Chapter 9. .Mac webMail

Your .Mac account includes webMail, a feature that lets you check your email or send email from any computer with an Internet connection anywhere in the world. You can check your .Mac email account, or set up .Mac webMail to check another POP email account you might have.

As a .Mac member, you can buy additional email-only accounts that include 50 MB each of email storage space. 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. Each email-only account costs just $10 per year. Not a bad deal if you need extra accounts.

To add one or more email-only accounts to your .Mac membership, go to www.mac.com and click the "Account" link in the page's sidebar. In the Account page that opens, click the big green "Buy More" button. If your current .Mac membership is due to renew in less than a year, your email-only account cost is pro-rated to charge only for the time remaining on your current membership.

The official name for .Mac mail is "Mail," but in this chapter we refer to it as webMail to avoid confusing it with the mail application on your computer named "Mail."

.Mac webMail's Address Book gives you online access to all of your contacts from any computer when you use iSync (Chapter 11) to synchronize the Address Book information on your computer with your .Mac Address Book.

.Mac webMail 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 it from any computer in the world. You can choose to also keep copies of email messages and folders on your own computer. IMAP is a good choice if you need to check your mail from many different computers.

The other most 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 (copied it to your computer). POP is a good choice if you always use the same computer to manage your email.