Webmail setup

[#1]

Please forgive my ignorance here, but I very rarely use webmail - when away from home, I have authentication set up soI can use my hosts connection.

Now the question - I have four email addresses with PN, three of them have webmail set up, but the most recent one, set up for contacts I don't particuly want to hear from, does not appear in the drop-down. Do I have to create this myself?

Sorry for the silly question, but first three accounts were set up when i joined Plusnet, and this latest very much later, so I can't remember what I did.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

I think the list you are referring to will be provided by your browser. To add the extra one you need to login with username set to accountname+mailboxname and the password for mailboxname.

Your browser will then ask if you want to save that password. Answering "yes" should make it available next time.

[#3]

Just modify your  POP3/IMAP settings in your normal e mail programme.

Attached may help.

[#4]

@spraxyt, @Gel Thanks guys - I knew it was simple, but this old brain doesn't function like it used to for simple things.

[#5]

@spraxyt - sorry to ask another question, but having accessed the webmail inbox in question, I see it has been created as an 'IMAP' account, whilst my other mailboxes are correctly 'POP'.

OK, I'm very unlikely to use the webmail, but I'm curious to know why.

[#6]

@jab1 All Plusnet mailboxes can be accessed using either IMAP or POP3 protocols using the appropriate server names and ports. Webmail only uses IMAP, clients use whatever the user selects during set up.

IMAP is generally appropriate when mailboxes are being accessed on more than one device (computers, laptops, tablets, phones) since all devices can view emails and an action taken on one (eg reading) is synchronised on the others. IMAP also allows all folders to be accessed, and messages moved between folders. The master copy remains on the server until any one of the devices deletes it.

POP3 is an older protocol which provides access only to the inbox. Devices using POP3 download messages to local storage on that device and remove them from the server - so any other device coming along later would not find it. It is possible to set clients to "leave a copy on the server" for a while, but this has to be managed by the client and sometimes leads to duplicate downloads.

Using IMAP for client access to single-contact senders seems appropriate to me, possibly moving messages you want to keep for a while to a folder you create for this purpose. Short lived messages could be deleted to keep the inbox message count under control.

[#7]

Thanks @spraxyt that makes sense.

[#8]

Hi John,

Just a wee observation on the use of terminology here which might have caused some lack of clarity about your problem and how others who have a similar problem might read the answers. David's initial response and Gel's response refer to completely different things.

There is one email service provided by Plusnet which can be acccessed online using a web browser or online /'offline using an email program on a computer, smart phone or table etc.

Only a when accessed via a web browser is the use of the colloquialism 'web mail' correct.

The initial description of the issue did rather sound like the ability of your particular browser to remember account and password details you've used before on the login page. Some might suggest having the browser remember such details is a security risk.

Reference to IMAP or POP interfaces very much points to the use of an email program. As David has explained, neither one is 'correct' over the other, however if you are using multiple devices to access the same email box (and particularly if you also want to use webmail) then the use of IMAP is far more practical, in that if set up properly, all devices can see all emails (particularly sent ones).