POP

The default POP server under Community Enterprise Linux is /usr/lib/cyrus-imapd/pop3d and is provided by the cyrus-imapd package. When using a POP server, email messages are downloaded by email client applications. By default, most POP email clients are automatically configured to delete the message on the email server after it has been successfully transferred, however this setting usually can be changed.

POP is fully compatible with important Internet messaging standards, such as Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), which allow for email attachments.

POP works best for users who have one system on which to read email. It also works well for users who do not have a persistent connection to the Internet or the network containing the mail server. Unfortunately for those with slow network connections, POP requires client programs upon authentication to download the entire content of each message. This can take a long time if any messages have large attachments.

The most current version of the standard POP protocol is POP3.

There are, however, a variety of lesser-used POP protocol variants:

• APOP - POP3 with MDS authentication. An encoded hash of the user's password is sent from the email client to the server rather then sending an unencrypted password.

• KPOP - POP3 with Kerberos authentication. Refer to "Kerberos" for more information.
• RPOP - POP3 with RPOP authentication. This uses a per-user ID, similar to a password, to authenticate POP requests. However, this ID is not encrypted, so RPOP is no more secure than standard POP.

For added security, it is possible to use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption for client authentication and data transfer sessions. This can be enabled by using the ipop3s service or by using the /usr/sbin/stunnel program. Refer to "Securing Communication" for more information.