After reading about imap mail server, I see no added security protection for packets not being intercepted and read by someone else. More bells and whistles maybe, but for $100 to get rid of the advertising ?????
Hotmail works fine as a generic email and I use my ISP and netscape for larger attachments than hotmail can handle in it's "FREE" service.
imap does not provide any greater (or lesser, for that matter) security than pop mail.
Someone intercepting and reading packets (especially at the isp level) it doesn't matter *what* service you have, you're readable.
That's why PGP and GPG were invented.
<http://www.pgp.com/products/freeware.html> <http://www.gnupg.org/(en)/index.html>
If you don't want people reading your mail, encrypt it.
Plug ins to do that painlessly for most mail clients are readily available. (The PGP Persona, which costs $50 has plug-ins that work seamlessly with most Mac mail clients, including mail.app) Of course, both sides of a conversation in email need to be using this.
The main advantage of imap mail service is that you can access it with many clients, and since the mail store is on the server, never have to worry about the mail not being visible.
In general, since imap mail resides on the server, which are generally better cared for and backed up more often than home computers, your mail is safer.
It has it's disadvantages, as well.
You have to connect to the network to read your mail, though most clients now allow you to download copies of the mail to your local system, giving it pop-like characteristics.
All your mail stays on the server, which means disk space and backups to manage, so most providers don't offer it, and those who do quota it.
But it's nice to have...I can access my email on any computer I can reach the internet on.
(Heck, I can even reach my inbox with my Newton 130)
-- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group
Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
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