Internet terms

[smansell]

What exactly is the IP address, your smpt and pop3 server. I am a telecomms engineer of old but this is new to me.

[rojash]

Data is passed in packets from device to device on the internet. The packets all carry a destination address. Every device connected to the internet has a unique address. This is the IP address.

If you have a dial-up connection, each time you connect, you will be assigned an IP address by your ISP from a range reserved for that purpose. It may or may not be the same address each time you connect. If you have an "always on" broadband connection will most likely have a "fixed" IP address, which is a means of uniquely identfying your computer (or router).

When you send an e-mail it goes via the SMTP server of your Internet Service provider, and similarly, your incoming e-mails are stored on a POP3 server, from where you can collect them.

When you configure your e-mail client, you need to tell it which SMTP server to use for sending, and which POP3 server to use for receiving. This information will have been given to you by your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

Hope this helps...

I hope this helps.

[The Cowboy]

Great answer Rojash.

Cowboy

[AussieGeoff]

G'Day

IP Address is Internet Protocol Address - it is how your computer is identified on the internet, just like your postal address identifies you to the Post Office.

If you are on dial-up or have broadband with a "dymanic" address, your ISP will allocate you an address everytime you log on or at random intervals (on broadband). It will probably not be the same IP Address you had last time.

You can also have a "static" address if you are on broadband - the address is permanently yours - all servers have static IP Addresses so they can always be found. They need one because they do not initiate any transfer - they only respond to requests so they need a static address to so that the client (you) can request information. It is actually a 32 bit number of the form a.b.c.d where a,b,c and d are in the range of 0 to 255 so for example 123.2.156.36 is an IP Address (I have no idea who owns it).

SMTP is Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, it is a server that your email client talks to when you want to send mail, it sorts out where the mail is going and either forwards it to another SMTP server or to a POP3 or IMAP server.

POP3 (Post Office Protocol version 3) is a server that stores mail for email accounts at that ISP - it gets the mail from the SMTP server. Your client "talks" to your POP3 server to find out if there is any mail waiting.

IMAP is similar, but is used for web mail (eg Gmail) where the mail is always available on the web site.

Geoff