Does Mailshell offer POP or IMAP access?

Yes, Mailshell supports both POP and IMAP. These features are available only to Premium users.

What is POP?

POP stands for Post Office Protocol; it allows you to download email messages stored on a remote server to your hard drive through local clients like Outlook, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger. The major advantage of POP is that it allows you to download all your new messages at once and then read them offline whenever you like; the major disadvantage is that, if you access your email from many different computers, it tends to leave messages scattered among those computers rather than in one central location.

Premium users can use POP to download messages from their Mailshell inbox folder. To learn how, click here.

What is IMAP?

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol; it allows you to view and manipulate folders and email messages on a remote server through local email clients like Outlook, Eudora, and Netscape Messenger. The major advantage of IMAP is that, if you access your email from many different computers, you can read them without leaving those messages scattered among all those computers; the major disadvantage is that you must be online to read them. You can learn more about IMAP and how it works here.

Premium users can use IMAP to access their Mailshell folder and messages. To learn how, click here.

How do I set up my email client for POP access?

Using a POP client (Outlook, Eudora, etc.) is available only with the Premium Service. To set up your client to work with Mailshell, you will need to create a new POP account in your client using "pop.mailshell.com" as your incoming mail server, "smtp.mailshell.com" as your outgoing mail server (or, if you prefer, your ISP's SMTP server), the email address you used to sign up with Mailshell as your account name, and your Mailshell account password as your password.

If your client asks for an email address, you can enter any of your Mailshell addresses or any outside address. (This address is used as the reply-to address when you send messages using your client. It will not affect which messages you can download from Mailshell.)

For step-by-step instructions for four commonly used clients, click the appropriate tutorial:

• Microsoft Outlook tutorial



• Microsoft Outlook Express tutorial



• Netscape Messenger tutorial



• Qualcomm Eudora tutorial


From within your POP client, you can read and reply to messages just as you would normally. You can also compose messages just as you would normally outside of Mailshell. You will still need to sign in to Mailshell if you want to create or delete email addresses or make other changes to your account.

Please note: If you choose POP access, you can only download messages from your Inbox folder; messages that are delivered to other folders or forwarded to another email address cannot be retrieved.

How do I set up my email client for IMAP access?

Using an IMAP client (Outlook, Eudora, etc.) is available only with the Premium Service. To set up your client to work with Mailshell, you will need to create a new IMAP account in your client using "imap.mailshell.com" as your incoming mail server, "smtp.mailshell.com" as your outgoing mail server (or, if you prefer, your ISP's SMTP server), the email address you used to sign up with Mailshell as your account name, and your Mailshell account password as your password.

If your client asks for an email address, you can enter any of your Mailshell addresses or any outside address. (This address is used as the reply-to address when you send messages using your client. It will not affect which messages you can download from Mailshell.)

For step-by-step instructions for four commonly used clients, click the appropriate tutorial:

• Microsoft Outlook tutorial



• Microsoft Outlook Express tutorial



• Netscape Messenger tutorial



• Qualcomm Eudora tutorial

From within your IMAP client, you can view your Mailshell folders and messages and reply to messages just as you would normally inside Mailshell. You can also compose messages just as you would normally outside of Mailshell. You will still need to sign in to Mailshell if you want to create or delete email addresses or make other changes to your account.

Please note: If you are an older user, you may have folders using characters that are not supported by IMAP. Mailshell will encode these characters when they are viewed with your IMAP client: for example, the "." (period character) will be translated to "=2E" in the IMAP folder, so a folder named "CNET.com Shopper Newsletter" on the Mailshell website will be shown as "CNET=2Ecom Shopper Newsletter" when viewed with an IMAP client.

How can I send messages from an email client using my Mailshell addresses?

Mailshell provides a useful way for you to send email from your disposable Mailshell addresses using any email client; this feature is called "remote compose." To learn how to do this, click here.