Acronym for Interactive Mail Access Protocol.
Version 4 is in widespread use and is specified in 
RFC:2060. This RFC was later obsoleted with version 4 revision 1, detailed in RFC:3501.
A protocol for letting you access a remote mailbox over the Internet.
To send email use SMTP
If you want to access imap over a slow, laggy connection perhaps try 
offlineimap or if your mailer supports it (thunderbird etc) use offline mode in the MUA and select all your folders for viewing offline. Then set your MUA to offline mode and just poll for new imap mail as you need it.
