Access to Your Internet E-mail from Anywhere
It is possible to check your Internet POP e-mail from any computer with Web access. Check out: http://www.excite.com/ which will allow users to set up a WEB based e-mail account which can be used to access work or home POP e-mail from any computer via the WEB. These instructions should help you set-up your own account.
Excite Mail is similar to:
ADVANTAGES of WEB e-mail
It is possible to check your Internet POP e-mail accounts from any computer with WEB access, using a properly set-up WEB e-mail account.
There are also advantages to using a WEB based e-mail account and ignoring the usual POP e-mail account provided by Internet Service Providers (ISP). WEB e-mail can be accessed from any web browser from anywhere in the world. Also, the WEB e-mail account address will not change if you change your ISP.
Another big advantage of WEB e-mail is that it is free. It does not require that you have an account with an ISP (which usually costs about $20 to $30 per month) as long as you have access to the WEB from a library, work, or friend's account. A down side is that there is usually a limit on the e-mail storage space available. Another downside is the small advertisments you will see on your screen.
SET-UP of a WEB e-mail ACCOUNT
I use Excite Mail http://www.excite.com/ and these instructions apply to it.
One must first subscribe to their WEB based e-mail service, that is, get a (FREE) e-mail account on their system. (This involves a short questionnaire.)
Go to this site with a web browser. Click on 'New member sign up'.
You will need to create a 'username' for your account which can be any name you can remember. Try "firstname_lastname" with an underscore as a good first choice as a username.
Your e-mail address will then be in the form:
A password for your Excite Mail account IS also required. Create one which you can remember. For security, it should NOT be the same as the password for your home or work POP e-mail accounts.
You are now have your own WEB e-mail account.
Login to your Excite Mail account
Click on 'Check Email' from the Excite.com home page. Be sure to click on 'Sign out' when to log-out when you are done with e-mail. This is for security.
E-mail Preferences
Setting of e-mail preferences should be done the first
time you access your account. From the Excite Mail Inbox mail folder,
click on 'Email Preferences' and 'Set up your signature'. This signature,
actually your name and address information, will be appended to out-going
e-mail.
Other options like saving copies of outgoing e-mail can be selected as well within e-mail preferences.
Set-up of POP e-mail Access
If you wish to set-up access to POP e-mail accounts,
then this can be done now as well. You can set-up your POP e-mail
account(s) so you can read any new e-mail on your POP e-mail account servers.
(Work, home, etc. accounts can be set-up.)
Click 'Preferences' button and then the 'POP Mail Accounts' button.
While filling in the particulars for your POP account, it is necessary to enter the actual POP Mail Server domain name. The POP Server is the name of the server on which the E-mail for this account is stored. Part of this name usually appears to the right of the '@' sign in the E-mail address. For example, if your E-mail address is: john@net.com, your POP Server name might be: net.com, mail.net.com or something similar, but this is not always the case.
An e-mail 'alias' which is in the form "username@Company.com" will often not work as the account (POP Server) because it is often not recognized by the provider e-mail server computer. The 'alias' is handled separately by another 'Internet' computer which causes e-mail to be redirected from the "Company.com" address to the real e-mail address.
It is also necessary to enter the actual Internet account Username on the POP Server (usually the same as your Username). The Username is usually the name appearing to the left of the '@' sign in the E-mail address (example: john in john@net.com), but this is not always the case.
Also enter the actual Internet account Password (your password). This is the normal password associated with the POP e-mail account.
Select 'Leave Mail on Server'.
I suggest that 'Select Leave mail on server' button be
chosen. This will leave the e-mail on the server so it can be downloaded
later to your 'home or work' computer in the normal manner. The downside
of this is that the same messages can be downloaded again by clicking on
the Excite Mail 'Check POP mail' button if they have not been 'read' by
your 'home or work' computer in the normal manner in the meantime.
That is, the same message will appear in your Excite Mail Inbox more than
once if they have not been read and removed from the server using your
normal e-mail application.
You are now set-up to access your POP e-mail from anywhere in the world.
Checking Your POP E-Mail
To check your POP e-mail, click on the 'Check POP mail'
button from the Excite Inbox. All unread POP e-mail from all set-up
accounts will be transferred to your Excite Mail Inbox folder.
Problem, Multiple E-mails
A small problem may occur if you use the 'Back' button
on your browser to return to you Excite Mail Inbox after reading an e-mail
message. It will sometimes cause extra copies of your POP e-mail
to appear in your Inbox. Use the button labelled 'Inbox' to return
to the Inbox e-mail folder to prevent this problem.
Home and Work Computers
To access your e-mail from the Mail Excite web site,
it is necessary to turn off your Work and Home e-mail applications, or
to leave your work and home computers switched off. If the e-mail
application on your work computer is able to access e-mail it will download
it, removing it from the from the ISP POP e-mail server (computer) and
it will no longer be accessible to you via Excite Mail. The same
is true of your home and other POP e-mail accounts. So, close down
your e-mail applications when you travel.
I use http://www.excite.com/ to check my work e-mail from home or both e-mail accounts when I am travelling.
MAIL START
Another service which does not require 'registering' is
Mail Start http://www.mailstart.com/.
But here you must enter your POP mail login information
each time you log on to the site. I do not use this.
I hope this is useful to you.
Paul
Revised V10
January 9, 2000
POP or POP3 = Post Office Protocol, a popular e-mail protocol.