Email Ports – POP3, IMAP and SMTP Port Numbers

Posted:  August 14th, 2015

 

In this tutorial, you’ll learn most commonly used Email protocols and port numbers such as POP3, IMAP and SMTP on the Internet for email services.

 

Email servers across the Internet use protocols for sending and retrieving emails. Every email service listens to a specific port to deliver services.

 

What are POP3 and Default POP3 Port Numbers?

 

Post Office Protocol (POP) is used for retrieving emails from a remote email server. It’s useful to download email messages from email server to your local email client for offline viewing. POP with version 3 ( POP3) is the new standard commonly used on the Internet.

 

By default, POP3 deletes email on the server after downloading to your local email client.

Whenever you receive an email message, it will be stored on the server. So, you can configure an email client using POP3 to download email messages to your computer or mobile device. You can leave one copy message on the server but it’s just another copy.

 

List of most common POP3 clients

 

    > Mozilla Thunderbird

    > Microsoft Outlook

    > Opera Mail

 

Whenever you are configuring a POP3 client, bear in mind that you will need to provide the followings ...... Login credentials, POP3 server name or IP address and POP3 Port Number.

 

POP3 Port Numbers

 

Default POP Port number : 110

POP3 port number with SSL/TLS : 995

 

Benefits of POP3

 

    > It saves server space and resources

    > Easy and simple to implement.

    > Your emails will be downloaded to your computer.

 

Disadvantages

 

    > Doesn't support folder structures

    > If your computer corrupts, you may loose downloaded emails.

    > Difficult to synchronise between multiple devices.

 

What are IMAP and default IMAP Port Numbers?

 

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is a protocol used by email clients to retrieve emails from an email server.

 

IMAP based email clients leaves messages on the server unless user deletes them.

All the new generation or web-based email services like Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Mail supports IMAP service. While configuring IMAP client, you need to provide IMAP4 server name or IP address, IMAP4 Port Number and login credentials.

 

IMAP Port number

 

Default IMAP port number : 143

IMAP over SSL (IMAPS) port number : 993

 

Pros of IMAP:

 

    > Your emails will be stored on the server.

    > Easy synchronisation between multiple devices.

 

Cons of IMAP:

 

    > Takes up a lot of server space

    > Requires server resource to syncronize emails between devices

 

What are SMTP and default SMTP Port Numbers?

 

Simple Mail Transfer Service (SMTP) is used for sending emails from one email server to another server. SMTP acts as a mail exchange for you and your email recipient.

 

If you want to connect SMTP service to send an email, you need to provide an SMTP IP address, Port number and login credentials.

 

SMTP Port Numbers

 

    > The default SMTP port number is : 25

    > Secondary SMTP port number : 26

    > SMTP over SSL/TLS port number: 465