Originally Posted by
Octane
So in a nutshell, Email clients are really designed to reside on your desktop machine in an office environment permanently connected to your ISP?
No, they can use any Internet connection, regardless of whether it's dial-up, broadband, wireless, whatever. Why would you think they were limited in such a way?
Originally Posted by
Saab Dastard
The problem is that - for security - you generally cannot directly access that server from the wider internet, but only from "inside" your ISP's network - which you are with your broadband connection from home. Some ISPs may allow pop3 / imap internet access to their email servers, but mine certainly doesn't!
I saw this, and while I don't doubt it happens, I wouldn't like to use that ISP. I use POP/SMTP mail from an independent service (Spamcop), which has no such restrictions. They authenticate every connection, for sending and receiving mail, and I have used it on three continents.
In the "old days", SMTP servers for
sending mail were often unsecured "open relays", they would let anyone send mail. That is no longer advisable in this spam-ridden era, obviously. So ISPs secure them, sometimes by credentials (as mine does); or by limiting the
sending of mail, by IP address, to users on their own networks.
I really don't see what an ISP would gain by limiting POP3 access (for
receiving mail) to addresses on their own network. If they do, they surely let you get mail on a webmail server, at least. But whatever the situation is, the protocols, and clients that use them, don't limit you in the ways you describe. It's down to whatever the ISP or mail provider decides to let you do.
(I'm assuming that this ISP actually gives you a genuine Internet address, and doesn't keep all their customers behind
NAT. I didn't think any ISP would be so
bloody stupid, but then I visited Dubai and used a friend's home Etisalat connection.
)