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Formula Jr
04-21-2006, 10:37 PM
I did something odd the other day that has me thinking about how safe anyone's POP mail
account is.
I was configuring System X for two users. Me and the girlfirend's and got confused where I was in the system. I had set up her ISP account information
with authentication to send and recieve e-mail. Then I thought I was creating my ISP account on the same machne, under a user account but I was still in Administrator mode.
What happened was I ended up with a dial out to my Local ISP, with my sign on name and password, but all the rest of the settings for mail were of her ISP's mail servers and passwords.

when I opened the mailer it started pulling in all of her stuff from her POP account directly into the Apple Mail Program. I went, "thats not my mail!"

Is this a valid way to set things up? Call into any local ISP under one user account and then get access directly to any mail server so long as all the passwords are right and the servers named?

That would be a cool way to by-pass the funky remote mail services that most ISPs provide.

mikev
04-22-2006, 09:45 AM
I am not sure on the macs but in windows your intenet settings and mail settings are differnet I can connect to the internet anywere with my laptop and outlook pulls my email only and i have 3 differnet email accounts and it pulls them all.

joel3078
04-23-2006, 11:59 AM
Yup, we do this all the time - get at your pop3 email from home, at the cabin, when on vacation, etc. Works 100% great on laptops, but not as pratical for desktop systems. On a laptop you don't have to remember what email message is on what computer. This is an issue with using more than 1 desktop. If you don't get very many emails, then the desktop remembering what is where probably is not an issue.

Step #1 - Use dial up, wifi, etc. to get on the internet first.
Stetp #2 - Send and receive your pop3 email.

If you have the particular computer you are using setup with the correct pop3email configurations you can get at your email from that computer that is on the internet from anywhere in the world. The choice is yours if you want to get at your email from a web browser, or through pop3. There are some limitations of course, but for the most part, it works either way.

Bottom line however is your email is safe, assuming nobody else knows your password. The only reason Formula Jr. got both his and the girlfriend's email to work on 1 computer was the fact he new both accounts' names, settings, passwords, etc. A little light bulb should be going off, Hmmmm maybe that's why changing passwords from time to time is a good idea.