protocol , Also supports online operations and disconnected operations. It provides users with the ability to selectively receive mail from mail servers, server-based information processing functions, and shared mailbox functions. IMAP4's offline mode is different from POP3. It does not automatically delete the mails that have been removed from the mail server. Its online mode and disconnected mode also use the mail server as a "remote file server" to access, which is more flexible and convenient.