Free Webmail Accounts

[jamesannan]

Can anyone suggest a decent free webmail account that will enable both POP3 access and browser interface on the Zaurus (in my case, 860 with Sharp rom)? I basically want somewhere that I can access my work email from, when away from home (the company's mail serve is inaccessible but I can set up forwarding).

I can't use gmail with the web browser. Yahoo works fine via the web page but I cannot download to the mail program (not sure why not, it just says login failed). What do others use?

Thanks,

James

[technojunkie]

Do a search on these forums for gmail, and find someone to shoot you an invite.

[jamesannan]

I just said, gmail doesn't work via the browser (at least, it doesn't seem to for me - the login box does not appear).

James

[offroadgeek]

have you tried yahoo email?  I haven't specifically tried it via my Z, but I know they have a yahoo mobile site that is designed for smaller devices.  I'm able to access this via my sidekick... so it may work with the Zs brower.

[jamesannan]

Good grief does anyone ever read the contents of a post these days? I mention the specific problems I've found with gmail (no web, not tried pop) and yahoo (web works fine but no pop) only to get two people suggesting I try them!

I guess either web or pop would do at a pinch, in which case I'm already ok. But I'd prefer the flexibility of both.

James

[kopsis]

I just said, gmail doesn't work via the browser (at least, it doesn't seem to for me - the login box does not appear).

Yeah, neither Opera or NetFront seem to be able to get past Gmail's login. I've reported this to Google and you may wish to do the same. If enough people complain, they might fix it.

I think you'll be hard pressed to find a free webmail service with POP3 download. For most (all the big ones except Gmail) that's a premium (i.e. $$$) feature. For Yahoo! you have to subscribe to their $19.95 Mail Plus package to get POP3 access.

[jamesannan]

For Yahoo! you have to subscribe to their $19.95 Mail Plus package to get POP3 access.

Ah, that's interesting. The yahoo site (at least, the one I use) does not mention any charge (it claims that it is set up to allow pop access), but it would explain the problems I have had accessing it (witth a variety of mailers, not just the Z).

Surfing the web suggests that there certainly some providers who offer the full service. I may try out a few when I have time.

[offroadgeek]

Good grief does anyone ever read the contents of a post these days? I mention the specific problems I've found with gmail (no web, not tried pop) and yahoo (web works fine but no pop) only to get two people suggesting I try them!

I guess either web or pop would do at a pinch, in which case I'm already ok. But I'd prefer the flexibility of both.

James

I did read your post...  

as it's been already pointed out, yahoo does have pop3.. it's just not free.  

maybe I should have suggested that you try doing a little more research on your own before posting here  

[nilch]

I use Access-4-free - a free webmail + POP mail service (except for the one time service fee).

access-4-free.com

[kopsis]

I didn't realize Access-4-free had webmail now! I'll have to check that out. I signed up with them years ago for dial-up access when I'm on the road and can't find a free WiFi hotspot but I rarely use it so I often forget it's there.

As for Yahoo!s "free" POP3 access ... what it means is that with their free webmail you can instruct Yahoo to to fetch mail from other POP3 servers. I haven't checked to see if it can pull from Gmail yet but you may want to give that a try. It should definitely work with Access-4-free so if you don't like their webmail interface, you could easily get Yahoo! to fetch from your Access-4-free POP account.

I haven't completely given up on Gmail. I finally got the 2003-07-05 snapshot of Embedded Konqueror to build for the Sharp ROM so I'll try that out today. I know that I can get in to Gmail from the Konqueror 3.3.1 in KDE so it will be interesting to see if the older version that Embedded Konq is based on will work.

In any case, if this konq-embedded build seems stable, I'll make the IPK available for anyone that's interested. You can never have too many web browsers

[Stubear]

Yahoo Japan (yahoo.co.jp) allows pop3 access, but you need your own smtp server.

You could try running gmail-lite on your Z (with apache and php) - it creates a html only interface that works with netfront and apache.
Supposedly all the javascript that gmail uses is too much for netfront and opera.

no-ip.org also has a pop3/webmail account available for about $50/year

Stu

[jamesannan]

Stubear, thanks for the info.

The plot thickens rather though, cos I just set up a yahoo.co.jp account and still cannot login (I'm in Japan, I guess access to the .co.uk server could be geographically limited if they are charging for the .com one).

neither the .co.jp or .co.uk mentions any charge, and yet I cannot log in to either of them. Can someone confirm if they really have got this to work with the Z mail program?

Thanks,

James

[gretchen]

www.myrealbox.com has free pop3 access and webmail.  Novell uses it as a test site so there is a small amount of down time but there is no advertising or anything.  It also has IMAP access.

I haven't checked the webmail from the zaurus though.

[jamesannan]

Fixed!

The .co.uk account does indeed provide free pop access, you just have to sign up to a bit of occasional spam first (Yahoo Directions, I think it's called). Compared to what I already get, I doubt I will notice... From what yahoo support told me, I think the web site was supposd to point me in this direction automatically, but it didn't. Anyway, now i can read the mail on the browser (and delete spam without downloading it, which is why that bit really matters) and also download it to the mail program for off-line use. The SMTP authentication still doesn't seem to work but that doesn't matter to me.

I guess this will work for anyone - I only signed up for the account after moving to Japan. it just has to be the .co.uk site not the .com one. Maybe .co.jp works similarly.

James