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How to Tame the Gmail Beast
by Aaron Smith on Wednesday, December 12 2007Are you tired of switching service providers, then having to update a bazillion people with your new email address, only to have to switch providers again in a month, then having to update a bazillion people with your new email address? Enough is enough. Get a Gmail account, and stop that silliness. "But," I can hear you saying already. "Gmail isn't accessible. I can't figure out how to navigate the inbox." Maybe that's true, and maybe you haven't really tried. But no bother. You can set up Gmail to use POP3 or IMAP access instead of the standard (or basic, for that matter) web interface. That means you get to use the email client of your choice (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc.) to read your Gmail email.
Using POP3, after downloading your email, the messages are removed from the Gmail server. When you create folders for storing mail in your email client, those folders will be on your machine, and not on the Gmail server. Using IMAP, after downloading your email, the messages remain on the Gmail server (unless you choose to delete them using your preferred email client). When you create folders for storing mail in your email client, those folders will be replicated on the Gmail server. The advantage of IMAP is being able to retrieve your mail on any machine using a standard email client. The advantage of POP3 is being able to maintain your emails on your own machine without storing them remotely. The decision of which protocol to use is completely up to you.
So let's get on with it before you have to change providers again. Go to www.gmail.com. Select the Sign up for Gmail link. Fill out the form. If you want to check the availability of your desired login name, you will need to refresh the Browse mode buffer after selecting the check availability button. If your desired name is already taken, you can select one of the alternative names using the provided radio buttons, or you can re-enter a new desired login name in the appropriate edit box.
When you get to the edit box that says, "Type the letter you see or the numbers you hear," tab once to the "Listen and type the numbers you hear" link and press enter. Listen to the characters as they're spoken, then type them into the appropriate edit box.
When you're done with the form, and have reviewed it for accuracy, select the "I accept. Create my account" button.
When you've completed your signup, you'll be presented with an Introduction page. Select the "I'm ready - show me my account" link to log into your newly created account.
Regardless of which method you do choose, you can setup your Gmail account for POP3 or IMAP service by selecting the Settings link. On the settings page, arrow to the line that says, "Forwarding and POP/IMAP". Route your mouse to the text using INS-NUMPAD-PLUS, then click with the NUMPAD-SLASH key. Reload the Browse mode buffer to get the contents of the dynamically generated page. To use POP3, press C until you reach the radio button titled, "Enable POP for all mail" and press SPACE to select it. To use IMAP, press C until you reach the radio button titled, "Enable IMAP" and press SPACE to select it. Note that you can choose to enable both POP and IMAP at the same time. Which method you actually use will depend on how you configure your email client. Press C until you reach the Save Changes button. Route your mouse to the button with INS-NUMPAD-PLUS, then click with the NUMPAD-SLASH key.
At this point, you are done using the web based Gmail interface to set up your email for POP and/or IMAP access. Now you need to decide which email client you want to use for checking your Gmail email.
Personally, I prefer Thunderbird, and currently have my copy set up to access my Gmail account using IMAP. Thunderbird has a version that can run off a USB stick, meaning I have access to my Gmail account anywhere I go that has Internet access without having to use a browser. That means I can check my mail at the library without having to use a library browser, meaning my mail never touches the library machine, meaning little 13-year old Tommy who likes to hack the library computers will never get access to my email.
But for the sake of inclusiveness I'm going to show you how to set up Outlook Express, because it exists on pretty much any Windows machine. These same steps will also apply to Windows Mail if you're using Windows Vista. I'm also going to show you how to set up Outlook Express (or Windows Mail) for IMAP, because I believe having your email stored remotely provides a good backup solution in case something happens to your machine.
Fire up Outlook Express or Windows Mail. In the Tools menu, select the Accounts option. In the Internet Accounts dialog, select the Add button, then select Email (or Email Account). Enter a display name, and press ENTER. Enter your full Gmail email address, and press ENTER. Select IMAP from the server type combo box. In the edit box asking for the incoming POP3 or IMAP server, enter imap.gmail.com. In the edit box asking for the outgoing SMTP server, enter smtp.gmail.com. Press ENTER. In the account name edit box, enter your full Gmail email address, and then put your password in the password edit box. Press ENTER, answering any other preference questions along the way, until you get back to your list of accounts. In the list of accounts, select the Gmail entry, then TAB to and select the Properties button. Press SHIFT-TAB to get to the tab controls, then arrow right until you select the Advanced tab. Among the controls in this dialog are an edit box for the SMTP server port, and edit box for the IMAP server port, and two check boxes that says, "This server requires a secure connection (SSL)." In the outgoing/SMTP port edit box, change the number from 25 to 465. In the incoming/IMAP port edit box, change the number from 143 to 993. Finally, make sure both secure SSL check boxes are checked. SHIFT-TAB back to the tab controls, and arrow left until you select the Servers tab. TAB to the check box titled, "My server requires authentication," and press SPACE to check it. Press ENTER to go back to the Accounts list. TAB to Close and press ENTER. If you're prompted to refresh your folder list, select the Yes button. Otherwise, press CTRL-M to check for new mail. Once the folder/mail synchronization has completed, you can TAB over to your folder list. In addition to your local folders, you'll find a node in the tree view called imap.gmail.com, which contains an Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items, and so on. These are your Gmail folders.
If you've got the legs to do it, now would be a good time to jump for joy, because you're all done.
There may be more IMAP configuration options in Outlook Express or Windows Mail. I know Thunderbird has them, so take some time to familiarize yourself with options and preferences in your preferred email client. If you want to know more about IMAP, check out The IMAP Connection. If you're interested in the other clients that support Gmail IMAP, and their configuration options, check out the Gmail Supported IMAP client list. If you're interested in the clients that support Gmail POP3, and their configuration options, check out the Gmail Supported POP client list.
Oh, and don't forget to update those bazillion people one last time.
