Commonly used email terms and what they mean in plain language.

POP – Post Office Protocol sometimes referred to as POP3. POP is a protocol that is used to access your email mailbox on the your mailserver. By default POP downloads all the mail that is in your Inbox folder on the mailserver to your Inbox folder in your email client on your personal computer.

IMAP – Sometimes referred to as IMAP4. IMAP is a protocol that is used to access your email mailbox. IMAP is different from POP in that it leaves all email on the mailserver. All webmail programs that I am aware of use IMAP. IMAP is the preferred protocol to use when accessing your email using a smartphone (Blackberry or IPhone).

SMTP – Simple Mail Transport Protocol . Email messages are transmitted from mailserver to mailserver and from your personal computer to the mailserver using SMTP. SMTP is the ’sending’ protocol for email whereas POP and IMAP are the ‘receiving’ protocols.

NDR – Non Deliver Report. These are also referred to as Delivery Failures.