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IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol

IMAP In A Nutshell

When you receive an email, it sits in a file called your "INBOX" in your email service provider's computers. If you wish to view this email you must access this file somehow. There are several ways of doing this: a web-based interface known as "WebMail", or via a program such as Microsoft Outlook or Eudora running on your personal computer. In order for the program running on your computer to talk to your email provider's computers and get your email messages, your computer and their computer must "speak the same language" so that they can understand each other. There are really only two languages that email computers understand -- the "Internet Message Access Protocol" (IMAP) and the "Post Office Protocol" (POP).

IMAP is intended to be used in situations where you wish to keep all of your email on your email service provider's computers so that you can check it anytime from any computer that is running an email program supporting IMAP. IMAP also works well in combination with WebMail so that you can also check your email from any computer that has a web browser and an Internet connection. This has the following advantages:

Since the email stays on the provider's servers, you can check it from any computer with a web browser (WebMail) or with an IMAP-compatible email program. This is great if you travel or work in several places.
If your computer "dies" or gets a virus, your email will not be affected because it is stored on your email service provider's computers.

IMAP also has the following disadvantages:

You must be connected to the Internet in order to access your email.
If you have a lot of email, it may take up a lot of space on your email provider's computers (which may cost additional money).

POP service, which LuxSci also provides, has the opposite advantages and disadvantages. Read about POP email services.

To learn more about how IMAP works and the security issues involved in sending and receiving email, read Understanding Email Services: What are they and what do you need? and The Case for Secure Email.

LuxSci's IMAP Email Hosting Servics

LuxSci provides IMAP email services to all of its email and web hosting clients (all clients also receive POP, SMTP, and WebMail services).

Using LuxSci's IMAP email services, you can access your email at any time using your favorite email program from any where in the world, so long as you have an Internet connection. LuxSci has step-by-step online instructions for configuring your email programs for use with its services, so it is quick and easy to get setup.

LuxSci also provides secure IMAP -- IMAP connections over SSL. Using this service, your username, password, and message contents are encrypted so that no one can "eavesdrop" on this information as it passes between LuxSci's servers and your personal computer. Secure IMAP services are a standard part of all email and web hosting plans. Account administrators can optionally force their users to connect to IMAP only securely over SSL.

LuxSci provides multiple ports for IMAP connections to help our users with difficulty connecting to our servers due to firewalls blocking the usual ports. In addition to the standard ports 143 for normal insecure IMAP and 993 for secure IMAP over SSL, users may now optionally connect to their LuxSci IMAP server using port 2143 for normal insecure IMAP, and ports 2993 and 443 for secure IMAP over SSL. The latter port, 443, is usually used for secure web site connections and is thus open on most firewalls. So, most users should be able to make secure IMAP connections no matter what kind of firewall they are behind (assuming they are entitled to make IMAP connections to LuxSci).

LuxSci's WebMail is fully IMAP-compatible. You can see all of your IMAP folders in WebMail and use WebMail concurrently with IMAP. Additionally, WebMail supports the IMAP-style "delete first then expunge later" cycle for message deletion.

LuxSci's IMAP server also supports the "UIDPlus" extension to enable your IMAP email client to perform synchronize offline versions of your IMAP email with the server in a more efficient and reliable fashion.

Ordering

To order IMAP services at LuxSci, use our Custom Package Wizard to design your email services package. Make sure to select "IMAP" services in Step 3.

Listen to Our Clients:

"Lux Scientiae has been absolutely critical to my business. Hotmail has gone down, Yahoo has gone down, my ISP's servers have crashed ... but Lux Scientiae has remained up. This is one of the best services I have ever used. Furthermore, they provide the finest support that I have ever received for any service, ever, for anything that I've ever purchased. It goes well beyond professional - this is a gold plated service. I'm impressed."

Nathan Dornbrook, Senior Security Consultant, ThruPoint

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