.Mac Mail

Your .Mac account includes .Mac Mail (web-based email). Web-based email enables you to get or send email from any computer that has an Internet connection and a browser. In addition to accessing your .Mac email, you can set it up to check other email accounts you might have.

Email-Only .Mac Accounts

You can buy additional email-only accounts that include fifty megabytes of email storage space for each account. These can come in handy when you're travelingyou can keep all your travel email separate from your personal or business mail to make sure you spend time receiving mail only from people who have this special address.

Email-only accounts don't include many of the standard .Mac features such as iDisk, HomePage, Backup, and Bookmarks. But that's probably why they call it email-only.

To add an email-only account to your .Mac membership, go to Mac.com and click the "Account" link in the web page's sidebar. In the Account page that opens, click the "Buy More" button.

POP vs. IMAP Accounts

.Mac Mail uses an Internet standard called IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol). IMAP mail servers manage and store copies of your mail on a remote server so you can access them from any computer in the world. IMAP is a good choice if you need to check your mail from many different computers.

The other common type of mail server uses an Internet standard called POP (Post Office Protocol). POP servers usually erase your email from their hard disks as soon as you've picked it up. POP is a good choice if you always use the same computer to manage your email.

Through your .Mac Mail account, you can also check other POP accounts you may have!

1.	Open your .Mac Mail.
2.	Click the "Preferences" icon.
3.	Click the "Accounts" tab, if it isn't showing already.
4.	Fill in the information in the section called "Check other POP mail.

An Important Advantage of Web-Based Email

When you're at home and you send email, it gets delivered without a problem. That's because your Mail preferences include your Internet service provider's SMTP address the outgoing mail address (smtp.providername.net or something similar).

To send outgoing email, it must be sent via your isp's smtp address, because that's who you're paying for Internet services. When you're traveling and using other connections, such as a Wi-Fi hotspot at Starbucks, you're connected through some other provider. So when you compose an email message and click "Send," you receive a response that says your mail is not deliverable. Web-based email is one solution to that problem. When you log in to your .Mac account, you can send email because .Mac has its own SMTP address.

An alternative solution (if you don't want to limit yourself to web-mail) is to subscribe to an smtp service, such as SMTP.com. For a small fee you can register a computer with SMTP.com and your mail is delivered through their service. If you don't mind paying a fee for the convenience, this enables you to do your email tasks while on the go just as if you were at home, without logging in to .Mac. See pages 156157 for simple instructions about how to change Mail's smtp setting to "smtp.com" and enjoy being able to effortlessly send email from your laptop, no matter where you're connected.

Start Using .Mac Mail

You can use .Mac Mail in any browser on any kind of computer.

1.	Go to www.mac.com.
2.	Click the "Mail" link in the top navigation bar (circled below).
3.	Log in to your .Mac account with your member name and password.
4.	Your personal .Mac Mail page opens, as shown below. From this web page (and other linked pages) you can perform all your email tasks just like at home, even if you happen to be in Kathmandu.

Below are brief explanations of each button on the web-mail page. If you want excessively detailed information, please see our other book, Cool Mac Apps.

To get your mail and read it:

1.	Click "Get Mail" in the toolbar. Messages open in the "Inbox" pane.
2.	Single-click on a message in the list to open it in your browser.
3.	To read another message, either click an up or down arrow, or click the "Mail" icon to go back to your Inbox.

To compose and send a message:

1.	Click the "Compose" icon in the toolbar to write a new message.
2.	Type an email address in the "To" field. To send the same message to more than one person, type other addresses in the same field with commas after each email address. Or put one or more addresses in the "Cc" (Carbon copy) field.
3.	Type a subject line that will not be confused for junk mail! For instance, don't use "Hi!" or "Sorry I missed you" or "Your loan has been approved." Type a subject that will make it clear to the recipient what your message is about, that it pertains specifically to that person, or that it is certainly from you.
4.	If you want to check your spelling, click the "Spell Check" icon in the toolbar. It will find misspelled words and offer alternative spellings in multiple languages. When you're finished, click the "Edit" button to return to the message window. Or try this trick: Control-click (or right-click) on any word whose spelling you're not sure of. A little menu pops up with spelling options. This method doesn't switch you to a different window, as the above Spell Check option does.
5.	Click the "Send" icon in the toolbar (circled below).