Would you like to use your emails from multiple places, including your cell phone, and keeping the status of your messages synchronized? With IMAP you can read a message on one computer, answer it from your cell phone, and delete it from a web browser in an Internet cafe. IMAP makes it possible for you to access and synchronize all your emails across various devices. This is a little guide for you that do not know what IMAP is all about and how it can make your life a little easier.
Email is a significant part of today’s means of communication. Many people even rely on electronic messages as their primary way of staying in touch with other people for business purposes and personal contact. You, as a reader of our blog, are probably among those people that use emails regularly, or even daily to satisfy a variety of communication needs.
Many users are still downloading their messages to their personal computer via the so called POP3 protocol. Basically POP3 is a technology which enables you to communicate with your mail server and download all your emails. You can either choose to the leave the emails on the email server, or delete them from there after download. However, if you for instance log in to your webmail, you will either find all your emails or none of them (depending on you deleting them or not when downloading the to your computer). Either way, whatever you do with your emails, it is only done on the device your work with. For instance deleting a mail in your local Outlook Express email client, will not affect any possible copy of the same email that is available on the email server. Basically, you distribute a set of copies of your emails to whatever device (computer, webmail, cellphone etc) you use, and any changes made only apply to that specific set.
With IMAP you open a whole new world of synchronization. When using IMAP you leave all your messages on the mail server, but you can connect, access and use all your emails on whatever device you wish. So if you read a mail on your local computer it will be marked as “read” on your webmail and cellphone as well. If you delete or move a mail, it will be deleted on the other devices too. That is because the emails are not stored and maintained directly on those devices, but centrally on the server. Thereby you have access to your whole email archive from anywhere at any time. You can see your emails via webmail just like you do from your local computer or cellphone.
Some people argue that storing the emails on the mail server instead of downloading them is a security risk, but since the emails are passing through the email server anyway – regardless of the used protocol – that is not really a valid point. Also with regards to backups, you still have the possibility to backup your email archive on your local computer by copying your folders to your PC.
You can read more about the protocols and how to set up your email client for IMAP in the Servage Wiki. You find the necessary mail server information to set up your devices for IMAP in the Servage control panel.
23 comments (leave a comment)
As a long time IMAP user (since 1998) I support all the statements mentioned.
Reason I have my mail hosted elsewhere than Servage is due to your missing support for mail-folder-filtering, like SIEVE or similar.
IMAP with filtering is really the way email
*should* be :)
Reply by Jakob (Servage) on February 13, 2009 at 07:54
Well, you will probably be happy about something that comes up soon ;-) Stay tuned!
by Thomas Braad Toft on February 12, 2009 at 16:33
I love IMAP for the IDLE feature, which enables push email functionality(This causes the server to push out an email instantly to any connected clients as soon as it arrives on the server):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAP_IDLE
Most mobile phones and PDAs support the IDLE command. Unfortunatly if you use a windows mobile device like I do, you will be stuck polling the server at set intervals. Unfortunately windows mobile only supports push email from an exchange compatable server(which servage, as far as I am aware, do not offer at the moment).
by Mike on February 13, 2009 at 18:23
I nearly had a heart attack when I found out that Servage deletes all IMAP email that is older than six months.
I’m still not sure what I’m going to do about it…too busy to deal with the problem. I’ve lost alot of important email.
Reply by Jakob (Servage) on February 20, 2009 at 07:54
Emails can safely be stored in a subfolder. You can move your old mails to a folder called “Archive” or similar, and it will never be touched.
by Vaska on February 20, 2009 at 01:47
I totally agree on Vaska on the deleting of mails older than six months! It is absurd and the feature should be switched off or at least provide an option to disable it!!!
Reply by Jakob (Servage) on February 25, 2009 at 16:25
I am happy to inform you Larry, that as of today we are testing a complete removal of the auto-deletion process. We know that this has been a problem in the past, but new technology and the improved mail system we introduced some time ago, make it realistic to annihilate this issue.
I hope this is the kind of reply you were hoping for ;-)
by Larry on February 22, 2009 at 13:05
thank you that good job and evey easy to countise in tru drive
thank you alot
by ayman howuidi on February 24, 2009 at 19:00
Thank goodnes I have been waiting for this will help me work better
by Find Love on March 10, 2009 at 00:14
yes, there certainly have been a lot of problems in this past year. downtime and cracked servers, and your immediate response was not exactly stellar. But your overall response was actually pretty good.
The fact that you implemented a new os to deal with the security issues was a huge step forward, it was a major accomplishment! The fact that you are openly acknowledging the problems is also very impressive.
so I am going to stick it out and see how things progress.
What a shame it is that when somebody builds something beautiful there are other people who come along and attack it and try to destroy it. I am wishing you the best of encouragement. You are moving in the right direction.
by Erik on March 17, 2009 at 08:35
I have been following up on this blog for a while and i find it very impressive. I plan to add it to my rss feeds
Reply by Jakob Jensen (Servage) on March 27, 2009 at 07:01
I’m happy to hear that :-)
by kanore on March 27, 2009 at 03:00
Didn’t know about it. Very nice information. Submitted this post to Google News Reader.
by Fishing Gear on April 25, 2009 at 00:14
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
by Symbian Resources on May 16, 2009 at 22:05
Privacy is as important online than anywhere else, I use http://www.surfshuffle.com to surf the net anonymously. It works and its free.
by bypass filters on May 25, 2009 at 22:16
Some really usefull information here if you pay attention, thanks
by Hassan on May 26, 2009 at 15:18
Can you provide more information on this?
by Proxy Sites on June 9, 2009 at 22:16
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future. Thanks!
by PC to Phone Calls on June 18, 2009 at 19:22
Lovely blog! Thanks for the useful information.
by ProxySites.ca on July 16, 2009 at 14:51
As much as anything i find proper archiving to be my biggest issue, although some people I have worked with are very bad and keep everything within their inbox folder with no sub folders.
by treasure troopers on September 9, 2009 at 09:18
Very nice information. Thanks for this.
by Jeffrey on October 15, 2009 at 20:19
This is often the foremost helpful article I’ve read all year. GREAT stuff, many thanks!
by Fern Knouff on April 19, 2010 at 15:19
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
by seo on November 4, 2010 at 23:07