The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is one of the two most prevalent Internet standard protocols for e-mail retrieval, the other being the POP. It is a standard protocol for accessing e-mail from your local server. IMAP4 is the latest version which is a client/server protocol in which e-mail is received and held for you by your Internet server. You (or your e-mail client) can view just the heading and the sender of the letter and then decide whether to download the mail. It supports both on-line and off-line modes of operation. E-mail clients using IMAP generally leave messages on the server until the user explicitly deletes them.
The latest version, is similar to POP3 but supports some additional features. For example, you can search through your e-mail messages for keywords while the messages are still on mail server. You can then choose which messages to download to your machine. IMAP4 clients need to maintain a TCP/IP connection to the server in order to be notified of the arrival of new mail. Notification of mail arrival is done through in-band signaling, which contributes to the complexity of client-side IMAP protocol handling

Monitoring IMAP

You can monitor your Internet Message Access protocol availability using our 100pulse - Free Website Monitoring Service.