Comcast has 'suggested' I switch from POP to IMAP by 7/12. What ramifications should I expect from this change? Detriments? Your thoughts on it? Thanks a million.
Mike
IMAP vs POP
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tanstaafl
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Re: IMAP vs POP
See http://kb.mozillazine.org/IMAP and https://www.fastmail.com/help/technical/imapvspop.html
A IMAP account has a lot more features (can keep multiple clients + webmail in sync/share the same folders) and avoids some POP specific problems (logjam due to problems downloading a bad message). However, it works differently than what you are used to. You can add a Comcast IMAP account while still using your POP account account, and try it out for a while before deciding which type to stick with.
My experience is its usually an issue of whether you are comfortable adapting to things working differently. If you can handle that change, IMAP is usually a better choice IMHO. I doubt Thunderbird will ever drop support for POP accounts but its a legacy feature nowadays. I've had a Comcast IMAP account for years, it works fine. However, I'm very biased. I switched all but one of my accounts to IMAP many years ago and can't consider ever going back. The only reason I keep one POP account is to help support POP users.
Thunderbird has implemented one feature in IMAP accounts that I don't like (automatically creating offline copies of your webmail folders on your hard disk and keeping them in sync) but you can disable that in "synchronization & storage". The one thing you might miss from a POP account is support for a global inbox. However, you can create a message filter to automatically copy mail from the accounts inbox to the Local Folders inbox.
Can you provide some more information about the suggestion you got?
A IMAP account has a lot more features (can keep multiple clients + webmail in sync/share the same folders) and avoids some POP specific problems (logjam due to problems downloading a bad message). However, it works differently than what you are used to. You can add a Comcast IMAP account while still using your POP account account, and try it out for a while before deciding which type to stick with.
My experience is its usually an issue of whether you are comfortable adapting to things working differently. If you can handle that change, IMAP is usually a better choice IMHO. I doubt Thunderbird will ever drop support for POP accounts but its a legacy feature nowadays. I've had a Comcast IMAP account for years, it works fine. However, I'm very biased. I switched all but one of my accounts to IMAP many years ago and can't consider ever going back. The only reason I keep one POP account is to help support POP users.
Thunderbird has implemented one feature in IMAP accounts that I don't like (automatically creating offline copies of your webmail folders on your hard disk and keeping them in sync) but you can disable that in "synchronization & storage". The one thing you might miss from a POP account is support for a global inbox. However, you can create a message filter to automatically copy mail from the accounts inbox to the Local Folders inbox.
Can you provide some more information about the suggestion you got?
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tanstaafl
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Re: IMAP vs POP
Its strongly recommended that you do not try to convert a POP account to IMAP. Instead, add the IMAP account, migrate any downloaded mail from the POP account to wherever you want to keep them and then delete the POP account. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Convert_a_POP ... AP_account
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DanRaisch
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Re: IMAP vs POP
I had an IMAP account with Comcast for a while but switched back to POP due to lagging in uploading sent messages to the server's Sent folder. Other than that it worked well enough with the changes recommended in tanstaafl's first reply..
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laceymike
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Re: IMAP vs POP
Thank you both very much.
Mike
Mike