Does Mailshell offer POP or IMAP access?

Yes, Mailshell supports both POP and IMAP access when using a desktop client like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger. This feature is available only to Premium users.

To learn how to set up POP access, click here; to learn how to set up IMAP access, click here.

What is POP?

POP (Post Office Protocol) lets you download email messages stored on a remote server to your hard drive through desktop clients like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger. It is the most common type of email setup and one average users are more likely to be familiar with. The major advantage of POP is that you can download all your new messages at once and then read them offline whenever you like; the major disadvantage is that accessing your email from many different computers tends to leave messages scattered among those computers rather than in one central location, and you can only download messages from your central Inbox folder.

Premium users can use POP to download messages from their Mailshell Inbox folder with a desktop client. To learn how, click here.

What is IMAP?

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) lets you view and manipulate folders and email messages on a remote server through desktop email clients like Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger. IMAP is a less common type of email setup, and one average users are less likely to be familiar with. The major advantage of IMAP is that accessing your email from many different computers doesn't leave those messages scattered among all those computers, and you can view your messages in different server folders rather than just downloading from your Inbox; the major disadvantage is that you must be online to perform many operations (e.g., moving or deleting messages). You can learn more about IMAP and how it works here.

Premium users can use IMAP to access their Mailshell folder and messages with a desktop client. To learn how, click here.

What is SMTP?

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) lets you send email messages, generally from an email client to a mail server.

Premium users have the option of using Mailshell's SMTP server to send messages using a desktop client like Outlook, Outlook Express, and Netscape Messenger; to do this, you would specify "smtp.mailshell.com" as your outgoing mail server when setting up your POP or IMAP account. Please note that you must set your client to allow authentication, and that currently you cannot use this server with Eudora. If you use Eudora, please use your ISP's SMTP server instead.