[techtalk] POP mail

[Samantha Jo Moore]

> First:
> My work email is irrevelant.

Got that.

> Second:
> It's my PERSONAL email that I am concerned about with the POP.
... snip ...
> Does this make any more sense?

Well, I can see that you have a little bit of confusion over the
different mail services.  I would like to stress the point that POP
and SMTP are different services altogether.  Your POP account is a
mailbox from which you DOWNLOAD mail to your client.  It has nothing
to do with the SMTP server you use to SEND mail.

To receive mail from your POP mailbox all you need is that server to be
visible to your client (i.e. can connect) and an account name with a
password.  If these conditions are met you will be able to read your
mail.  In fact, you don't even need a mail client.  You can read it
through a telnet session.  However, you probably want a mail client to
facilitate the parsing of the content, especially if messages have MIME
compliant content.

To send mail, all you need is to be able to access an SMTP server that
allows you send mail.  In this case you don't need an account name or a
password.  However when you connect to this SMTP server, it will know
what domain you belong to by looking up your IP address and if your IP
address does not belong to the same domain as the SMTP server it will
deny your request to send the mail.  These SMTP server are usually
configured this way.

Now, looking at your situation, you should be able to receive mail even
if you don't belong to the domain where the POP server is.  That should
not be a problem.  You can use the POP server and you shouldn't need to
change your a-mail address.

For sending mail, you can use your ISP's SMTP server (the cable company's).
Yes, it's a different server than the POP mail from which you download
your mail, but it doesn't matter.  The e-mail address has nothing to do
with the sending server (SMTP).  It has everything to do with where the
mail ends up (your POP server).  You should be able to configure your
mail client to download mail from a POP server different than the SMTP
server it uses to send mail.  I do this myself all the time.

Hope this clarifies things a little.

Samantha Jo Moore
sjmoore at thetahoegroup.com
http://www.thetahoegroup.com


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