Editing Post Office Protocol (section)

{{short description|Family of Internet mail protocols}}
{{Multiple issues|{{Refimprove|date=November 2007}}{{Context||details=|date=July 2020}}
{{External links|date=March 2024}}
}}
{{IPstack}}

In computing, the '''Post Office Protocol''' ('''POP''') is an [[application layer|application-layer]] [[Internet standard]] [[protocol (computing)|protocol]] used by [[e-mail client]]s to retrieve [[e-mail]] from a mail server.<ref name="Network+ Guide to Networks">{{cite book | last = Dean | first = Tamara | title = Network+ Guide to Networks | publisher = Delmar | year = 2010 | page = 519 | isbn = 978-1423902454 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UD0h_GqgbHgC&q=network%2B+guide+to+networks}}</ref> Today, POP version 3 ('''POP3''') is the most commonly used version. Together with [[IMAP]], it is one of the most common protocols for email retrieval.