Email Here, Email There, Everywhere...

November 14, 2006 2:34 PM

Help me integrate my email access in to one place, please?

I have a local ISP and use Outlook for email at home on my PC desktop. I use Apple Mail for my Apple laptop and that is set up via POP to access my ISP email account.

At work I access my email via my ISP's website. It works OK but I can't get to my inbox that way and thus can't answer previous emails. Kinda annoying.

I want to integrate all of this, to where I have the same inbox and outbox no matter where I check email (desktop, laptop or work). I figure I could get a GMail account and go from there, though I want to be able to get email signals on my desktop AND laptop and not have to go through the GMail site to check mail.

I know I could set that up on my desktop, no problem. But my laptop POP is set up for my local ISP email and isn't letting me do both. I was hoping I maybe wouldn't have to switch email addresses, just route it all through GMail.

How do I pull this off?

posted by miltoncat to technology (6 answers total)

What you need is an IMAP account. See if your ISP offers one.
posted by mphuie at 2:44 PM on November 14, 2006

I was hoping I maybe wouldn't have to switch email addresses, just route it all through GMail.

You can: add your ISP address under "Accounts" in Gmail's settings screen; set the "new" (to Gmail) address as the default; tell your ISP to forward all of your mail to your Gmail account.

You can use Gmail's POP server in Mail.app as you currently use your ISP's; if you use Gmail's SMTP (outgoing) mail server as well, Gmail will save to your Gmail "Sent Mail" folder any mail you send through Mail.app.

If that makes any sense at all.
posted by cmyers at 2:51 PM on November 14, 2006 [1 favorite]

Oh, and the same settings (POP- and SMTP-wise) should apply for Outlook, too. I had initially thought that you were only using Mail.app.
posted by cmyers at 2:53 PM on November 14, 2006

I totally recommend Fastmail.fm. They'll do you good.
posted by rbs at 2:55 PM on November 14, 2006

I would make everything forward to your Gmail account, and then use the Gmail Notifier [Win] [Mac] on both computers. You can set Gmail to send stuff with a From address set to one of your non-Gmail email addresses, and as cmyers says, if you use the Gmail SMTP, Gmail saves all the outgoing mail as well.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:16 PM on November 14, 2006

Why all the hassle?

An IMAP account will let you keep all your mail on the server, so wherever you go you will have your all your inboxes as well as sent mail.

If your ISP supports IMAP, you may not have to change your e-mail address.
posted by mphuie at 9:19 PM on November 14, 2006