3rd party POP3

December 12, 2004 9:08 PM

Say you've got a domain and a server, but the account didn't come with any POP3 setup. Assuming you're not going to abandon that hosting provider for one reason or another, what's the best 3rd party POP account provider? And is this a huge headache?
posted by paul_smatatoes to computers & internet (8 answers total)

If you've got a server, is there some reason you can't set it up as the MX and run an MTA and MDA on it? I'm pretty happy with Exim and plain old imapd, but the Courier stuff is popular, too. It's a little more work, but cheaper than outsourcing.
posted by majick at 9:20 PM on December 12, 2004

By "got a server" I mean, you're leasing space on a server. Let's say you have no control over what they run on it...basically, my roommate has a site he uses for his photography business, and he keeps bugging me about being able to send mail from his domain, without using webmail.

I said POP. He says they don't offer it. And he's sticking with this host. I take it that your comment means there are companies that you can outsource this too, though...any suggestions?
posted by paul_smatatoes at 11:43 PM on December 12, 2004

Gmail?
posted by frenetic at 6:38 AM on December 13, 2004

POP is a protocol which is generally used for receiving mail. If you want the ability to send from the domain, you should be inquiring about SMTP ability.
posted by websavvy at 9:26 AM on December 13, 2004

ok, SMTP it is. Any suggestions?
posted by paul_smatatoes at 10:48 AM on December 13, 2004

fastmail.fm
posted by kindall at 12:28 PM on December 13, 2004

fastmail.fm is the right link.

Even their one-time-fee account lets you send mail through them. For $40 a year they'll use your domain for receivng mail too.
posted by kindall at 12:34 PM on December 13, 2004

If you get a yahoo.com.au or yahoo.co.uk account, you can get pop3 and smtp access for free if you sign up for "Yahoo Delivers" (low-volume, easily filtered Yahoo spam). This used to work for yahoo.com as well but they took it away a couple of years ago.

Using Yahoo this way also means you don't get their irritating commercial attached to the bottom of every outgoing mail.
posted by flabdablet at 4:27 PM on December 13, 2004