Resources for Email Post Office Protocol (POP3)

Companies that offer POP3 email accounts.
Accounting Spreadsheets and Calculators

Sources of spreadsheets and calculators for accounting. more »

Call Accounting Software

Business directory to call accounting software. more »

Accounting Database Software

Offering industry database software. more »

Accounting Software

Business directory of software for accounting and accounting software system providers. Quickly find small business accounting software for your financial management and bookkeepin… more »

Accounts Payable Software

Vendors of accounts payable software and bill management solutions. Research accounts payable system providers offering small business accounts payable programs. Find account payab… more »

Get Your Business Listed

Get your business listed on this page

Reach active buyers and immediately increase your visibility

Get Started
Accounts Receivable Software

Providers of accounts receivable software for managing payments. Review A/R software vendors offering accounts receivable software applications for small to mid-sized businesses. I… more »

Email Post Office Protocol (POP3) Key Terms

POP3 is the current, standard protocol for retrieving email messages for many email client software programs. Along with IMAP, POP3 is a protocol that communicates with the mail server to download and store email messages, which are then sent to the mail server using another protocol, SMTP. While POP3 is a simple protocol and easy for users to configure, there are some key terms that will help you in setting up and maintaining an email program on your computer.

POP3

POP3, or sometimes just POP, stands for Post Office Protocol. The number 3 refers to the third version of the protocol, which has been updated several times since the 1980s. When configuring an email client, you will need to investigate your email server's settings to find whether it is a POP3 or IMAP server and enter the address given into the correct field in your client's settings.

Internet Message Access Protocol, or IMAP

Internet Message Access Protocol, or IMAP, is the alternative to POP3. The main difference between POP3 and IMAP protocol is that while POP3 downloads messages to your computer, IMAP allows you to read messages on your mail client without downloading the message from the server. With IMAP, the message remains in your inbox on the server so that you can read the same messages on any computer.
The Rockefeller University.

User Agent, or UA

User Agent, or UA, is broadly used to refer to the identity of your specific computer as it can be expressed in text to other computers and web servers over the Internet. Your UA also may be synonymous with your email client in the context of POP3 configuration with a mail server, since the way your computer communicates with the server is through the mail client.

Header

The header is a short piece of text at the beginning of an email message, often invisible to the user, that communicates between the mail client and the server when POP3 and SMTP are being used. The header time stamps and identifies the email and also allows mail clients to sort email into proper mailboxes.

Node

Node refers to a unit of information contained in an email and sent through POP3 or other protocols. Within the context of POP3, a node is usually understood to be a symbol that stands for a larger body of text or data. Node can also mean a specific point in a network, like a computer, server or peripheral, so that both your computer and the email server might also be considered nodes in a larger sense.
Bradley University both provide definitions for node within a larger glossary of network-related terms.

Authenticated POP, or APOP

Authenticated POP, or APOP, is an extension of the standard POP3 protocol that is typically used by mail clients and servers. By using APOP, your username and password are encrypted by the protocol and decrypted by the server, allowing your actual password to remain protected.