Originally posted by blhowes
Thanks, Fred. I'll give it a try in the morning. (fatique is setting in)
I'm new to this POP3 and SMPT stuff, so bare with me. Would something like
Cashette do the same thing as what you linked to for hotmail as well as yahoo?
Bob
No. Let me try and explain without burying you in details.
There are three main types of email protocols (how you get the emails to your computer): POP3, HTTP, and IMAP. Let's leave IMAP out of this, since basically only companies use it. It is more secure, but difficult to configure and use for the average user. I have an IMAP account for work an it is very difficult to get my email using an email client (Outlook, Eudora or Thunderbird).
HTTP protocols are used by the big free email providers - Hotmail, MSN, and Yahoo. These are entirely web based. The normal way to read http email is using a web browser. You cannot normally "download" the emails to your computer. They stay "online" on the provider's server. The good news: you can get the emails from any computer, and a computer crash doesn't lose them. The bad news: you have to have internet access to even read old emails.
POP3 protocol is the normal protocol for ISPs. It allows you to retrieve emails from the server to your computer. It is used by all the main email programs (Outlook, Eudora, Thunderbird, the Bat!, etc). You can set your program to either remove it from the server completely (a must if you do not have much space on the server), or to leave a copy there. POP3 is much more vesitile than HTTP.
So the thing that people try and do is to get HTTP emails to their computer using a POP3 type program. Hence bridge programs like YahooPops. It "transforms" an HTTP account into a POP3 one by running in the background. There are other programs out there, but I have tried almost everyone, and they are not very good. There was a Hotmail version of YahooPops called Hot Popper that worked well, until MSN/Hotmail changed the interface and inserted a validation script. Hotmail is pretty much impossible to get using a POP3 emulator now. MSN said that it was to prevent spammers, but I also think they want the $20 per year to make Hotmail a POP3 service. (Hotmail is not nearly as good or large as Yahoo or Gmail).
Gmail can do automatically what Yahoo and Hotmail need bridges for. So if you wanted a free web based account that would work well in Outlook, the choice would be Gmail hands down. I have both, and because Yahoo was my primary account for a year or more before Gmail came out, I am kind of stuck using it.
I highly advise the use of these types of accounts, even if you have an ISP (I use Earthlink, for example). This way if you move, or change ISPs (find a cheaper one) you don't have to constantly update your email.
The program you referenced appears to be a kind of email consolidater. It says that you can POP your yahoo and hotmail accounts. I don't know if that means it does the POPing or if you have to find a way to get the emails over to Cashette before you POP Cashette. I'll look closer at it tonight.
