Please Help With ISP/Mac Mail Question

Amie

Mac Convert for Life
I'm trying to get my Mail (the application that came with my iBook) set up. I don't have a .Mac account nor do I want one. From what I understand, I don't need one in order to activate/use Mail. Now, when I went into Mail to create my new account, it askes me questions like POP or IMAP and ... "smtp." server and go get information from my ISP about which server my Internet mail (I use Hotmail) would be coming from into my Mac Mail. So, I contacted my ISP (T-Mobile) and asked them to provide more information about which e-mail services they support through Hotmail.

Did I do the right thing ... or should I be contacting Hotmail/MSN instead? I'm confused...
 
Are you paying for hotmail service?

If you are just doing free service you can only access hotmail through the web site. If you are paying then you can setup mail to use it. If this is the case, the information should be on their website, if you can't find it call Hotmail, not your ISP.

If you aren't paying and would like a free mail service that you can check with mail you could try gmail. www.gmail.com

if you need an invite to sign up I should have some, let me know.
 
Amie said:
I'm trying to get my Mail (the application that came with my iBook) set up. I don't have a .Mac account nor do I want one. From what I understand, I don't need one in order to activate/use Mail. Now, when I went into Mail to create my new account, it askes me questions like POP or IMAP and ... "smtp." server and go get information from my ISP about which server my Internet mail (I use Hotmail) would be coming from into my Mac Mail. So, I contacted my ISP (T-Mobile) and asked them to provide more information about which e-mail services they support through Hotmail.

Did I do the right thing ... or should I be contacting Hotmail/MSN instead? I'm confused...
Hotmail is primarily a webmail service. However, there is a plugin that allows you to use Mail to access Hotmail. But, look--T-Nobile is your ISP. You have an email account as part of your subscription. You should be asking T-Mobile for the IMAP or POP3 settings for your T-Mobile account. You can probably get this information if you log into T-Mobile's website.
 
HateEternal said:
Are you paying for hotmail service?

If you are just doing free service you can only access hotmail through the web site. If you are paying then you can setup mail to use it. If this is the case, the information should be on their website, if you can't find it call Hotmail, not your ISP.

If you aren't paying and would like a free mail service that you can check with mail you could try gmail. www.gmail.com

if you need an invite to sign up I should have some, let me know.

I use Hotmail as my Internet mail. It's a free e-mail service. But my iBook came with a Mail application and I'd like to set it up so that I can retrieve my e-mail from Hotmail via Mail while I'm NOT connected to the Internet. Does this makes sense? Anyway, I'm confused about what I need to do and who I need to contact. When I go into the Mail application and click on "Create New Account," it asks some questions that can only be answered by my ISP (which is T-Mobile, and, yes, I pay for that). I just don't know the answers to all the Mail questions, so I'm stuck and can't set up my Mail account.
 
MisterMe said:
Hotmail is primarily a webmail service. However, there is a plugin that allows you to use Mail to access Hotmail. But, look--T-Nobile is your ISP. You have an email account as part of your subscription. You should be asking T-Mobile for the IMAP or POP3 settings for your T-Mobile account. You can probably get this information if you log into T-Mobile's website.

No, no ... see, T-Mobile is my ISP (for wireless service on my laptop), not my e-mail provider. I don't have an e-mail account with T-Mobile. I use Hotmail, which is a free e-mail service, totally unrelated to T-Mobile. T-Mobile simply provides the Internet access service. See?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
nixgeek said:
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.
 
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.
 
HateEternal said:
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.
 
lbj said:
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!
 
bobw said:
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. :(
 
Amie said:
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.
 
lbj said:
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
 
No, that's not possible. You can only read/retrieve your mail while connected to the Internet, regardless of what you use to get mail.
 
Amie said:
First of all, I think you forgot to post the links. LOL

I was referring to the links Bob posted regarding VersionTracker apps. Check several responses above.


Amie said:
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?

No.
 
This is by far the most confusing post I have read thus far in my limited experience with macosx.com. I must say it was quite humorous and fun to read.

Anyway, Amie, as you may have learned, you can not use a "free" hotmail account with Mail. I would suggest an alternative:

Start transitioning people over to your T-mobile account or a Gmail account. Obviously you can get a Gmail account from that one dude who offered you an invite earlier in this set of posts. Those Gmail accounts are pretty useful, from what I hear.

Then you should notify your friends to switch. Also, if you can, find out if you can automatically forward emails from your hotmail account to your new email account that supports using such software as Mail. This way, you will still receive email from you hotmail but in your new account. When you reply to them, you will use your new account. Then put a signature at the end of your email pointing out to them that you switched your account and are using it with your reply email.

This is the best way to deal with this situation. Solves several issues.

1) now you can store email on your hard drive and not on the free email account which gives you limited space.
2) free webmail sucks. You will find this out when you start using Mail.
3) you will be able to feel good that you are putting your Ibook to good use.

Hope this helps.

Have fun.
 
bobw said:
No, that's not possible. You can only read/retrieve your mail while connected to the Internet, regardless of what you use to get mail.

Well, that blows. In that case, why would I want to activate Mail when I already have a free e-mail account with Hotmail?
 
Back
Top