Need help setting up email account for my Mac

Factual Questions
1

First let me apologize profusely for posting so many “help me” types of posts in this otherwise upbeat, wonderful place. After this one all will be fine … as global warming will correct itself and the crop-circle mystery will be solved as a result, too, I’m sure. :smiley: (Forgive my weak effort at humor; I always try to be “funny” when I feel foolish and guilty about something.)

My computer is a Mac OS X version 10.4.7.

I got it about a month ago and since then have been wanting to set it up so that I can be at a site and email whomever it is that I want to say something to. I tried following the simple steps but hit a snag when I try to answer User Name and Password.

When I was picking the thing up at CompUSA, the guy had me run through a bunch of quick questions as well as getting me setup with a Yahoo email account. But when I got home and entered the Password for the “Administrator,” as well as the User Name, the mean little icon shot back and told me I’d made an error. Grrrrr.

I tried to resolve things by means of using Apple’s online support, but always ran into a snag there, as well. A couple of hours ago I called their tech support and the fellow asked me to contact Yahoo and get from them the Incoming Server Name and the Outgoing Server Name, and then to call him back (as then we’d do a couple of more things and I’d be good to go).

Well, when the tech guy hungup, I clicked the Yahoo icon to get said info and was informed that it would cost me $29.00. And so because I’m a dirt-poor fellow (but not cheap), I would very much like to find some other method of doing what I would think should be a simple and painless task – set this machine up with an email account.

If it wasn’t for knowing that there are BILLIONS of my fellow human beings on this planet going through far worse head aches than me (over this), I think I’d start crying some real tears. This whole things is giving me brain cramps, and so I could sure use some solid advice on what to do from here. :slight_smile:

I’d call Apple’s tech support back and tell them about not being able to afford Yahoo’s help to disclose the answers I need, but my cordless phone has run too low due to having to wait 10-minutes for them to start talking with me. It has to recharge for at least 24-hours before it’s ready to go again, I’m sure.

Well, Friends, there you have it. I’m sorry for coming off as a whiner, but I hope to make up for it down the road by providing some solid answers to people that post around here, in those instances when I can be of some help. :wink:

Thanks!!!

2

Crap… Sorry, that was bogus. I’ll keep looking.

3

I’m kind of unclear as to what you want to do. I’m guessing you want to set up a POP3 account and send and receive email using the Mail program, right? Yahoo will not allow you to access POP mail without a subscription to Yahoo Mail Plus.

One of these email services should be able to help you.

4

I have no idea what you’re talking about. You listed the problem in two sentences and gave a pretty long description of all the stuff you went through to fix it.

Questions? Adminstrator? You can’t log into your Mac? Or is it your email?

You want to send emails on site? How would this be any different from doing so at home? What are you trying to do?

Well, despite it all, I’m going to tell you how to set it up.

go to www.gmail.com and set up an account. They allow free POP access, this is what you’re looking for.
Follow the easy instructions to set it up for use with Mac Mail when you can log in over the website

That’s it.

5

pulykamell –

Thanks for the reply and the link!!

All I want to be able to do is to go to any website out there and be able to email them and receive email. That’s it.

Currently, I don’t have this machine set up to do that. I tried to go through the steps but am asked for my User Name and Password, neither of which I seem to have (as the icon always tell me to try again). I don’t know what POP3 is, but I see they want $49.00 a year. It wouldn’t make sense for me to shell out money when I should be able to simply do what a million other people do on their machines, i.e. send and receive email for free.

6

Benny,

Just follow the instructions I posted. It will do exactly what you want. Use gmail. It’s free and you can set it up the way you want with the second link I gave you.

7

Well, there are two ways to access your e-mail - through a web browser (web-based email), or through a separate e-mail client. They are not mutually exclusive, but for a new user a separate client is probably much easier to use.

Unfortunately, as you’ve discovered, Yahoo only offers web access for free.

Google, on the other hand, lets you access their email service either way for free. If you go to Gmail.com and click “Sign Up for Gmail”, you will be able to follow the instructions in the link below to access it using Apple’s desktop e-mail program.

