 Email
has become a critical tool for quick and effective communication
with customers, suppliers, employees and investors.
There are a number of different e-mail services, but
the 2 most popular for SME's are POP3 Mail Collection
and SMTP Mail Collection:
POP3 Mail Collection
POP stands for "Post Office
Protocol" and is probably the most common
way of users receiving their inbound email. In essence,
when a message for your business arrives on your ISP's
mail server, it is accepted and moved to a mailbox file
which belongs to you. This process will continue with
each message being added to the mailbox file. You could
just then read the mail on a web based e-mail browser
provided by the ISP. Alternatively you could have the
e-mail downloaded to a local POP3 client application
such as Outlook or Outlook Express. When a user connects,
the whole file is moved to a temporary "drop"
area and transferred to the customer's local computer.
When the process is complete, the temporary drop file
is deleted, and the customer will be able to read the
emails using the local POP3 application.
SMTP
Mail Collection
SMTP (simple mail transfer
protocol) is the method by which mail is transported
from one server to another. Whereas with POP collection
the mail transport is effectively terminated at the
POP servers, with SMTP delivery, the mail is directed
directly to your server. There are many suitable office
mail servers available, but by far the most popular
in the SME marketplace is Microsoft Exchange.
Whatever is your preferred email delivery
method, IT 4 Home and Business can help you make the
right choice as well as set up and configure your hardware/software.
For more information on service agreements and costs,
view our Business Service Pricing details.
For more advice on this subject
call 01386 792972 or e-mail info@it4homeandbusiness.co.uk
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