POP and IMAP Protocols

POP and IMAP Protocols

POP and IMAP are two common email protocols, and Rhye Media's server offers both. As checking emails across multiple devices becomes the norm, POP is becoming increasingly obsolete. You may want to transition to IMAP to ensure that you continue to have the best access to your emails.

POP is short for Post Office Protocol, and is the older of the two. When you check your emails using POP your mail is downloaded onto your local mail program (such as Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mac Mail, etc.) and then deleted from the server. The difference with IMAP, short for Internet Messaging Access Protocol, is that the mail client is synced with the server and vice-versa.

POP works fine for some small businesses who need to archive their mail and don't have the server capacity to keep all their mail stored online. The main advantage of IMAP comes when you're checking your emails across multiple devices. Because IMAP is synced with the server, your inbox and all other mail boxes will be identical no matter which device you check them on. If you use POP and you've read a particular email on your laptop, when you access your inbox on your phone that same email will come up as unread, because you haven't read it on that device.

As Microsoft Windows 8 was designed with an increasingly mobile market in mind, it probably wasn't seen as necessary to make the system compatible with POP. If you've installed Windows 8 without being aware of this, don't stress! It's easy to fix the issue.

You can simply re-install your Microsoft Office suite with Outlook, or any other mail program of your choice.

To use your POP account, ensure your mail program is using the following settings:

If you wish to connect via IMAP, the process is just as simple. Just make sure that your mail program is using these settings:

If you need any further assistance with setting up POP or IMAP through your mail program, or have any other queries, feel free to get in touch through our new User Support system, located in the top right hand corner of the screen.