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Using POP3?

Client

Windows

Macintosh

Unix/Linux

Mail.app

Mac OS 9, 10.x

Eudora

Win95, Win98, Win2k, WinXP

Mac OS 9, 10.x

MS Outlook Express

Win98, Win2k, WinXP

Mac OS 9

MS Entourage

Mac OS X

Netscape Mail

Win95, Win98, Win2k, WinXP

Mac OS 9, 10.x

FreeBSD, Linux

Mozilla

Win98, Win2k, WinXP

Mac OS 9, 10.x

FreeBSD, Linux


What is POP3?

POP stands for Post Office Protocol. It is a method of accessing electronic mail that is kept on a dedicated mail server. POP3 permits an email "client" program (MUA) to download remote messages to the client computer. POP was designed for "offline" message access and works best when one uses a single computer, wherein messages are downloaded and then deleted from the mail server. This mode of access is not compatible with access from multiple computers since it tends to sprinkle messages across all of the computers used for mail access. Thus, unless all of those machines share a common file system, the offline mode of access that POP was designed to support effectively ties the user to one computer for message storage and manipulation.

The protocol includes operations for: checking for new messages; permanently removing messages; setting and clearing flags



Testing a POP3 account


[matt@mail] ~ % telnet localhost pop3
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to localhost.example.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK <74917.1069208003@mail.example.com>
user matt@example.com
+OK 
pass secret.words
+OK 
list
+OK 
1 20408
2 122788
3 4632
4 16421
5 3624
6 3085
7 2474
8 3794
9 3621
.
retr 9
+OK 
Received: (qmail 1737 invoked by uid 1068); 15 Nov 2003 07:58:59 -0000
Received: from service.buy.com by cadillac.mi.us by with qmail-scanner-1.20rc4 
 (clamscan: 0.60.  Clear:RC:0:. 
 Processed in 0.029081 secs); 15 Nov 2003 07:58:59 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO listserver.buy.com) (209.67.181.22)
  by mac.cdlc.mi.voyager.net with SMTP; 15 Nov 2003 07:58:59 -0000
Received: from msmq01.msmq.buy.com ([10.10.0.40]) by listserver.buy.com
         Fri, 14 Nov 2003 23:38:06 -0800
Received: from mail pickup service by msmq01.msmq.buy.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC;
         Fri, 14 Nov 2003 23:46:26 -0800
From: 
To: 
Subject: Your buy.com Order 
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 23:46:26 -0800
Message-ID: <088f01c3ab4c$927ebef0$2801020a@msmq.buy.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 15 Nov 2003 07:46:26.0218 (UTC) FILETIME=[929DB8A0:01C3AB4C]
X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.3 required=5.0
        tests=NO_REAL_NAME,RCVD_IN_ORBS
        version=2.55
X-Spam-Level: *
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.55 (1.174.2.19-2003-05-19-exp)



Hello Matt,

Thank you for shopping at buy.com.

*snipped*

Thank you,

Team buy.com
http://www.buy.com

.
quit
+OK 
Connection closed by foreign host.