What Is The Full Form Of POP?

The Full Form Of POP is a Point of Presence Or Post Office Protocol.

POP is a demarcation point where many devices share a connection and communicate with each other. POP includes high-speed telecommunication devices and technologies. A POP has servers, routers, switches, and other network interface equipment that is located in a data centre. A common example is a local access point that helps to establish a connection between the customer and the Internet service provider.

History of POP

The Post Office Protocol was defined by RFC 918 which was published in 1984. The motive of POP was to provide an easy way for a client computer to retrieve e-mail on an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server so that it can be used locally. In 1985 version 2 of POP and in 1996 version 3 was published.

Characteristics of POP

• POP supports both delete and download functions even when offline.
• Due to its native nature POP does not require any mail gateways.
• This allows access to new mail from a proliferation of client platform types.
• POP can handle email access only when emails are sent via SMTP.

Advantages of POP

• POP provides an easy and convenient way to access the mails.
• Apart from the scale of your disc drive, there is not any maximum size on your mailbox.
• The messages downloaded with POP always get stored on the disc drive of the computer.
• The attachments are easy to access as they are already on the PC.

Disadvantages of POP

• The chances of email folders getting corrupted are high.
• If any attachment contains a virus then the process to open those attachments can be risky and difficult.
• The PC can be at risk of a virus attack as all the attachments get downloaded on the computer.