Email, POP email, what is the difference? Learn just what is meant by the term POP Email in this tutorial.

What are POP Email Acccounts?
POP (Post Office Protocol) is a standard protocol for receiving e-mail. POP is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. Periodically, you (or your client e-mail receiver) check your mailbox on the server and download any mail. The mail is stored on a server until you pick it up with your favorite email program (Outlook Express, Netscape Messenger, Eudora, etc.) POP email is built into Internet products such as the Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers. One of the most popular e-mail products is Microsoft Outlook Express.

With POP email the incoming email is stored on your virtual server until you want to retrieve it. You would retrieve your mail by signing into your POP email account. Most web hosts will offer a webmaster@yourdomain POP account which can receive all e-mail and control the settings for any optional configurable POP accounts. If your web host offers additional POP email accounts they can be assigned unique IDs and passwords to ensure privacy.

Often users may become confused with webmail and POP email. The difference between the two is that with POP email, email can be accessed through an email client program such as Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook, Eudora, etc. WebMail can only be accessed through your browser by signing into your webmail account (like yahoo mail, hotmail, or the email account you received from your ISP, internet service provider.)

Do I need POP email accounts?
All hosts should provide at least one POP email account. If you want to have email capabilities from your web hosts this is a standard feature. Most web hosts will offer a specific amount of POP email accounts with their hosting package. One email account is sufficient if you will only have one individual maintaining the site. You would have an email address, such as: webmaster@yoursite.com. However if you would like to have two people accessing email from your domain, such as: webmaster@yoursite.com and support@yoursite.com you will need a web host that offers two POP email accounts, and so on.