You can also access Gmail over the web, so if you’re visiting a friends house or something you will still be able to check your email.

It is likely that your ISP also offers some kind of email service, but with Gmail you won’t have to switch addresses when you change ISPs.

8

I think he wants to click the mailto: links on websites and such, which doesn’t work with webmail (not without plugins)

9

Thank you guys!

I took a quick glance at the Gmail. It looks a little complicated, but I’ll definately give it a good look-over and see if I can figure out things. It’ll be nice to write email and even do so at websites!

Thanks a million!!!:slight_smile:

10

Actually, using Safari 2.0.4, and with a gmail account, any email address link I click on opens up the gmail compose page. I don’t have any plugins, it just works. I have no idea how.

11

Thanks Lambo, I’ll check it out and get it set up soon (when I’m not quite as tired:-).

12

Unless you’re using a web-based service like Yahoo or Hotmail, I think most of us are paying for email one way or another (usually through our internet service providers).

It’s good to know that Gmail allows POP access for free. I did not know that.

13

Yep, google is the bees knees.

Free POP email. How freaking cool is that? It almost seems like a charity operation

14

Here I am again with another stupid question … but exactly what makes this “POP” email the bee’s knee???

Again, THANKS!!

15

The “free” part is the bee’s knees. POP e-mail is pretty standard - what’s nice about having a POP server set up is that you can use an e-mail client (such as Mail on the Macintosh) to send/read e-mails, instead of having to use the webpage. Typically client e-mail programs have more features than the web interfaces.

And by the way, the company that you pay for internet access probably gives you an e-mail address too.

16

Thanks, Arnold.:slight_smile:

17

I recently switched to a Mac and encountered the same problem. Being computer literate (think 5th grade reading level) and not an expert, I took the easy way out and signed up for .Mac. It was only $99 a year and if you are a computer geek and make good use of the internet it is worthwhile. Me, I’m just an idiot and got it so that setting up my email would be easier. And not to take away from the illustrious members of the SDMB, you can use the message boards at Mac.com. You just click on support–>groups–>discussion. Then you have access to millions of Mac users and Apple technicians who might be able to help you.

18

It might seem complicated, RedFrost, but it’s really not. I went from Eudora on the Macintosh to Mail, (and have also set up Eudora on my wife’s Windows machine), and after the initial learning curve, it’s really not all that difficult. For example, using Mail on the Macintosh, I have five or six pop e-mail accounts set up (for various mailing lists, some “anonymous” e-mail accounts to sign up for websites, a personal one for friends and family, etc.) Pretty much the minimum values you need to know are:
incoming mail server (usually of the form “pop.company.com”)
outgoing mail server (usually of the form “smtp.company.com” or “mail.company.com”)
the username / password for the incoming mail server

Enter those 4 values in the appropriate fields, and you’re set!

There might be a “reply-to” field, leave that blank, by default it should be the same as your outgoing e-mail address (e.g. my e-mail address is “awinkelried@earthlink.net”, the reply-to field would be the same)

19

Wow! This is great to hear!! I say that because I bought .Mac when I bought the machine.

I was intending to see if I could return it because the stuff mentioned on the back of the box – publish a website, photocast, etc. – didn’t seem like anything I was interested in. In fact, I thought I’d been snookered by the salesman because I’d mentioned something about wanting to write a book and so, from what I could tell (by reading the back of the box), it didn’t apply in that regard. At least now I’m glad to hear that there may be more to it than what I’d thought! (Now I just hope that it’s simple enough for a sap like me to set it up and make it work.)

Thanks!! :slight_smile:

20

Why didn’t you tell us you have a .Mac account? Here’s what you do:

Start up your Mail program.

Go to File > Add Account

Make sure “Account Type” says “.Mac”
Enter all your information. You should have an USERNAME@.mac email address, as well as a password if you’ve got a .Mac account set up. If you don’t know your username and password, talk to the salesman who signed you up for a .Mac account.

You should then be up and running.