Please Help With ISP/Mac Mail Question

[bobw]

Take a look at these and see if they help;

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/18189

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14848

[Amie]

Originally Posted by nixgeek

As far as I know, you can only use the web-based e-mail for the free accounts. There is no way to set up an e-mail program like Mail to receive e-mail from free Hotmail accounts. For that, you would have to pay and that would give you POP3 e-mail access which you can configure on Mail. Same goes for Yahoo also. This has been like this for years now.

Well, that sucks.

My only reason for wanting to activate the Mail application that came with my laptop is for checking my e-mail while not connected to the Internet.

[bobw]

Why do you think you could have Mail check for your mail when not connected to the Internet?
Doesn't work that way. You have to be connected to check and retrieve your Mail, just as you would to go to a web page.

[Amie]

Originally Posted by HateEternal

RIght, with the free hotmail service you can only access it to from the webpage hotmail.com.

I am kind of confused by the post that you made, when you aren't connected to the internet you wont be able to get any new email, if you did setup mail with something like GMail you could always look at old messages when you aren't on the internet but you wouldn't be able to get new ones.

Ahhhh. See, I did NOT know that! From what I understood about Mail, you can read NEW e-mail messages if you have a POP or IMAP account and Mail retrieves your e-mail through the server (e.g., Mail would go through my server and retrieve new mail messages from my Hotmail account and display them in my Mail inbox while not connected to the Internet).

So, thanks for explaining. Apparently, someone misled me.

[Amie]

Originally Posted by lbj

Also Amie, while you make it very clear that you use T-Mobile only as an ISP and hotmail only as an email service provider, the reality is that you are very likely also paying for an email account via T-mobile. Nearly every ISP provides free email for its paying members (there are exceptions).

I see three choices:
1--use Safari to check your email via hotmail.com
2--ask T-Mobile if in fact you are entitled to an email account with them
3--get a gmail account (10 times better than hotmail) which you can access via browser and Mail

Does that make sense?

Sure, that makes sense. But the only reason I have Hotmail is because I've had that account (which is totally free) for many years. And I just recently signed up with T-Mobile as my ISP. So, rather than change to T-Mobile's free e-mail account for its members, I just kept my old Hotmail account. Less confusing that way!

[Amie]

Originally Posted by bobw

Why do you think you could have Mail check for your mail when not connected to the Internet?
Doesn't work that way. You have to be connected to check and retrieve your Mail, just as you would to go to a web page.

See my reply to HateEternal. That's why.

[lbj]

Originally Posted by Amie

Ahhhh. See, I did NOT know that! From what I understood about Mail, you can read NEW e-mail messages if you have a POP or IMAP account and Mail retrieves your e-mail through the server (e.g., Mail would go through my server and retrieve new mail messages from my Hotmail account and display them in my Mail inbox while not connected to the Internet).

So, thanks for explaining. Apparently, someone misled me.

Hey now, we may be getting somewhere.

Seems like some of the confusion arises from our individual interpretation of terminology.

Yes, Mail can retrieve your email through the server even when you are not "on the internet", if by that, you mean not actively using a browser. But you are still "on the internet" if you are accessing T-Mobile's server. I think this is where the confusion arises:
You are thinking that Mail accessing the server which then accesses Hotmail is not an active "on the internet" process; but it is.

Have you checked into upgrading your Hotmail? May not cost much, all depends on what your Hotmail address is worth.

Also, check out the links posted above. They did not work for me when I tried to set up my wife's email, but you may have different luck.

[Amie]

Originally Posted by lbj

Hey now, we may be getting somewhere.

Seems like some of the confusion arises from our individual interpretation of terminology.

Yes, Mail can retrieve your email through the server even when you are not "on the internet", if by that, you mean not actively using a browser. But you are still "on the internet" if you are accessing T-Mobile's server. I think this is where the confusion arises:
You are thinking that Mail accessing the server which then accesses Hotmail is not an active "on the internet" process; but it is.

Have you checked into upgrading your Hotmail? May not cost much, all depends on what your Hotmail address is worth.

Also, check out the links posted above. They did not work for me when I tried to set up my wife's email, but you may have different luck.

First of all, I think you forgot to post the links. LOL

Secondly, this is really confusing, interpretation of terminology and all. So, let me rephrase my original question: Is it possible for me to receive/read new e-mail messages via Mail by having the messages imported/transferred via my Hotmail account to my Mail account while NOT connected (i.e., not using T-Mobile) to the Internet?

...or is that just MORE confusing? LOL