[LUNI] POP vs. IMAP

[Andrew Morrison]

I'm having a little bit of trouble understanding the difference between
POP and IMAP.  Mostly, I am concerned about my password being sniffed...

If my pop server is also my desktop machine, and I use "localhost" as
the pop server, is there a risk that my password could be sniffed by
someone on the local network?

If I use IMAP without SSL to check mail remotely, is my password sent
over the internet in plain text?

Thanks!

Andrew