What is POP3 and what does it mean to you and your business?

POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol version 3. It is basically a mailbox for email, that a user can connect to over the internet and retrieve (but not send) email using an email client. All popular e-mail clients like Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora and Pegasus Mail support POP3. Internet Message Access Protocol or IMAP is an alternative service to POP3. Almost all email clients use either POP3 or IMAP.

Two other internet protocols, SMTP and MSA are typically used, by email clients for sending emails. POP3 is provided as a standard feature with most quality web hosting providers as are IMAP, SMTP an MSA. A combination of these protocols can be used as a standard way of sending and receiving emails in your business.

Your POP3 account will allow your users to have mailboxes on a server with your domain name. So, for example say you own a domain called “mydomain”, you will be capable of receiving emails through an address that includes “mydomain” at the end. i.e. @ “mydomain”. You will need to ensure that your domain is hosted on a server, which has name servers in order to facilitate setting up of POP3 email accounts for your domains.

You will need to ensure that you host provides enough POP3 accounts for your businesses needs. If your business is large in size, then a dedicated hosting plan, where you are allocated a dedicated server for your site, might be the most suitable option, rather than a shared hosting plan where your POP3 account will be on a shared server with resources shared among many other customers.

Some hosting packages may include "unlimited POP3 accounts", with others, the number of accounts will be finite, so it’s advisable to talk with the host you are considering about the most suitable plan that meets your requirements.

Like with all web hosting companies, you should research your options thoroughly and compare a number of different sources such as web hosting forums, magazines, review websites and in particular comments from current or past customers who have a history with the web host you are considering.

POP3 and the other email protocols: IMAP, SMTP and MSA can be extremely powerful services for the running of your business. You will need to shop around for a plan that meets your businesses requirements. If your business is large, a dedicated web server might be a worth while option to consider as opposed to a shared host where you have limited server space and resources are shared. Always talk to a representative of the web hosting company you are considering on the phone to discuss your requirements, and get information from a number of sources before making a final decision.