Clients & Protocols

Popular Clients

Entourage (WEBDAV, IMAP, POP3), Mac Mail (IMAP, POP3), Eudora (POP3) , Outlook Web Access (HTTP) , Outlook (MAPI, IMAP, POP3) , Outlook Express (POP3, IMAP)

Supported Protocols

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the protocol used to display Web pages but it can also be used to read e-mail with Outlook Web Access (OWA). The advantage to OWA is that you can read, send, etc. e-mail from any computer with an Internet connection and a modern Web browser capable of supporting a Secure connection (SSL). The Web address for OWA is https://mail.ad.uab.edu.

For any troubleshooting concerning the OWA, send an e-mail to the AskIT Help Desk, located on the first floor of Lister Hill Library, or call them at 996-5555. Also, Microsoft offers many tutorials and guides on their Web site.

Post Office Protocol (POP3) can be used by almost any client including Outlook Express and Eudora. The difference between IMAP and POP3, is that POP typically pulls your e-mail messages off the server and stores them locally on your hard drive. This is fine unless a problem arises with your hard-drive, which may cause you to lose all messages stored on your machine. Your POP3 client will need to be capable of providing secure authentication.

If you are using Entourage X as your e-mail client, you can configure it to use the POP3 protocol AND leave messages on the server. By doing so, you will have both a local and a remote copy of each of your e-mail messages. You can also configure it for IMAP, thus leaving all messages on the server.

Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI) is used by the full version Outlook client in conjunction with an Exchange mail server. MAPI is very much like IMAP but provides extended features within Outlook. This is only available in Outlook on a machine running Windows. You choose this protocol by selecting Microsoft Exchange Server within the Outlook e-mail account configuration.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is most common way to configure the Outlook and Entourage mail clients. The benefit of using this protocol is that your e-mail messages remain on the server. When configured this way, you do not lose any e-mail messages should a problem arise with your personal computer and have the option of using Outlook Web Access when you so desire. Your IMAP client will need to be capable of providing secure authentication.