To use your Freedom account’s email capabilities from your desktop computer, you must first obtain and configure an email client program. There are many free clients available, any of which will work well with your Freedom account’s email service. For Windows users, we recommend using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, or Eudora.
Your email client will require, at a minimum, the following basic information:
Your email address
The name of your email account
A password to access your email
The domain name of your email server
Some clients ask you to specify both an incoming and an outgoing mail server. Because your Freedom account acts as both the incoming and outgoing mail server, you can enter your domain name in both cases.
You should consult the documentation that accompanies your email client program for complete instructions on how to configure it.
Your Freedom account supports two different incoming mail protocols: POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). Because these two different protocols behave differently, we’ll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each:
POP (Post Office Protocol) is a simple incoming mail protocol that can be thought of as a "store-and-forward" service. With POP, your email is saved in a mailbox on your server, and is transferred to your email client when you check it. Once they are downloaded, your email messages are no longer maintained on the server. POP is the best choice when you always read your email messages from the same computer, but is somewhat inconvenient to those who need access to all of their messages from many locations.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) is a client-server protocol in which email is received and held for you by your Freedom account. Using your IMAP-enabled email client, you can view just the header information (who it is from, the subject, the date it was sent, etc.) and then decide whether to download a copy of the mail. This way, mail is kept on the server and is accessible from any location.
You can also create directories on your Freedom account through an IMAP compatible email client so that your stored email messages are easy to organize. Telecommuters will find IMAP especially useful. However, if the mail is only accessed from one location, then POP works best because it was designed to support "off-line" message access. Some of the more prominent email clients that support IMAP are Microsoft Outlook 98, Outlook Express and Eudora Pro 4.0 and above.
Some email programs allow you to use both the POP and the IMAP protocol, and some do not. Others support both but only allow you to use one at a time.
For additional information and examples of how to set up email client software, please consult the Freedom User Tutorials.
Shell users can also read mail from the command line using a program called PINE. For more information about using PINE to read mail on your server, consult the Freedom User Tutorials.