The obvious differences between the two protocols can be felt. POP3 mails are not limited by mail sizes as they get stored locally on your computer. Also, because of less server storage space they are cheaper to support. But they make it difficult to export your emails if you decide to switch email programs or even operating systems.

With IMAP, you can just download them again. With IMAP, sent mail and drafts are also uploaded to the server. The one apparent disadvantage of IMAP is its slower speeds because of server based functions.

POP3 is common, but IMAP4 is newer and more advantageous for some of these reasons.

I hope next time you sit down to email; you just might appreciate the synergy of technology that makes it all possible. Right now, let me get back to my inbox and check what it has in store for me.

By the way, did you know that email came much, much before the internet? Probably, as early as 1965!