Appendix C:
Glossary
PoE Switch User Manual | 327
IMAP
IMAP is an acronym for
I
nternet
M
essage
A
ccess
P
rotocol. It is a protocol for email clients to
retrieve email messages from a mail server.
IMAP is the protocol that IMAP clients use to communicate with the servers, and SMTP is the
protocol used to transport mail to an IMAP server.
The current version of the Internet Message Access Protocol is IMAP4. It is similar to Post
Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), but offers additional and more complex features. For
example, the IMAP4 protocol leaves your email messages on the server rather than
downloading them to your computer. If you wish to remove your messages from the server,
you must use your mail client to generate local folders, copy messages to your local hard
drive, and then delete and expunge the messages from the server.
IP
IP is an acronym for
I
nternet
P
rotocol. It is a protocol used for communicating data across an
internet network.
IP is a "best effort" system, which means that no packet of information sent over is assured to
reach its destination in the same condition it was sent. Each device connected to a Local
Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN) is given an Internet Protocol address, and
this IP address is used to identify the device uniquely among all other devices connected to
the extended network.
The current version of the Internet protocol is IPv4, which has 32-bits Internet Protocol
addresses allowing for in excess of four billion unique addresses. This number is reduced
drastically by the practice of webmasters taking addresses in large blocks, the bulk of which
remain unused. There is a rather substantial movement to adopt a new version of the Internet
Protocol, IPv6, which would have 128-bits Internet Protocol addresses. This number can be
represented roughly by a three with thirty-nine zeroes after it. However, IPv4 is still the
protocol of choice for most of the Internet.
IPMC
IPMC is an acronym for
IP
M
ulti
C
ast.
IPMC supports IPv4 and IPv6 multicasting. IPMCv4 denotes multicast for IPv4. IPMCv6
denotes multicast for IPv6.