What is POP3?

POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol (version 3) and comprises of mailboxes for email systems so that a user can retrieve email from a central location where the email is stored. Depending on the type of hosting package preferred, most of the quality web-hosting providers offer their customers with POP3 accounts. With the POP3 accounts, users can have mailboxes on a server with their domain name. So if for example, you own a domain name (yourdomain.com); then you can receive and send emails through yourname@yourdomain.com. With POP3, users can access their mailboxes and download messages their computers in the most simple and standardized manner.

� Safeguard your personal information. Never take simple things for granted.� They have commercial implementations available.� Before you discard your personal information that you no longer need, such as credit card receipts, billing statements, and pre-approved credit card offers, shred them using, at best, a diagonal-cut shredder.Make education about the scams, schemes, and frauds criminal use to steal your identity your priority in view of the rising occurrence of this multi-million-dollar-problem. With education comes prevention. Here are some prevention tips to help reduce the risks:Low-Tech Rip-offs: Thieves can do much damage with what they remove from your mailbox.� As an extra measure of security, install a lock on your mailbox, even if mail theft is not an identified problem in your neighborhood.Most e-mail applications also known as an e-mail clients use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). The user needs to ensure that their domain is hosted on a server, which has nameservers in order to facilitate setting up of POP3 email accounts for their domains. Since POP3 allows a client computer to retrieve electronic mail from a POP3 server via a (temporary) TCP/IP or other connection, it does not provide for sending mail, which is assumed to be performed via SMTP or some other method.� They allow access to new mail from anywhere on the network.� They rely on mail delivery to a, usually shared, "always up" mail server.� Shoulder surfing takes place when a thief watches or listens literally over your shoulder as you enter your PIN into an ATM machine. They may even follow you home or your place of work to gather additional information about you.� They have freely available implementations (including source) available.� They allow access to new mail from a variety of client platform types.Protecting Your Identity While there are no guarantees that your identity will never be stolen or compromised, there are several steps you can take to minimize the risks. Here are a few of them:

Once the user has understood what exactly are the functions of POP3 email accounts and its uses, he can choose a hosting package that offers POP3 email accounts with their respective support. It is equally advisable to first check with the web host whether these POP3 accounts are offered within the hosting package or come at an additional monthly cost. For most web masters, POP3 accounts are indispensable and therefore it becomes imperative to opt for a web hosting service that offers this feature. The company's support needs to be of high quality as well in order to ensure smooth web hosting. Any kind of laxity or errors can cost you hundreds to millions of dollars, which is highly undesirable. Some hosting packages may include "unlimited POP3 accounts" or perhaps a set number of POP3 accounts. It is advisable therefore to first determine your requirement before selecting the hosting package with its corresponding POP3 account allowance. Lap up on ample knowledge and then select a package that would befit your website requirements.

Author: Bob Willis