POP3 Monitor is a simple IPHost Monitor. POP3, or Post Office Protocol version 3, still is a popular protocol used to get email messages from a mail server. This protocol is out-of-date, yet still is widely used. POP3 Monitor allows you to check for both connectivity and authentication results.
POP3 can be easily tested manually using telnet utility, but this involves security risks. If APOP authentication is used, a password hash must be constructed; and if APOP is not available, USER/PASS are used. In the first case it requires hash creation, the second method requires sending password in plain text. Since it’s easy to delete a message on remote server by accident, manual testing may be hazardous. IPHost Monitor can prevent most hazards of this kind by offering POP3 Monitors. Testing manually may result in credentials leak; the lack of testing may lead to belated alerts about mail service unavailable. Since mail availability is a crucial aspect in many business models, the complete lack of monitoring is not an option.
IPHost POP3 Monitor is easy to create, start by specifying a POP3 server (host) and port number. The latter is either 110 (TLS or insecure) or 995 (SSL); non-standard ports are also being used.
Parameters for POP3 mail monitor include user credentials and a selection of secure connection type (TLS if available, TLS, SSL or none). Make sure you do not use real-life POP3 account for monitoring mail server: create a technical account instead. After the POP3-specific parameters are entered, adjust availability and performance parameters, judging by POP3 mail server location and connection quality.
Common use of POP3 monitor is checking for mail server availability and authentication success. In case you provide several types of POP3 connections (secure, insecure, on several ports etc), make sure you create POP3 Monitor per every POP3 connection type available. This would cover all the related services as well (i.e., make sure the authentication works as expected, connectivity is within acceptable ranges, credentials aren’t unexpectedly changed et al.).
Monitoring mail service, including POP3, should be a part of more general monitoring (since POP3 is always used with other mail-related services). It is recommended to use general PING and TCP monitoring as dependency monitors, and SMTP Monitors in case the mail server accepts incoming email.
Description of other features:
| Monitoring Features | Here you can find the list of monitor types supported in IPHost Network Monitor and brief description of their parameters. |
| Application Templates | Here you can find the list of application templates supported in IPHost Network Monitor and their short description. |
| Network Discovery | Helps you to create a basis of your monitoring configuration and automates the task of detection network hosts and network services. |
| Alerting Features | Here you can find the list of alert types (ways of reaction to the problems happened during monitoring) available in IPHost Network Monitor, and their brief description. |
| Reporting Features | Here you can find the list of report types available in IPHost Network Monitor with brief descriptions. |
| IPHost Network Monitor interfaces and structure |
Here you can find an overview of IPHost Network Monitor components, Windows and web interfaces. |
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