How to Access Gmail on Desktop Email Software

Gmail is web based, but unlike Yahoo and Hotmail, you can use your Gmail account with your favorite email software, such as Outlook, Thunderbird, Kmail, or Eudora. Here is how to setup your email client to send and receive your Gmail email.

Steps

1. Understand that no two email client programs are setup the same way. 
Here is the basic information you will need to setup the software.

• Your Name: Your full name
• Email Address: Your Gmail email address
• Incoming Server Type: POP or POP3
• Incoming Server Address: pop.gmail.com
• Outgoing Server Address: smtp.gmail.com
• Incoming Username: yourusername@gmail.com
• Outgoing Username: yourusername@gmail.com
• POP Server Port: 995
• Use secure connection: Yes
• Use authentication: Yes
• SMTP Server Port: 587 or 465
• Use Secure Connection Type: TLS

2. Set your Gmail preferences to allow POP email. 
Go to Gmail.com and login to your account. In the top right hand corner is a link for "Settings". Follow the link.

3. Click on the "Forwarding and POP" tab.  Scroll down to "POP Download:". Click the radio button for either "Enable POP for all mail" or "Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on." Which one you choose is up to you, but if choose to enable POP for all mail, the first time you start your client software and set it up, it will download all the mail in your Gmail account. This can be a problem if you have thousands of emails stashed away.

4. Follow "Configuration instructions."  If you need more help with setting up your particular client software, follow that link.

Tips

• Gmail does an excellent job of identifying spam and phishing emails. It puts them in a separate folder. These emails are not transferred to your email (pop) client. You may want to occasionally (less than every 30 days) check Gmail via a browser to check for mis-identified email.
• Thunderbird is particularly good with Gmail. (There is a bubble choice to select during installation.)