Email Protocols Deep Dive: SMTP, POP3, IMAP, and Beyond

Understanding Email Protocols

• What are communication protocols?
• Importance in email ecosystem

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

• Core principles
• How email sending works
• SMTP server interactions

POP3 (Post Office Protocol)

• Basic retrieval mechanism
• Pros and cons
• Use cases

IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)

• Advanced email retrieval
• Synchronization capabilities
• Advantages over POP3

Modern Protocol Extensions

• Security protocols
• Authentication mechanisms

Deep Technical Dive

• Protocol internals
• Packet-level communication
• Performance considerations