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What downsides POP3 has? Looks like a terribly simple protocol and does the job of moving messages from one place to another quite well for me. Having to use a

by megous 4y ago

What downsides POP3 has? Looks like a terribly simple protocol and does the job of moving messages from one place to another quite well for me. Having to use anything more complex would be a downgrade. More complex to setup on server and client side, with more options and more problems to take care of. I like to use the simplest tool for the job.

Avamander 4y ago
> What downsides POP3 has? Looks like a terribly simple protocol Exactly that, it's terribly simple. People have multiple devices, that alone makes POP3 an annoying protocol to use.
- ReallyOldLurker 4y ago
  >> ... multiple devices, that alone... A big assumption. POP3 works perfectly fine and is preferable in my situation.
  - Avamander 4y ago
    No, not an assumption. Also, good for you.
billpg 4y ago
The UIDL command is specified as an optional command, but it's really required. https://billpg.com/pop3-uidl/ https://billpg.com/pop3-uidl/ The workload required to poll is heavy. You need to reconnect TCP, TLS and login. Once you find you have no messages, you have start over to check again. https://billpg.com/pop3-commit-refresh/ https://billpg.com/pop3-commit-refresh/ Clients and servers need to keep a short-term "message id" to long-term "unique-id" map. https://billpg.com/pop3-message-ids/ https://billpg.com/pop3-message-ids/ Deletes are batched and only committed at the end of a connection. Unless you're willing to close and reopen a connection right away, any messages you delete are in a not-quite-deleted limbo until you close the connection. https://billpg.com/pop3-deli/ https://billpg.com/pop3-deli/
- megous 4y ago
  Looks like most of these are issues for large providers only or if you have multiple clients/protocols enabled, which is I guess fair. Thanks for the overview, it's always interesting to see limitations of protocols I use daily. I use POP3 only to move messages from my mail server's mailbox on a VPS to my LAN using a pull method. Polled mailbox is thus mostly empty or has very few messages at each poll. So it's a nice fit.

by megous 4y ago

Avamander 4y ago

> What downsides POP3 has? Looks like a terribly simple protocol Exactly that, it's terribly simple. People have multiple devices, that alone makes POP3 an annoying protocol to use.

ReallyOldLurker 4y ago
>> ... multiple devices, that alone... A big assumption. POP3 works perfectly fine and is preferable in my situation.
- Avamander 4y ago
  No, not an assumption. Also, good for you.

billpg 4y ago

The UIDL command is specified as an optional command, but it's really required. https://billpg.com/pop3-uidl/ https://billpg.com/pop3-uidl/ The workload required to poll is heavy. You need to reconnect TCP, TLS and login. Once you find you have no messages, you have start over to check again. https://billpg.com/pop3-commit-refresh/ https://billpg.com/pop3-commit-refresh/ Clients and servers need to keep a short-term "message id" to long-term "unique-id" map. https://billpg.com/pop3-message-ids/ https://billpg.com/pop3-message-ids/ Deletes are batched and only committed at the end of a connection. Unless you're willing to close and reopen a connection right away, any messages you delete are in a not-quite-deleted limbo until you close the connection. https://billpg.com/pop3-deli/ https://billpg.com/pop3-deli/

megous 4y ago
Looks like most of these are issues for large providers only or if you have multiple clients/protocols enabled, which is I guess fair. Thanks for the overview, it's always interesting to see limitations of protocols I use daily. I use POP3 only to move messages from my mail server's mailbox on a VPS to my LAN using a pull method. Polled mailbox is thus mostly empty or has very few messages at each poll. So it's a nice fit.