I am looking for imap email access but have found that a lot of web hosters list only pop mail access. I will be checking my mail from many different places so imap access is nice for that. I don't understand why everyone has pop access only. Am I missing something here? Anyone have experience with a hoster that has imap email servers?

Originally posted by jonnymalm
I am looking for imap email access but have found that a lot of web hosters list only pop mail access. I will be checking my mail from many different places so imap access is nice for that. I don't understand why everyone has pop access only. Am I missing something here? Anyone have experience with a hoster that has imap email servers?

many companies use CPanel control panel for their customers and as far as I know, IMAP and CPanel arn't all peanut butter and jelly. But 9/10 companies do provide Webmail, so you could use that?

One of the main reasons I want to use imap is so that I can check my mail in both Outlook/Entourage/Eudora and also check on the web and not have to worry about which messages are on which computers, so that I have access to all of my messages on the web.

Hii,

I always asked myself why not many hosts don't offer IMAP ??

Is it something to do with security issues or compatibility problems?? I am asking this just out of curiosity !

What are the merits and demertits of IMAP over POP3 other than what is mentioned in the above posts??

Thanks for any feedback !

Originally posted by jonnymalm
One of the main reasons I want to use imap is so that I can check my mail in both Outlook/Entourage/Eudora and also check on the web and not have to worry about which messages are on which computers, so that I have access to all of my messages on the web.

This can easily be accomplished without imap. Simply configure your mail client to leave a copy of the messages on the server. You'll then be able to access the same information from anywhere. :)

Apparently "IMAP" is a corporate-strength protocol and POP is a "simple, small site protocol"

i've never had a problem with it, but maybe someone would?

IMAP is wonderful. I really wish CPanel would include it. Any host that uses Plesk or Ensim should be able to offer you IMAP. There are also hosts with custom control panels that offer IMAP.

<edit>Add H-Sphere to the list of control panels that support IMAP</edit>

In other words, pretty much any host that doesn't use CPanel can offer IMAP :D

Richard

Originally posted by Noldar
In other words, pretty much any host that doesn't use CPanel can offer IMAP Perhaps one reason why most choose not to is that IMAP encourages users to keep a lot of mail on the server -- basically you can do your "permanent" storage there instead of on your desktop PC. That makes it great for people who log on from different computers, but IMAP and overselling disk space don't go together well.

Also, doesn't IMAP require individual (not anonymous) FTP access? Not insurmountable, certainly, but an obstacle that some hosts might not want to deal with (but I might be wrong, I haven't dealt with it in a while).

Originally posted by JayC
Perhaps one reason why most choose not to is that IMAP encourages users to keep a lot of mail on the server -- basically you can do your "permanent" storage there instead of on your desktop PC. That makes it great for people who log on from different computers, but IMAP and overselling disk space don't go together well.
I guess that could be true, but Exim can use the Maildir format and can store your mail in your home directory, so that email counts against a users disk space. But, as you said if you're counting on a user under-utilizing their disk space you might not want that :rolleyes:
Originally posted by JayC
Also, doesn't IMAP require individual (not anonymous) FTP access? Not insurmountable, certainly, but an obstacle that some hosts might not want to deal with (but I might be wrong, I haven't dealt with it in a while).
Several of the IMAP servers handle virtual users just fine. I've got qmail and Courier-IMAP with vpopmail running on a personal box and it works great.

Richard

The latest build of CPanel now includes IMAP. :)

Originally posted by ServerSonic
The latest build of CPanel now includes IMAP. :)
Yay! :agree:

IMAP4 support Users can now check their new and existing mail accounts and their main account with imap.
(4.9.0 build 50 or later only)

:stickout

JayC : I was under the assumtion that the space quota given with each account includes that of mail space, i could be wrong ?! In yes, since most accounts use only a fraction of the space that comes with their account, why should the storage of mails there in anyway affect the hosting company ?? that is assuming as long as the users doesn't cross the quota limits !


With the inclusion of IMAP support in the latest CPanel build, that should be another feather in its helmet :)
Thanks again for the feedback here !

You really dont need an IMAP daemon for webmail.. programs like neomail or sqwebmail can read Maildir files directly from the disk and format webmail folders etc.,

Webmail clients like IMP on the other hand do require IMAP

You really need an IMAP server-daemon running if you want to use a program like Outlook Express as an IMAP client

I have experienced IMP 3.0 to be non-compliant with the POP-before-SMTP authentication of qmail+vpopmail

But IMAP is ceratinly a superior protocol to POP because it reads the mail headers first and then reads the mail body on request and selectively... POP on the other hand reads mail by mail wholly into your local mail box

If for example you have 7 mails and the 2nd is a spam with an 1 meg attachment, with a POP client you need to wait for the 2nd mail to be downloaded and then go to the 3rd onwards..

With IMAP you can just read the subject " Order online Viagra" and delete it and then if need be download locally with POP! ;)

But POP is superior for business usage, unless you have a local replication of the mail server like Lotus Notes or Exchange Server

Yeah that's true downloading spam mail is annoying.

I can see how Pop would be superior for business use. I don't travel too much so Imap isn't that important to me.

IMAP is great. We use it for our support and sales email addresses which multiple people check.

The good thing about IMAP is that you can see when a message has been read and depending on the client - if it has been replied to (so multiple people don't reply).

For main mailboxes I use POP. Whenever I travel I take my laptop (which is my main computer) so I've got my mail with me anyway. A phone line is normally handy, and failing that my trusty cell phone acts as a temporary phone line to check email :)

--Shaun.

PS - Most places do seem to have IMAP, not all of them advertise it as a feature though. The best way is to ask.

How about IMAP email clients? Besides Outlook and Eudora, are there any other free or affordable email clients that support IMAP? :)

Jessica

I know there are those such as Netscape Mail.

We use Lotus Notes for all our email which is a fantastic email client - just a touch on the expensive side.

--Shaun.

I think most mail clients support imap. I know that Kmail for linux supports it and Entourage for OS X also supports it.