IMAP v. POP

My university uses IMAP for e-mail. When I’m on my computer, I access my e-mail with Netscape messenger. Great. But I’m going to Europe this semester.

The university has a web-based mail portal that is unbelievably terrible. It is just bad. Terrible. I can use Telnet for PINE, but that program is also a pain.

So, my e-mail is presently forwarded to a Hotmail address. Now, Hotmail lets you check POP accounts. Can Hotmail check an imap.blah.com address? Can it send from smtp.blah.com? (I have a feeling that the answer is no, but I want to make sure.) Hotmail talks only about POP, and I read on a site that IMAP is a superset of POP. Thanks.

Unless your university does not allow incoming IMAP connections from outside the network, why not just use Netscape to get your mail from Europe?

I’ll be reading the mail in internet cafes where I won’t be able to configure mail programs, etc. I’m not stressing over this issue; the forwarded mail to a web program works ine, I was just wondering.

Our campus uses IMAP, but students can use POP if they wish. I don’t know if the system has to be configured for both, but you should be asking your campus I&TS department, not us.

Hotmail will read POP accounts, but it won’t let you send from another account. That’s too great a temptation for spamers.