Internet Mail Access Protocol

29. IMAP is similar in operation to POP, but allows you more choice over what messages you download. 30. Initially, only message headers are retrieved, giving information about the sender and subject. 31. You can then download just those messages you want to read. 32. You can also delete individual messages from the server, and some IMAP4 servers let you organise your mail into folders. 33. This makes download times shorter and there’s no danger of losing messages.

Notes

¹rigidly /ˈridʒidli/ adv – точно, суворо

²in batch mode /in ˈbæt∫ ˈmɜυd/ n – у вигляді групи, пачки

³retrieve /riˈtri:v/ v – відновлювати, повертати

⁴retrieval /riˈtri:vǝl/ n – пошук

Find the answers to these questions in the text.

1. Name three different email protocols mentioned in the text. 2. Which email protocol is used to transfer messages between server computers? 3. Why is SMTP unsuitable for delivering messages to desktop PCs? 4. Name two host-based mail systems mentioned in the text. 5. Where are email messages stored in an SMTP system? 6. What happens when you use your Web mail account to access a P0P3 mailbox?

7. Give an advantage and a disadvantage of having an option to leave POP3 messages on the server.

8. What are the advantages of using the IMAP4 protocol?

Mark the following statements as True or False.

a) Different mail systems transfer emails in different ways. b) IMAP4 requires more bandwidth than the other email protocols. c) SMTP is used for sending emails from a PC to a server. d) SMTP delivers messages one at a time. e) SMTP does not allow a delivered message to be cancelled. f) SMTP is only one of many protocols used to send mail between servers. g) POP protocol allows the user to download one message at a time.

 

Match the terms in Table A with the statements in Table B.

Table A a) SMTP b) “Push” operation c) POP d) “Pull” operation e) IMAP

Table B 1. An email transfer process in which the connection is initiated by the sending computer rather than the receiving computer. 2. A mail transfer protocol that initially only retrieves the message headers. 3. An email transfer process in which the receiving computer initiates the connection. 4. A simple mail transfer protocol that is used to send messages between servers. 5. A message-retrieval protocol that downloads all email messages at the same time.

 

Level A. Retell the information from the text.

Level B. Write your own description of how your browser finds the page you want.

Level C. Read and translate the text.

Text C

To find the webpage you want, you have to click on a webpage hyperlink or enter a URL into a browser. The URL is the address of the page. When you do that, the browser sends the URL to a DNS server.

The DNS uses a look-up table to find the IP address of the Web server referred to in the URL. The IP address is a unique, every computer on the Web has its own IP address.

Once the DNS server has found the IP address, it sends it back to the browser. The browser then uses this IP address to send a request to the Web server. The request is sent as a series of separate data packets which include both the IP address of the Web server and the IP address of the browser computer. These data packets are first sent to a router computer, which uses the IP address of the Web server to determine the best available route for each packet.

The packets are passed from router to router until they reach the Web server. They may travel by different routes before reaching the server. As the individual packets reach the Web server, they’re put back together again.

The Web server now services the request by sending the requested webpage back to the browser computer. Again it travels as a series of separate data packets from router to router. This time the router uses the IP address of the browser computer to work out the best available path for each packet. As the packets arrive at the browser computer they’re combined to form the webpage you requested and are displayed in your browser.