POP that Yahoo

Do you have a web site but you're still using a Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL or another ISP e-mail address for business e-mail? In many cases if you're paying for a web host, at least one or more POP3 email accounts are included in that fee. That means you can use yourname@yourcompany.com instead of jane231@aol.com.

There are several advantages to using this service.

• First, your email address will probably be easier for customers to remember since it coincides with your web address.
• Second, if you change your ISP or it goes out of business, you won't have to worry about changing your email address on all your print and advertising materials and notifying your customers and contacts that your address has changed.
• Third, you will have the ability to read mail "offline" after downloading it.
• And finally, it just looks more professional.

So, what do you need to do to set up your POP3 account? First, contact your web site manager or web hosting company to find out if it's available to you. If it is, you or your web site manager will need to set up the addresses with the web hosting company. The hosting company will provide you with a username(s), password(s), POP3 (incoming) server name and SMTP (outgoing) server name. Once armed with that information, you can configure the email program (Eudora, Netscape Messenger, Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express are common POP3 mail programs) on your computer to pick up and send your e-mail using that account.