Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Note:
iCloud and Exchange accounts handle not only email but also other data, such
as contacts and calendars (and, in the case of iCloud, bookmarks, documents, and
several other types of data). However, you're not required to use all the services to-
gether. If you want to use an Exchange account only for calendars, an iCloud account
only for email, or whatever, you can turn off the features you don't want to use.
SMTP
For each POP or IMAP account you set up in Mail, an associated SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer
Protocol) server, for sending outgoing mail, must be specified. (Exchange, by contrast, uses
the same server for sending and receiving email.) In most cases, you can simply enter the
server information provided by your email provider and not have to think about it again.
However, if you encounter errors when sending email, you may have an SMTP-related prob-
lem; see
Fix Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Problems
.
IMAP and POP Misconceptions
Over the years that I've been writing about and evangelizing IMAP, I've had countless people
tell me that IMAP is a nonstarter for them or that POP was the only protocol they'd ever use,
based on what turned out to be complete misunderstandings.
In an attempt to clear up some of this confusion, I wrote an article for TidBITS called
FlippedBITS: IMAP Misconceptions
, and I think you'll find it interesting reading. Let me
briefly summarize a few of the points I make there:
• IMAP isn't a new protocol by any means—it's been around since 1986 (making it
just two years younger than POP).
• The fact that IMAP stores messages on the server doesn't mean you can read or
process your email only when you're online. It's always an option to keep local
copies of all your messages—and, in fact, most modern email clients keep those
offline copies.
• “Stored on the server” doesn't mean “impossible to delete.” You can delete mes-
sages from both your client and the server if you like.
• Just as with POP, you can store any or all of your messages locally and
not
on
the IMAP server if you prefer.
• POP permits only one connection at a time per account, while IMAP lets more
than one device connect simultaneously, making IMAP much better if you fre-
