Accessing same email accounts IMAP from more than one place.

Can we have more than one email reader simultaneously accessing the same email accounts if the IMAP is used instead of POP?

It seems to me that there is always error accessing the server as soon as the second reader starts where Windows Live Mail is adopted. Moreover Windows Live Mail seems to download all mails regardless.

However Microsoft Outlook does not seem to have the error but in the meantime it does not seem to donwload anything until I try to read it.

The latter seems to be a better choice.