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Email clients use Post Office Protocol version 3 to retrieve email messages from a
mail server. POP3 is designed to delete mail on the server as soon as the user has
downloaded it. However, some implementations allow users or an administrator to specify that
mail be saved for some period of time. POP can be thought of as a "store-and-forward"
service.
An alternative protocol is IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). IMAP provides the user with more capabilities for retaining and organizing mail on the server. IMAP can be thought of as a remote file server.
POP and IMAP deal with the receiving of e-mail and are not to be confused with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). You send e-mail with SMTP, and a mail handler receives it on the recipient's behalf. Then the mail is read using POP or IMAP. IMAP4 and POP3 are the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval. Virtually all modern e-mail clients and servers support both.