When it comes to checking your mail, unless you want to use a web-based interface, you will need to use your mail client to connect to your mail server to download your messages. There are two protocols for accomplishing this, POP and IMAP. POP is what I had always used since the first time I ever set up an email account. It was simple, everyone else used it, and it worked; so I never really thought about trying anything else. I now realize that I could have saved myself a lot of trouble over the past 10 years if I had learned about the strengths of IMAP long ago.

I have far too many personal projects.

• Synfig
• darcness
• Audio Anecdotes III Disc
• XMPP Sync Server
• Legacy IM <-> XMPP Gateways
• XMPP -> SMS/SMTP Bridge
• Outlook Web Access -> iCal Bridge
• Outlook Web Access <-> IMAP/POP3/RSS Bridge
• My DVR (MythTV)

Hmm...

The idea of using XMPP as a transport for email (possibly a replacement to SMTP) is not new, but so far I haven't really seen anything come from the idle speculation. And, more importantly, that's not what this post is about anyway. At least not yet.

I'm considering writing an eMail jabber component that would allow you to check, view, read, reply, and write email. The first step to doing that is to write an XMPP protocol for email. Think about all of the features of IMAP, with the ability to receive real-time updates and send mail. There are many benefits to doing this: