Summary: POP, POP3 and SMTP are all acronyms that you might see used when talking about configuring email. We'll look at what they mean, and how they relate.
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What is POP? Or POP3? Or a POP account? And what about SMTP? |
POP3 is one half of the email puzzle, and SMTP is the other. POP3 is the protocol, or "language", that's used to download your email from your ISP to your mail program. SMTP is the protocol used to send mail.
But why "POP"? or 3? And what are you supposed to enter when you're asked to configure your "POP3" or "SMTP" account in your email client?
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"POP" is pretty simple; that's an acronym for "Post Office Protocol". A communications "protocol" is just the language used between your email program, a POP client, and your ISP's mail - or POP - server.
"3" is even more boring. This is version 3 of the POP protocol. It underwent a few revisions before it became what it is today.
To configure a POP account you need three pieces of information:
The name of your ISP's mail server that holds your email. Typically it's something like "mail.example.com".
The name of the account you were assigned by your ISP. This may or may not be your email name, or something like it, or something completely unrelated.
The password to your account.
That's it. With that properly configured, you can download the email that your ISP has been collecting on your behalf.
Sending mail uses a different protocol, SMTP, which stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Again, another language used between your email program, an SMTP client, and the SMTP server to which you will send your email.
Typically your SMTP server will be the same as your POP3 server, though that's not always the case. If so, it doesn't really imply that the two are related, just that the same machine is acting as a server for both protocols.
Like POP3, the SMTP server may require you to log in first; often with the same account information that the POP3 server used. (If it doesn't require you to authenticate somehow, it's called an "open relay" and may be a major contributor to internet spam.)
So to configure your outgoing mail, you'll specify the name of the outgoing server, and possibly the login information it will use.
And finally, note that all of this really applies only to email programs that you run on your own computer, like Outlook, Eudora and others. Web-based email, such as Hotmail, Yahoo and the like, simply display the email directly from their servers in your web browser - no configuration needed, other than logging in.
Article C2143 - July 29, 2004
By the way, I'm using Windows Vista as my computer's OS.
I'll be glad if you could help me with that.
Posted by: Seveline Estrella at March 21, 2009 10:48 AMSomehow I have enabled POP email on my computer. It doesn'y work & I don't want it. Every outgoing MSN email is not sent unless I change my "from" address to a MSN designation on the dropdown. If I forget to do that, the message is not sent. How do I terminate it?
Posted by: Clay Robson at April 12, 2009 4:19 PMI have a yahoo account and I am trying to use Entourage on a Mac to send and receive my emails.
Posted by: Kari Reynolds at April 15, 2009 5:22 PMI keep getting the -3260 error. Connection error has occurred. Do you have any advice ?
I am getting that port 110 error how do I fix it on this computer. I have set up my emails on another computer and everything is working alright and then when I go to my own computer it is giving me this error report:The host 'mail.clients-login.com' could not be found. Please verify that you have entered the server name correctly. Account: 'mail.clients-login.com', Server: 'mail.clients-login.com', Protocol: POP3, Port: 110, Secure(SSL): No, Socket Error: 11004, Error Number: 0x800CCC0D. PLEASE HELP URGENTLY
Posted by: francois at April 27, 2009 12:19 PMHi, never had this problem before, but failed to send an email from Outlook Express with the message:
Posted by: Meng at April 30, 2009 9:36 PMThe message could not be sent because one of the recipients was rejected by the server. The rejected e-mail address was '[email removed]@yahoo.com'. Subject 'Members Only May 1-3 Weekend Sale', Account: 'mail.qtiq.com', Server: 'mail.qtiq.com', Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: '501 Bad address syntax', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 501, Error Number: 0x800CCC79
Please help!
Whenever I attempt to send-out an e-mail, a message appears asking me about if I use POP, POP3 or HTML. I don't know which I have so my messages never get sent. What must I do?
Posted by: Myron at May 7, 2009 7:43 AMI read the article but need to know where i would look to fi nd the pop3 address for windows live mail.
02-Jul-2009
Posted by: tiffany winland at July 1, 2009 11:11 AM
Everytime I try to send mail in Outlook Express it always says error: either the server name or email address is not correct or server not found make sure you are using the correct server name etc. Help? I don't know what to do for this problem.
12-Sep-2009
Posted by: Sheree Murphy at September 9, 2009 6:41 PM
Having trouble understanding e-mail set-up--nothing's getting sent: Recently changed service provider from Comcast to Verizon. My name is Gail. My e-mail name is t....@verizon.net. How do I enter terms in my Outlook Excpress program? Thank you
Posted by: Gail at October 11, 2009 8:50 AMI CAN SEND MESSAGES, BUT MY PICTURES WON'T GO OUT. I GET ERROR NO. 0x800ccc0D HELP!
12-Nov-2009
Posted by: EARNEST at November 10, 2009 9:31 AM