E-mail Services: IMAP vs. Exchange

The Office of Information Technology provides two distinct e-mail services for Princeton Users: Exchange (Enhanced) e-mail and IMAP (Standard) e-mail. It is useful to understand a little bit more about each type of mail service.

Students' e-mail accounts are enabled for the IMAP service and are generally not eligible for Exchange e-mail. Faculty and staff can use either mail service. However, it is generally true (and encouraged) that entire departments will migrate to a different mail service, rather than individual users.

Both IMAP e-mail and Exchange e-mail provide central server storage for a user's e-mail. Storage is limited by an allotted quota. While there are a number of architectural differences in the two mail systems, there are few differences that will be relevant to the average user. Most importantly, Exchange provides a calendaring system that can be used by an Exchange-enabled department for convenient scheduling of appointments and meetings. It is also important to note that Exchange is a fee-based system.

If you are interested in learning more about either IMAP or Exchange (or about the possibility of switching services), you should contact your departmental administrator or the OIT Help Desk.