Help With Email Setup

So you have your gmail all setup on your Android phone, but you probably have (at least) another email address you would like to have setup.  I mean as amazing as Gmail is, people out there still use other email services.

Some email accounts are incredibly simple to setup.  AOL for example.  They use IMAP, and Android knows it, and just sets it up for you.  On the other hand, there are a few that I am going to give you some tips on how to make the most of your non-gmail email.

The first is Hotmail (or MSN).  Don't get me wrong. If you key in your email address and password it will take it and give you pop3 access to your email.  The problem here is that pop3 is incredibly limited compared to either IMAP, or the ultimate Exchange server.  With pop3 you have the ability to pull emails from the webserver, and either delete them, or leave them as unread. Well it is great that you can get your email, the downside here is that you will either not get your emails on your home computer, or if you do you will probably have to delete your discarded email in both places.

So you can see how inconvenient this would be.  Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to set this up more like a gmail account and have the email automatically pushed to you with full sync capabilities?  Plus while they are at it throw in calendar support and contact sync too?  Well the good news is that the fine people at Microsoft (probably will get some slack for that one) have given Hotmail users access to their email through an exchange server, which is what a lot of companies use to get business grade email to their employees.

Using the following directions will allow you to setup your email as an exchange server:

Email: myemail@hotmail.com (or live.com)Server address: m.hotmail.comSSL enabledUsername: myemail@hotmail.com (or live.com)
Password: passwordDomain: <blank>

There you have it.  Email Calendar Contacts, all loaded into your phone!

Next, for all you Yahoo users that are having issues... When setting up your Yahoo email with the default settings you will probably see a disclaimer that only certain accounts have the ability to access their email on a mobile device, and that you may have to subscribe to their plus service to get the access. This is where the biggest workaround comes into play.

The first step is to skip the normal email setup.  Yahoo has taken their email a step further and provided the user with a free standalone app for Yahoo email.  It is available through the normal app channels, along with their website: http://mobile.yahoo.com/mail/android,  Simply download it, install it, login with your Yahoo ID and you are good to go!

The last email that I will cover is for those of you stuck using Comcast. Comcast email is always a chore to get working through the mail icon and you will get limited help from their tech support.  But lucky for you, Comcast has followed Yahoo with the whole app thing.  All you have to do is download the app, install it and login with your email address and password - then you are all set!  Link:

http://market.android.com/details?id=net.comcast.ottclient

So load up your emails. I mean you can't ever have too many.  I have a dozen or so...

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