The Mutt E-Mail Client : Advanced Usage : POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
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## 4.10. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)

If Mutt was compiled with POP3 support (by running the configure script with the --enable-pop flag), it has the ability to work with mailboxes located on a remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local browsing.

You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder `pop://popserver/`.

You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, ie: `pop://popserver:port/`.

You can also specify different username for each folder, ie: `pop://username@popserver[:port]/`.

Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this reason the frequency at which Mutt will check for mail remotely can be controlled by the $pop_checkinterval variable, which defaults to every 60 seconds.

If Mutt was compiled with SSL support (by running the configure script with the --with-ssl flag), connections to POP3 servers can be encrypted. This naturally requires that the server supports SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder with POP3/SSL, you should use pops: prefix, ie: `pops://[username@]popserver[:port]/`.

Another way to access your POP3 mail is the fetch-mail function (default: G). It allows to connect to pop_host, fetch all your new mail and place it in the local spoolfile. After this point, Mutt runs exactly as if the mail had always been local.

Note: If you only need to fetch all messages to local mailbox you should consider using a specialized program, such as fetchmail

The Mutt E-Mail Client : Advanced Usage : POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
Previous: Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
Next: IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)