Setting Up Mail on Your iPhone
Hello Geeks!
What is the coolest “must have” gadget on the planet? Well, it is the iPhone of course. And what is the most important App for the iPhone? After Angrybirds, I’d have to say “Mail”.
Nowadays, people have to have their eMail. Back when I was a kid we didn’t have eMail on our cell phones, we had to walk 20 miles up hill (both ways) to get to our computer to check our eMail. AND we liked it that way. But today we can have the whole Internet in our pocket including all of our eMails. And here is how to get setup.
- Start by tapping on Settings (from the Home Screen).
- Then tap on “Mail,Contacts, Calendars”.
- Tap on “Add Account.”
The iPhone has setup wizards, for iCloud (from Apple), Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo!, Aol, Microsoft Hotmail, MobileMe & Other. You will have to scroll to the bottom of the screen to reveal the last 2 options. With the exception of “Other”, they are all a breeze to setup. If you want to use your iPhone to check your business eMail (such as you@yourcompany.com) then “Other” is often the best route.
Let’s take the path less traveled.
- Tap on Add Mail Account.
- The first screen is simple enough. Add your Name, eMail, Password & Description. I think it is silly for a description so I recommend you simply put your full eMail address in there.
- Tap Next.
At the top of this screen there is very important decision to make…
POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
So what is the difference?
- POP messages generally are stored on the stored on the server and then deleted from the server when you check your mail. The result is that the message is now on your device and and nowhere else. This is the old fashioned way to check eMail and it works perfectly if you just want to check your eMail on one device.
Enter IMAP (the cloud).
- When you check a message with IMAP the message stays on the server (in the cloud). Since it stays on the server you can check it on multiple devices, such as a office computer, home computer, iPhone, iPad, etc. The beauty here is that you can see the same eMails from all devices as long as they are connected to the internet, they are in-sync.
I’m a big fan of IMAP, be sure to ask your web host if they offer it before making your decision.
There are 2 draw backs for IMAP.
- If you have Outlook (or Outlook Express) 2010 or older you should not consider IMAP until you upgrade. It doesn’t play very well with IMAP.
- If you use Apple Mail application you are good to go with whatever version you have. The second possible draw back is that since IMAP stores message online it can use up a fair amount of disk space. Be sure to ask your host about this.
Note: If you decide to go from POP to IMAP or vice versa, the iPhone won’t let you. You have to delete the account from your phone and re-enter it.
- From this screen you need to enter your incoming and outgoing mail server info. For our clients the host name for each is mail.theirdomain.com.
For example, ours is mail.omoriginals.com and the username is the full eMail address. - For example: geek@omOriginals.com
- For our servers the outgoing and incoming are the same, but they both need to be entered manually. Tap “next” and wait for an error message. It will likely say “can confirm authenticity of server”. (This is normal).
- Tap details and then accept.
- After that it will likely say “Cannot Connect Using SSL”. Tap “Yes”.
- Smile as it verifies and you should be good to go. Congratulations!
If this is way over your head, call our offices for a half hour or more consultation over the phone or in person. @ 360.575.9839 and we’d be happy to help.
Facebook
~:-)