How to use Mail

[Francine Eisner]

Hi -

I have Panther (OS 10.3.9), which comes with the "Mail" application and I see that I have an email address set up, francineeisner@mac.com. Can anyone tell me how to use this application? It doesn't recognize my password (which I checked on keychain), and btw is it free to use or is there a monthly cost? The help menu says that I may have to call my ISP for the online access password, which must be the same as the other one, which I use for just about everything but I keep getting a password prompt. This doesn't make sense, as I am the administrator and the only user.

Any advice would be welcome...

Cheers,
Francine

The Mac Gardener

[Paddy]

Francine, Mail is an email client like any other email client (Outlook Express on a PC, Thunderbird, Entourage, etc.). You don't need to pay anything to use it, but you do have to have an ISP and you do need to enter the correct information in order to access your existing email accounts - whether through your ISP or in something like gmail, etc.

Mac.com has now become MobileMe, and it is NOT free at $99/yr. Have you continued to pay for a Mac.com/MobileMe account? You can get trial accounts - but unless you plan to use all the features of MobileMe, why bother?

So, if you don't pay for it, then you don't have an active, working mac.com email account. In order to use Mail, you need a valid email account, and you need to enter that information in the Accounts section of the Mail preferences. How are you currently getting your email? Are you using browser-based email? Most ISPs offer that and some people do use it exclusively. However, your email is not stored on your own machine that way and you're completely at the mercy of your ISP should anything go wrong. I prefer to keep my mail locally, so I have always used an email client, though use browser-based email when I am traveling, when it's very handy. It all gets downloaded to my Mac when I get home.

BTW - this has nothing to do with whether or not you're the administrator/only user.

[Francine Eisner]

Sorry Paddy - my question remains unanswered. There is info in the Accounts page of Mail Preferences but this doesn't seem to matter, as I get a prompt to put in my password. I looked it up in the keychain, so what I put in should work but it doesn't. Also - I shouldn't even get a prompt if the password field is filled in Preferences - that's the point of putting it in.

I am interested in getting this to work because - like you said - it's a good idea to have a mail client on your computer instead of hoping and praying that the Yahoo servers remain patent.

Francine

The Mac Gardener

[Paddy]

But Francine, you said that you had an email account "already set up" - a Mac.com account. Is this the account you're trying to use? If you don't PAY for Mac.com, you don't HAVE a Mac.com account, and when Mail attempts to retrieve mail for you using this address, it doesn't work - no matter how many times or in what way you fill in the password. It uses both the user id and the pw to connect to the mac.com/me.com mail server and they have to belong to a real, working account. It's trying, but there is no account, so it re-prompts you for the PW, in case that's incorrect.

If you DO have a Mac.com/MobileMe account, please let us know. The settings for that are here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2296 (You are supposed to be able to use 10.3.9 for mail with MobileMe - though it doesn't appear that way in this set of instructions!)

Now, if it's some OTHER email account that you're trying to use, you have to set it all up, using your ISP's info/directions, not something you already have in there with mac.com info.

So what, exactly, are you attempting to do? What email addy, what ISP?

[Francine Eisner]

Thanks, Paddy - the situation is now a bit less murky.

Here's the story:
Since I upgraded to Panther I haven't had a working email client app on my Mac; I just use webmail. Sometimes the Yahoo servers go down, and this scares me. I can't use Outlook Express anymore, as it was constantly breaking down and apparently isn't supported for OS X.

The necessary task:
I would like to archive my Yahoo messages to an email client that is physically on my computer.

w/re to mac.com, I must have put data in when prompted at the time I did a system upgrade. I never paid for it, and you've given me an explanation for the repeated prompt...!

So - Is there a free email client you can recommend? If so, what will I need to do? What information, if any, will I need from my ISP to set this up?

Fran


The Mac Gardener

QUOTE(Paddy @ Jan 21 2009, 04:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But Francine, you said that you had an email account "already set up" - a Mac.com account. Is this the account you're trying to use? If you don't PAY for Mac.com, you don't HAVE a Mac.com account, and when Mail attempts to retrieve mail for you using this address, it doesn't work - no matter how many times or in what way you fill in the password. It uses both the user id and the pw to connect to the mac.com/me.com mail server and they have to belong to a real, working account. It's trying, but there is no account, so it re-prompts you for the PW, in case that's incorrect.

If you DO have a Mac.com/MobileMe account, please let us know. The settings for that are here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2296 (You are supposed to be able to use 10.3.9 for mail with MobileMe - though it doesn't appear that way in this set of instructions!)

Now, if it's some OTHER email account that you're trying to use, you have to set it all up, using your ISP's info/directions, not something you already have in there with mac.com info.

So what, exactly, are you attempting to do? What email addy, what ISP?

[Paddy]

Unfortunately, unless you want to pay $19.99/yr for Yahoo Mail Plus, you cannot use an email client with a Yahoo account, so you will need to open another account.

First off, you should have a primary email account with your ISP (Comcast or Verizon or whoever you are using) which you can use with Mail. If you don't want to do that, then you can use GMail, which does have the option of POP/IMAP email. BTW - I prefer POP email, because I keep a lot of email, and don't want the possibility of a failure on gmail or any other server to wipe out my mail locally, since IMAP keeps things synchronized. However, others like IMAP, especially if they're working from all over.

For gmail, just go to http://mail.google.com and get yourself an account.

Then to set it up so that you can access the email with Mail, see the instructions here:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer....mp;answer=13273

Other options besides gmail: http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews..._pop3_email.htm

[Xairbusdriver]

Francine, "Mail" is free, it comes with every version of OS X, it is upgraded free via Software Update or by going to Apple's Downloads area. "Mail" is simply a program that will allow you to access any and every email account you might ever have or want, no matter who it is with. And, of course, it will allow you to send emails to anyone for whom you have an address. The advantage of "Mail" over any other program, is that it 'knows' about Address Book and iCal (both also free from Apple) and can communicate with them to keep all the same information in each one up-to-date, without having to copy/paste. All other email programs, even web-based allow you to have an 'address book' and maybe even a calendar, and some of them may even 'talk' to one another, but they are either clunky, pay to use or don't keep the info on your own drive. Entourage for Mac does all that, also, I guess. So if you want to keep using MS apps, that should work for you. It is not free, of course.

But no matter how you get or read your email, you will have to be paying someone, somehow. It may be only by letting them read every thing you send or receive as with GMail or Yahoo (ads?!). But you surely have an email account with whoever gives you access to the Internet. I've never heard of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) having a plan that did not include at least one email account. Perhaps there is one, however. But whoever your ISP is will be charging you a certain amount each month. Part of what you are paying for is a certain amount of email storage space and most of the rest is simply for connecting you to the Internet. That is where the cost comes in, accessing the Internet, not the Apple program called "Mail." It is unfortunate, IMHO, that it even has that name. It is confusing to use a word that has an already established, widespread use for any application or program. OTOH, I'm not sure what "Outlook" even with "Express" added has to do with email. Nor does "Entourage" have any connotations, for me anyway, of any kind of communicating, much less emailing.

So, finally, one question remains unanswered: Who is your ISP? Who do you pay regularly for your access to the Internet?