Q: After reading your column about older POP vs. newer IMAP e-mail accounts (see tinyurl.com/y8n46u4w), I disagree that IMAP is the only way to access e-mail on multiple devices.
It's true that a POP mail account normally serves only one computer. After that computer downloads e-mail, it's deleted from the e-mail provider's server.
But I've found a way to share a POP account between two MacBook Pro computers and an iPhone. My setup allows only one of my Macs to download an e-mail message and delete it from the server. The other Mac and the iPhone can only read a message. What about this?
Tom Lentz, Chanhassen
A: You are making an old e-mail system do new tricks, but it would be better to get a new e-mail system instead.
One reason is that you have made one of your Macs the "boss" of your POP (Post Office Protocol) e-mail account, and that limits your ability to share mail across three devices. If the "boss" reads a new message first, that e-mail will be deleted from the server and thus be unavailable to the second Mac and the iPhone. All three can only share e-mail if the second Mac and the iPhone read a new e-mail first.
Another reason is that POP e-mail doesn't synchronize the mailboxes of the two Macs and the iPhone. As a result, each device is likely to contain a different mix of new and old e-mails, which makes managing mail more complicated.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) e-mail provides a better solution because no single device is the "boss"— each one downloads a copy of a new e-mail, and the original message remains on the e-mail provider's server. And, because e-mail is synchronized between the devices, you can manage your e-mail account equally well from any of them.
