I have discovered that IMAP offers a quality of service that regular POP based email just can't offer. With IMAP your email is stored on a central server, not merely passed down to your desktop or laptop from your ISP.
Think about it: If your email is stored 'on the internet', you can access your INBOX from home, office, PDA or mobile phone and by regular client software (outlook, mulberry, thunderbird), webmail & Pocket PC, etc. etc.
The big benefits are:
- That your email cannot be stranded "on the other computer" - which is great for home office + on the road working.
- Pocket Outlook has an excellent IMAP facility, making access from your PDA / mobile device really easy; I certainly don't need Blackberry!
- You can also stop worrying about crashes and other disasters: With your mail safely stored on an offsite central server, it doesn't matter if your PC crashes or email program "becomes corrupted"...
- Plus. You can use your own domain name for your email address as well, and can stop giving away free advertising for someone else's business. Does your business card look like this?
In this day & age you no longer have to use your domain for web address, but use your ISP's domain for email!
I've found the main pre-requisite for IMAP is broadband; otherwise it is a real pain having to dialup & login every time you want to read email...
Having said that I really like 'offline' mode, when you can email from anywhere: airplane, beach, or mountain-top. With synchronisation, you work on a copy of your mail -- reading, filing, deleting, replying -- then all your actions are played back to the server when you connect.
Think about it: If your email is stored 'on the internet', you can access your INBOX from home, office, PDA or mobile phone and by regular client software (outlook, mulberry, thunderbird), webmail & Pocket PC, etc. etc.
The big benefits are:
- That your email cannot be stranded "on the other computer" - which is great for home office + on the road working.
- Pocket Outlook has an excellent IMAP facility, making access from your PDA / mobile device really easy; I certainly don't need Blackberry!
- You can also stop worrying about crashes and other disasters: With your mail safely stored on an offsite central server, it doesn't matter if your PC crashes or email program "becomes corrupted"...
- Plus. You can use your own domain name for your email address as well, and can stop giving away free advertising for someone else's business. Does your business card look like this?
In this day & age you no longer have to use your domain for web address, but use your ISP's domain for email!I've found the main pre-requisite for IMAP is broadband; otherwise it is a real pain having to dialup & login every time you want to read email...
Having said that I really like 'offline' mode, when you can email from anywhere: airplane, beach, or mountain-top. With synchronisation, you work on a copy of your mail -- reading, filing, deleting, replying -- then all your actions are played back to the server when you connect.
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