Dave Taylor answers free tech support questions about a wide variety of business and technical topics, including blogging, iphone help, ipod help, AdSense, MySpace, Sony PSP help, Mp3 players, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

How do I access Gmail via POP from Outlook Express?

Problem: Setting up my Gmail to download to my computer (using either of Incredimail, Outlook, Outlook Express). I have followed Google's directions very explicitly (+/- 10 attempts) and still cannot successfully download my mail. I keep getting the message that the Gmail server is not responding. I cannot find a way to communicate with Google for assistance. Any assistance you can render will be sincerely appreciated.


Dave's Answer:

There are a lot of things I like about Gmail, one of which is that it's very accessible from different systems, whether you prefer to subscribe to your Gmail inbox through your favorite RSS reader or whether you want to just integrate your Gmail messages into your regular mailbox by accessing it using the POP (post office protocol) system. Having it available doesn't mean it's easy to use, however, so let's step through configuring POP access for Gmail.

The first step is to log in to your Gmail account and click on Settings, then Forwarding and POP. You'll see this:

Accessing Gmail via POP

Your first decision will be whether you want to access all of your old mail (which might be quite a few hundred - or thousand - messages) or whether you want to just see messages arriving from now on in your existing email program. I'll opt for the latter since I don't want to be overwhelmed.

You can also specify what happens in Gmail once a message is accessed via POP. You can have messages moved to the trash, archived, or kept in your Inbox as if they'd never been touched. I automatically archive messages so I have a backup copy. Easily done!

Before you click on the Configuration Instructions link, make sure you've saved your changes: I imagine it's a common mistake to get sidetracked at this point in the configuration process.

Gmail has POP configuration instructions for a wide variety of different email programs, including:

  • Outlook Express and Outlook 2002 (and older) (Windows)
  • Outlook Express and Outlook 2002 (and older) (Mac)
  • Outlook 2003 Entourage 2004
  • Entourage X
  • Eudora 5.1 (and higher) (Sponsored & Paid Mode)
  • Eudora 5.1 (and higher) (Light Mode)
  • Netscape Mail 7.x
  • Netscape Mail 6.2
  • Netscape Mail 4.5, 4.6, or 4.7
  • Apple Mail
  • Mozilla 1.7
  • Thunderbird 0.x
  • BlackBerry Internet Service™

Choose Outlook Express for Windows and you'll see extensive and well-documented instructions that you should follow.

I've tested this myself and had it work fine. The two critical things to notice is that you must specify connecting via SSL and that you also must override the default SMTP port for outbound email and change it from port 25 to port 587, as detailed in the configuration information.

That should get you going. If you're still having problems, I'll encourage you to print out the Gmail instructions, then check off on the paper each and every line as you confirm you've set it as specified.

Good luck!



Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Simpy.


Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments
Rather amazingly, there are no comments on this article yet.

I have a lot to say, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!









Remember personal info?


Please note that I will never send you any unsolicited commercial email. Ever.

While I'm at it, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site.









Uniblue: Free Virus Scan


Join Me At:
Aloha Social Media Summit, Oct 2008


Search
Find just the answers you seek from among our 1700+ free tech support articles by using our Lijit search engine.


Help!





Subscribe to
Ask Dave Taylor!

Add to Google Reader
Add to My Yahoo!
Subscribe in NewsGator Online

RDF   XML

Free Updates!
Sign up and get free weekly updates and special offers on books, seminars, workshops and more.


Recent Entries
Join the List!
Join my author info mailing list, where you'll learn about my upcoming books, speaking gigs, and more!


Book Links
© 2002 - 2008 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site.

[whiteboard marker tray]