Smartalyx Computer Musings

Hello and welcome.
This is a second post regarding using some of the online EMAIL providers to access separate existing EMAIL accounts. The first post covered GMAIL . This post will cover another provider called ZOHO . Looking at ZOHO’s homepage you will see they provide a lot of great tools (many I will be covering over the next few posts). This post will focus on ZOHO Mail.

To make any of this work you will need the POP server settings from your current EMAIL provider- look at the FAQs or give Smartalyx a nudge and we may be able to help. Remember, not all providers have this ability (Yahoo! Basic Email, as an example, does not). You will also need to sign up for a ZOHO mail account. You can create a brand new account with new user and password or you can use your Google credentials if you have them. I like this feature- allows me to use the same user+password combo across two different sites. Google will confirm ZOHO access to your Google account.

Main Login

Once you get the POP server settings and signed up for ZOHO- let’s add an account.

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Why does Microsoft do this to me? And yes I mean me and me only. Clearly they have nothing better to do up in Redmond than think of ways to mess with Smartalyx.

A client’s computer had a hardware failure, so we moved to a new computer. Simple enough- transfer files and bam up and running. Except for Outlook. I understand that MS needs to move on with their software and can’t be held back by old technologies, but Outlook is basically an EMAIL program used by most consumers. In an office environment it can be so much more, but for the large majority Exchange server does not exist- so all the links built in with calendar and tasks are a little overkill. And you have a harder time avoiding Outlook if you install one of the office suites.

Back to the problem- PST files. I hate them. Why must it be so complicated to store emails, Microsoft? I can move my Thunderbird EMAIL among many computers and operating systems. So this is my call for everyone to give up programs that lock you into a specific format. Look at all the flavors of online EMAIL out there- GMAIL, Yahoo and Zoho are three right off the top. Zoho and Google both have offline modes. You can also have your local tech person setup a GMAIL account to check your other email accounts (POP3 required, your tech guy will know what that is) so all your mail comes into one account. GMAIL allows you to reply through GMAIL using the original EMAIL address (verification emails are used to confirm you are the owner of the accounts)

Using online EMAIL frees up the end user a couple of ways- first your EMAIL is ’safe’ from computer crashes since the data is not only stored locally. And second- the online providers take care of software upgrades and you never need to worry about version compatibility. Yes, there is the chance an online EMail provider can disappear but stick with the larger companies and that is less likely.

So take a look at the online options- or better yet, give Smartalyx a ring and we can help you out.

what have been your experiences with online EMAIL? Let me know.

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