What is the Full Form of POP?

The full form of POP is Post Office Protocol or Point of Presence. The term POP is used in computers. POP is an internet standard protocol which is utilized for retrieving the mail from a mail server. It allows the users to access the emails on their system. Point of Presence is the point of separation where different devices share a connection and interact with each other. The protocol includes high-speed telecommunication technologies. A POP has routers, servers, switches, as well as other network interface equipment located in a data center. 

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History of POP

Now as you are familiar with the full form of POP. It was defined by RFC-918, published in 1984. The first version of the protocol originated in the 1980s. POP was developed to enable the users to easily retrieve and excess the emails from remote servers on to their local systems. Further modifications led to advanced versions of POP i.e. POP2 and POP3. The POP3 is the most widely used version of Post Office Protocol.

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Characteristics: POP Full Form

Following are the characteristics of Post Office Protocol:

• POP allows you to delete as well as download the files even while you’re not connected to the internet.
• Point of Presence does not require any mail gateways due to its inherent nature.
• POP can only manage email access when emails are transmitted via SMTP.
• This enables access to fresh mail from a wide range of client platforms.

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POP Full Form: Advantages

The advantages of POP are listed below:

• It is an easy and convenient way to enter the mail.
• The retrieved mails get stored in the disc drive of the computer automatically for the clients.
• Downloaded attachments are easily accessible as they are on the local system.
• The file size doesn’t matter.

Disadvantages of POP

With the increasing advancement in technology another protocol named IMAP4 (Internet Message Access Protocol) is available to retrieve the email from the mailbox. IMAP4 is preferred over POP. Some disadvantages of POP are listed below:

• Because all of the data is kept on the disc drive, it takes up more storage space.
• The chances of emails getting corrupted is also there. 
• Because data is directly stored on the disc drive, it is more vulnerable to virus assaults.
• It is inconvenient to export a local mail file to another physical host or system.

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