Who still uses POP3 mail, and why?

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,917
2,157
126
Most of the world has moved to either IMAP or some kind of synchronizing mail system, yet I still find a company here and there that is using POP3 and they get offended if you suggest anything else. They seem to enjoy having all of their mail go into one inbox, mail not getting to their computer because their phone pulled in the message, and all of the other crap that goes along with POP.

Just curious. What is everyone using for email?
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
81
It's nice sometimes in having POP3 to have backups of your email. Just in case.
 

Texashiker

Lifer
Dec 18, 2010
18,811
197
106
Most of the world has moved to either IMAP or some kind of synchronizing mail system, yet I still find a company here and there that is using POP3 and they get offended if you suggest anything else.

Most ISPs want to get off as cheap as possible, so they use the cheapest solution.
 

Pardus

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2000
8,197
21
81
Never tried IMAP, been using pocomail for years, it checks all my email accounts and sorts them into the appropiate folders.

There are very few if any good email apps out there that handle multiple accounts.
 

kranky

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
21,019
156
106
I don't know the difference, and don't know which way I have it set up.

I have Thunderbird on my PC, it brings in email from 7 accounts. If I go to hotmail, yahoo or my ISP site directly, all my email is there also. Is that good or bad?
 

FoBoT

No Lifer
Apr 30, 2001
63,084
14
81
fobot.com
i use pop3 on my websites which feed directly to gmail accounts

so the users are IMAP on gmail, but other domain email accounts feed the gmail using pop3

i think that is right and makes sense
 

Wyndru

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2009
7,318
4
76
My ISP does and I think I configured gmail and yahoo to still use it on my desktop client, so they still have it as an option (although I think they have IMAP also).
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
58,553
8,832
126
They're pretty much the same the way I use them. Back when I used POP, I setup my secondary computers to retrieve the mail, but leave it on the server. My main machine would download, then delete from the server. I'm mainly concerned with having mail on my main machine, so having everything on my portables isn't a concern, though I do get that with IMAP.
 

LiuKangBakinPie

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
3,903
0
0
People paranoid enough to use Tor are still dumb enough to use plaintext-authentication protocols like pop3 and telnet.
 

Tsaico

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2000
2,669
0
0
Usually it is a cost issue. The companies either don't have the money for a better solution (hosted or in house) or to hire a consultant who knows how to set up a better gmail apps domain.

But I have had a few that are in that bucket, with 12 employees. They don't want the overhead increase in 12*~$8/month for hosted, can't do free custom email accounts, and can't afford the $4k ish capital expense to bring it in house.

To me, the sad part is if you can't afford the equivalent to even $20 bucks an employee investment, then perhaps you need to let a couple go or give up something else like making them empty their own trash instead of having a night janitor to do it.

As a side note, I do use pop all the time, usually with the SBS server to have it check their old @hotmail, @gmail, whatever account, and download it, so they are now sending as every company should, @theirdomain.com. and don't miss mail sent to the their old "business" email account.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,917
2,157
126
I don't know the difference, and don't know which way I have it set up.

I have Thunderbird on my PC, it brings in email from 7 accounts. If I go to hotmail, yahoo or my ISP site directly, all my email is there also. Is that good or bad?

If you delete a message from Thunderbird, does it delete it in webmail as well? If so, that is IMAP.
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,917
2,157
126
They're pretty much the same the way I use them. Back when I used POP, I setup my secondary computers to retrieve the mail, but leave it on the server. My main machine would download, then delete from the server. I'm mainly concerned with having mail on my main machine, so having everything on my portables isn't a concern, though I do get that with IMAP.

Not really. A lot of people are using smartphones for mail now, and POP doesn't do synchronization. For example, if you send something from your phone, the sent mail only appears on your phone with POP.
 

LiuKangBakinPie

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
3,903
0
0
What is the Difference between POP and IMAP Mail Server?
POP3
Since email needs to be downloaded into desktop PC before being displayed, you may have the following problems for POP3 access:
You need to download all email again when using another desktop PC to check your email.
May get confused if you need to check email both in the office and at home.

The downloaded email may be deleted from the server depending on the setting of your email client.
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
58,553
8,832
126
Not really. A lot of people are using smartphones for mail now, and POP doesn't do synchronization. For example, if you send something from your phone, the sent mail only appears on your phone with POP.

That works perfectly well with my scheme. I generally know where I sent mail, and don't have to have it on all devices. To help remember, I use a different name for email on all my devices.
 

cronos

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 2001
9,380
26
101
One of the main things with IMAP for me (other than things mentioned above) is the synchronized read/unread/replied status. I have three desktop computers that I work from (home/office1/office2), not to mention several mobile devices I also use daily. If I don't have synchronized read/unread/replied status between the clients, I would have gotten crazy trying to remember the status of everything in my inbox.

I left POP3 a long long time ago.
 

drebo

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
7,034
1
81
It's a cost issue.

POP3/SMTP email is cheap. IMAP/Hosted Exchange is expensive.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
69,292
13,033
126
www.anyf.ca
My mail goes to a bunch of pop3 inboxes on my online server, my home server picks it up and stores it locally and I access it through imap. I think it works out nicely.

Though I think I could probably simplify that and just keep it stored on the online server, but then if that server is down or my internet is down, I don't have access to email, so it is nice to have it locally. The system kinda got built in steps. I've had this system since before I had an online server, so I just kinda added on to it. The local server also does all the spam filtering. cpu power at home is 10x cheaper than cpu power online so anything big on processor/ram/disk space I keep at home.