# Checking email via POP3 via the web. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 5, 2003, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901 "2003-02-05T06:50:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wooba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/aeb1de/32.png) [@wooba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wooba)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/1 "2003-02-05T06:50:27Z")
Is there any way that I can check email from a POP3 server on the web without using a service such as hotmail (they are all blocked) or downloading directly to outlook from the POP3 server? I’d love to be able to check my email while at work 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/2 "2003-02-05T06:58:54Z")
I can read email sent to my [yahoo.com](http://yahoo.com) addy via my PCS phone… Does that help? ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/3 "2003-02-05T07:02:37Z")
Check out the homepage of your ISP; most that I’ve seen have functions that let you do just that. I also know of [www.pop3now.com](http://www.pop3now.com), which used to be free, but it seems they’re now charging $5/year. But it works well, and it sounds like it does exactly what you want. I’m sure there are other services out there, too, probably some for free. So, to answer your question, yes, there are ways. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/4 "2003-02-05T07:04:03Z")
Crap, screwed up that url. It should be [pop3now](http://www.pop3now.com). ---
**Author:** ![skaterboarder87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@skaterboarder87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skaterboarder87)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/5 "2003-02-05T07:08:58Z")
The best and most straight forward site to do this at is: [www.mail2web.com](http://www.mail2web.com) Fantastic site. ---
**Author:** ![Caldazar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Caldazar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caldazar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/6 "2003-02-05T08:28:20Z")
Well, if you know the POP3 commands, you can telnet into your email server on port 110 to check your email. You can compose messages too by connecting to port 25 of the email server, although I don’t really recommend trying to draft emails this way since it’s rather clunky to pull off. ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/7 "2003-02-05T13:43:54Z")
I will second the suggestion for [www.mail2web.com](http://www.mail2web.com). You can choose to log in securely, and I’m confident that my address info has never been passed on to spammers. By the way, simply reading your email through mail2web won’t move messages off your POP3 server… but if you delete a message while you’re in mail2web, the message WILL be permanently removed from the server. I actually find this feature handy when I’m traveling - this way, I can get rid of stuff I’m not interested in, and only download the more important messages once I’m back home. ---
**Author:** ![richardb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/96bed5/32.png) [@richardb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richardb)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/8 "2003-02-09T02:29:28Z")
Another good site for POP or web eMail: www.fastmail.fm ---
**Author:** ![milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/checking-email-via-pop3-via-the-web/152901/9 "2003-02-09T04:31:54Z")
If your home pc is or can be permanently connected to the internet (eg cable or dsl) you can sidestep the whole issue and just control your home pc remotely from work (or anywhere else with an internet connection) via a web browser. You could then simply run your usual mail client or just about anything else you normally use on that computer. It’s almost like havng your home computer with you at the office. Check out [TightVNC](http://www.tightvnc.com/) (or pcanywhere or radmin). Note there are security issues that must be dealt with in going this route (just like anything else on the net). As far as the kind of service you asked about, a very good one is [uReach](http://www.ureach.com). uReach has a few plans ranging from free to a max of 7 bucks a month. I think for 4 bucks a month you can check up to 5 pop accounts (and do tons of other things with phone, fax and email).