Have more than one e-mail address? You don’t need to check each account for e-mail individually. It’s a little-known fact that most e-mail programs are capable of managing several e-mail addresses.
Among them is Outlook Express, which is included in Windows. Other such e-mail programs include Mozilla Thunderbird (www.mozilla.com/thunderbird) and Eudora (www.eudora.com), both free.
Once they are set up, this means you can check your Gmail (gmail.google.com), Hotmail (www.hotmail.com), Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) and other Web-based e-mail accounts simultaneously.
You also can check the e-mail account provided by your Internet service provider.
There’s a catch, of course. To download your mail, you need the names of the POP3 (Post Office Protocol, Version 3) and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) servers. The POP3 server is used to download mail; the SMTP server sends it. Gmail provides this access free.
However, Hotmail Plus and Yahoo Plus charge $20 per year.
Alternatively, two free programs can give you access to Web mail programs. YPOPS (www.ypopsemail.com) works solely on Yahoo mail.
FreePOPs (www.freepops.org) works on many Web e-mail services, including Yahoo and Hotmail. However, these programs aren’t easy to get running, nor are they completely developed. I’d skip them and pay for access.
Each e-mail program has slightly different configuring procedures.
I’ll use Outlook Express as an example. To begin, click Tools, then Accounts. Click Mail, then Add, then Mail. Type your name as you want it to appear to recipients of your messages. Click Next.
Type in your e-mail address and click Next.
Enter the POP3 and SMTP server names. Get this information from the help or support section of your e-mail provider. For example, Gmail’s servers are pop.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com, respectively. Click Next.
Enter your account name and password. This part can be tricky. With some e-mail accounts, you must enter the entire e-mail address, such as username@yahoo.com. Others require just the user name before the @ sign. Try both.
Finally, if others use your computer, clear the check sign next to “Remember password.” You’ll have to enter your password each time you check your e-mail. But at least you know you’ll be the only one reading it. Click Next and Finish.
Once set up, all of your messages will be downloaded to your computer.
But that defeats the flexibility of Web mail – accessing your e-mail through any computer with an Internet connection. Fortunately, you can download messages to your computer and still access copies of them through the Web.
