POP3 email

[danaeris]

So, does anyone know if it is possible to set up your POP email account to send you an IM when you get a new email?

Right now I access my POP3 email at work via mail2web.com, but it doesn't notify me when new emails come in -- I have to keep on reloading. The urge to continually reload is distracting. I'm trying to find a solution to this that keeps me connected but informed about new email without having to do anything actively.

Comments

[northbard.livejournal.com]

In terms of web interfaces, your best bet is Gmail, I believe it can now be set to check external pop accounts, and it reloads automatically, so you can see on the tab header that there's new mail in (shows as a bold number).

If you're not using a web interface, then most progs have an option that will either display a blinking/non-blinking envelope or equivalent in your taskbar to alert you that there's a message.

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

Hm, unfortunately I'm not willing to download my personal email to my work computer, for reasons which are probably obvious. But GMail, as you suggest, may be a good alternative. I believe I have an invite hanging around in my inbox somewhere because I've been meaning to sign up for one for a while. Thanks for the suggestion/info!

[curgoth]

You can't make the POP server do it - POP3 is a pretty simple protocol, and the server doesn't do very much.

You can get little taskbar apps that will check your POP3 box and flash, shout, etc. when you get new mail.

As far as something that sends you an IM, though, I haven't seen such a thing - if one knew the IM protocol well enough, I suppose one could write an app to do it.

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

hm, the little taskbar app might do the trick if it doesn't download anything to the computer.

[curgoth]

Yeah, those things generally leave the e-mail on the server alone - they look at it, but don't touch it. One can gerally config them to do different things when clicked on, so you could probably get it to launch a particular URL when clicked on, or not, as you like.

[tocityguy.livejournal.com]

Yahoo IM will notify you via an icon if you have new mail in your Yahoo account. That's about the closest you're likely to get I think to what you're asking for.

Of course, that only works if you're using Yahoo Mail and Yahoo instant messenger.

(All though I think that Yahoo mail can be used to pull mail from other POP accounts into it but not vice versa.)

Hope that helps.

[curgoth]

Yahoo messenger will notify on yahoo mail, MSN messenger will notify on hotmail, AIM will notify on aol e-mail, and I think the ICQ client can be config'ed to notify on any pop account. Basically they're all doing the same thing as the little taskbar apps I mentioned.

[aaangyl.livejournal.com]

If your job allows it (i.e. if you're not going to be required to respond to things -immediately-, I'd -highly- recommend only checking your mail every 20-30 minutes. You're right that it's a big time suck and distraction, but the answer's not to give it more interrupt power, it's to put it in its place so you're only loading it when you're ready/capable of dealing with what's going to come in. It's been one of the more effective GTD things I've intordiced in my life.

[aaangyl.livejournal.com]

P.S. gmail has a desktop notifier, and some of the IM/portal services also have custom mail notifiers