Also see: E-Mail | SMTP | IMAP | POP2
Acronym: Post Office Protocol 3
Protocol commonly used to receive E-Mail from a server, allowing the user to read mail locally, instead of logging in to the server via Telnet/SSH using an E-Mail client such as Pine to read mail. Port 110 is assigned by IANA for POP3. Some servers support POP3 over SSL. Port 995 is assigned by IANA for POP3S (POP3 over TLS/SSL).
It doesn’t send mail. A SMTP server is used for that. An alternative for POP3 is the IMAP protocol, which is newer and has more features, but it is harder to implement and is less popular.
POP3 Clients
- Telnet/Netcat – can be used to read mail if the user understands the basics of the POP3 protocol (pretty straightforward).
- Mutt – Mutt, try mutt -f pop://pop3.server
- Outlook – Outlook Express also does.
- A lot more, most known clients these days support POP3, though Webmail doesn’t necesseraly do so.
POP3 Servers
TakeDown.NET -> “POP3”