IMAP hosting

IMAP or IMAP4 or Internet Message Access Protocol is an Internet protocol that operates on Port 143. This Internet application allows a local user to access his or her mail from a remote server. IMAP email host was previously known as Internet Mail Access Protocol or Interactive Mail Access Protocol or Interim Mail Access Protocol. The most contemporary version of IMAP is version 4 revisions 1, also known as IMAP4rev1.

The Internet Message Access Protocol is able to support connected as well as disconnected versions of email access. Email clients of IMAP email hosting use this system to leave messages on the server. This message remains on the server till the time the email client decides to completely erase it from the record. This is one of the main features of IMAP because of which a number of email clients to use the same mailbox on the server. These email clients are then able to retrieve their messages on the server with the help of POP3 or just the IMAP operations. The only flip side to this is that there are very few Internet Service Providers or ISPs that support the IMAP system. Apart from the functions of sending and retrieving messages, the IMAP system also offers access to mail stores where the client has the option of storing his copies of his or her messages.

While availing all such functions offered by IMAP, you must wonder how the system of IMAP hosting works. Under IMAP hosting, emails are send to an email server whose function is to store the email messages of in the inbox of the recipient of the mail. The user can retrieve the email message later, with the help of web browser or en email client.  The web browser or the email client generally makes use of an email retrieval protocol to perform this function. The Internet Message Access Protocol is normally used for a large network, for instance, a corporate organization or a university or college. With the help of this system, users can easily see their new email messages, as these messages are stored on the network itself. Using POP3, these users can then download their email messages.

The Internet Message Access Protocol was created in the year 1986 by Mark Crispin. At the time of its creation, a remote Mailbox protocol was used instead of POP3 to retrieve email messages from the server. The first IMAP, then known as Interim Mail Access Protocol was used as a Xerox Lisp Machine client along with a TOPS-20 server. As mentioned earlier in this article, there have been other versions of IMAP. The version after Interim Mail Access Protocol was known as Interactive Mail Access Protocol or IMAP2. The IMAP 2 was the first version of IMAP to be distributed publicly. IMAP2 offered command and response tagging functions. Since then, the IMAP has seen other versions such as IMAP2bis, IMAP4, and IMAP4rev1 which is the most recent version to be used. The IMAP2bis added mailbox management features to IMAP. These IMAP web hosting features included functions such as ‘create’, ‘delete’, ‘rename’, and ‘message upload’.