The catch is that it coordinates the local messages with those on the servers and mirrors the directory structure.

So, if you're in your room and add a folder or delete some messages, that new folder will be in your Pine folders list, or those deleted messages will be gone, when you next use Pine from the Science Center.

You get the perks of a graphical e-mail client such as drag-and-drop attachments, while at the same time, preserve the structure of your e-mail regardless of where you are.

So how do you take advantage of this smarter protocol?

The first step is to get an IMAP-compliant e-mail client. The closest one to most students on the Harvard network is Eudora, which can be installed from the FAS Network Installer.

Fans of Microsoft Outlook like myself will be happy to know that Outlook 98 is also a comparable IMAP option. Netscape's Messenger will work as well.

Just install one of these programs and set it up to use the IMAP protocol with imap.fas.harvard.edu as the incoming mail server.

With all I've said on the plus side of IMAP, it does have some limitations.

For one, not all e-mail clients are created equal, and all have some minor bugs. Only by experimentation will you know which one is right for you.

Second, although the mail synchronization is the key feature, two important items are not synchronized: the address book and the sent mail folder.

There is no nice way to import addresses from Pine into one of the graphical e-mail clients like Eudora and changing one will involve manually updating the other if you want total balance.

Also, many people need to be able to access sent mail from multiple locations. I can't name the number of times I've had to re-send old messages or prove I actually responded to someone's message.

But if you send a message from Outlook, for example, it gets put into the sent mail folder on your local machine, and this is not synchronized with the sent mail folder on the server that Pine uses.

But these issues existed with POP, and if you're looking for a way to standardize and simplify your e-mail existence, look no further than IMAP. Baratunde R. Thurston '99 is The Crimson's online-technology chair and a member of HASCS's advanced support team. This is his last column. Please e-mail comments, suggestions and questions to techtalk@thecrimson.harvard.edu.