Email Protocols

​In an enterprise setting, ​it’s important for us as admin or so IT support ​specialists to be able to ​configure email services for the company. ​To do this, you need to have ​a domain name setup for your company that ​you can use as your email domain

There are two ways to set up email for a company:

1. ​The first is to run your own managed server. Using this option, you ​set up the email server software on a server. Then you create a DNS record for your mail server. ​There are different DNS records. ​Remember that the A record is used for host names, ​but for email servers, ​we use MX for the mail exchange record.
2. An alternative approach to setting ​up your own email servers ​is to use an email service provider like Google Suite. ​These service providers allow you ​to create email inboxes and ​more by paying a monthly fee ​for every user in your organization. ​This ties you into the Gmail webmail client ​and allows you to access your email from anywhere. ​As long as you’re connected to the Internet, ​whatever option you choose, ​you will have to understand the differences between ​email protocols when you set up your email accounts.

 ​There are lots of email protocols out there, ​but we’ll only do a rundown ​of the more common ones you hear ​about POP3, IMAP, and SMTP.   1. ​Post Office Protocol or POP Version ​3 is an email protocol that downloads email ​from an email server onto ​your local device and ​then deletes the email from the email server. ​If you want to retrieve your email through POP3, ​you can only view it from one device. There are a few reasons why you might ​want to use POP3 to get your email:  - If you need to keep your email storage ​under a certain quota, ​POP3 is a good way to maintain that storage limitation. ​  - Another benefit of POP3 is privacy, ​your email can only be seen from your local device. 2. IMAP or Internet Message Access ​Protocol allows you to download emails from ​your email server onto multiple devices. ​It keeps your messages on the email server. ​This email protocol is one of ​the more popular ways to retrieve email. 3. Last up is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP, ​which is a protocol used for sending ​emails while POP3 and IMAP, ​and other protocols can be used to retrieve email. ​There’s really only one email protocol ​for sending email, SMTP.