Summary: Web based email is handy but limited. Most do not allow direct access using a normal email program.
The answer not surprisingly is: it depends. But first, a quick definition.
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POP3, which stands for "Post Office Protocol version 3", is the defacto standard for email retrieval by stand-alone email clients. When your email program, for example Outlook Express, downloads your email from your ISP, chances are it's using the POP3 protocol. Web based services skip this step because your email is never downloaded to a separate client. It's simply displayed via a web page you access.
Web based email has long been used as a way to check email while you're away from the computer. For example many ISPs offer a web interface to your email in addition to a POP3 interface. Even if your ISP does not offer such an interface, many of the independent web based email services such as Yahoo or Hotmail allow you to view your POP3 based email in their web interfaces.
But what if you have the reverse situation? You have all of your email in a Web-only service and would like to download it into a off-line mail client?
That's where the "it depends" comes in. And even then the news isn't really all that good.
With most services you are unfortunately out of luck. Most services, Yahoo included, do not have a separate interface to download email into an offline client.
In fact, Hotmail is the only web based service I'm aware of that supports a downloading client. And even then the only client it supports is Outlook Express. Periodically there are rumors that Hotmail will be dropping Outlook Express support but they have yet to pan out. And much like dropping support for Outlook Express completely, which Microsoft announced earlier this year and then reversed, this feature of Outlook Express is so popular that I'd expect a similar public backlash.
Note that Outlook (not Outlook Express - see here if that confuses you) claims support for Hotmail as well - however it simply amounts to viewing the Hotmail web page within Outlook and is not a true download. Microsoft has this article in the Knowledgebase that discusses how to set up this feature in Outlook.
Update: Since this article was published I've become aware of a couple of tools that can make Hotmail and Yahoo mail available via any pop3/smtp mail application. They require a little bit of configuration on your part and run as background processes on your machine, but they provide a layer that translates between the normal POP3 and SMTP protocols and the Hotmail or Yahoo web or proprietary interfaces. These said tools are Hotpop for Hotmail accounts and Yahoo Pops, an open source project for Yahoo mail. These are definitely not endorsed by Hotmail or Yahoo.
I've also become aware of the fact that while Outlook 2000 functions as described above, Outlook 2002/XP and Outlook 2003 do support Hotmail directly.
Related:
How do Outlook and Outlook Express Relate? Even though they share similar names and do similar things, Outlook and Outlook Express are actually not related to each other at all.
Article C1859 - November 8, 2003
if you want to access web based mail, using a free web mail interface to POP3 program, on any platfor just use mr postman - http://mrpostman.sourceforge.net/
Posted by: Thomas at June 15, 2007 12:57 PMSince this article was written, support was dropped from hotmail to outlook. But, if you're using outlook 2007, you can get the outlook connector. It's a plugin from microsoft which lets you download webmail into outlook properly.
Posted by: Joshua Lee at May 6, 2008 3:34 AMI found this article. I hope it helps.
Posted by: Mimi at July 7, 2008 12:36 PM"Use Yahoo email with Outlook Express (free)?"
http://www.infopackets.com/news/internet/2005/20050720_use_yahoo_email_with_outlook_express_free.htm
Hi Leo,
gmail seems to work okay with Outlook, are there any pop3 and smtp settings for hotmail? There are numerous articles but no definitive answers.
NO - Hotmail does not provide POP3 and SMTP servers to access your mail. Period.
YES - You can use some specific email programs like Windows Live Mail or an add-on to Microsoft Outlook to access your Hotmail.
NO - Outlook Express Hotmail access is being phased out and is no longer supported.
YES - There are third-party add-ons for Thunderbird that, while not officially supported by Hotmail or Microsoft, do allow you to download your Hotmail into Thunderbird.
Hope that helps clarify things. :-)
-Leo
I`ve been using the Thunderbird add-on, Webmail,
Posted by: David at September 2, 2008 12:53 PMhttp://webmail.mozdev.org for some time now to retrieve mail from both my Hotmail and Yahoo accounts and it works well. It seems to be the only one which is consistently reliable. The author is pretty quick to update when either of the services alter their methods. Why bother with Outlook Express, I say!
Hi, just wanted ti let you know, that you can acces your hotmail account in outlook using a small program called "Outlook Connector", google it!!! :-)
Posted by: Koen Hardy at September 8, 2008 4:16 AMCan you please sent me the
pop3 and smtp info? I would like to setup my hotmail on my Microsoft Outlook?
Hope you can help me!!!
-Leo
Gmail supports POP3 clients and gives full instructions about how to set up the account in Outlook. There are a variety of options, such as whether to leave a copy of the mail oon the server after retrieval by Outlook.
I definitely don't share your views on free email accounts, Leo. I have found Gmail to be great. True, the account gets a lot of spam, but they have a really excellent filter and put 99.99% of it in a special spam folder.
Posted by: Coly Moore at November 18, 2008 8:15 AMYou mentioned YahooPops and HotPops. However, there is another piece of software that covers a variety of email accounts: FreePOPS. It works well with Yahoo, Hotmail and Netzero. At least those are all that I've tried it on. It purports to handle AOL and Juno, as well as a variety of others.
Posted by: physics geek at May 12, 2009 5:04 PMI use Thunderbird to send/receive Hotmail messages. I have 2 questions:
a) Messages "RECEIVED" are kept on both Thundebird & Hotmail (cause I chose "Leave mesages on the server" option), but it is NOT the case for "SENT" messages. Any sugestion as to how to do the latter?
b) Do I still have to pay the annual ±$20 a year for "Windows Live Hotmail PLus"? - I only use the mail, and non of the other features...
Thanks for your advice.
b) I don't see why you'd need to. POP3 is available to all accounts. Not sure what else you're getting with your subscription.
20-Jun-2009
Posted by: Lou at June 20, 2009 5:49 AM