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FreePOPs is a POP3 daemon which allows you to use your normal email client to check web-based email services including Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo or any Squirrelmail-based site.

Free and open source, FreePOPs works with any email client which supports POP3 including Mail, Entourage, Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and many more. It is cross platform, running on OS X, Linux, Unix and Windows, and can be easily configured to work with anti-virus and spam filtering programs.

The instructions below show how to configure Mail and Entourage to work with FreePOPs’ Gmail plugin and should work with any supported webmail services as long as you enter your correct email address.

For other email clients, refer to the FreePOPs documentation.

Installing FreePOPs on OS X

The first step is to download the latest version of FreePOPs from the download pages at http://freepops.sourceforge.net/en/download-osx.shtml.

Double click on the file to unzip it, then double click on the package to install FreePOPs.

The program needs to be started manually, so open a Terminal window (Applications / Utilities / Terminal) and change to the FreePOPs directory (default is /Applications/FreePOPs/)

cd /Applications/FreePOPs/
./freepopsd &

FreePOPs can be configured to start automatically during the OS X boot process by creating a new entry in the /Library/StartupItems/ directory. If you encounter permission problems they are probably due to not being logged in as an administrator user.

cd /Library/StartupItems/
mkdir FreePOPs

Using your favourite editor, create two files in the /Library/StartupItems/FreePOPs/ directory. The first should be named FreePOPs and contain the following:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Simple startup script for FreePOPs.
#

cd /Applications/FreePOPs/
./freepopsd &

and the second should be called StartupParameters.plist and contain:

{
  Description     = "FreePOPs";
  Provides        = ("POP daemon for webmail services");
  Requires        = ("Resolver");
  Uses            = ("Network");
  OrderPreference = "None";
  Messages =
  {
    start = "Starting FreePOPs";
    stop  = "Stopping FreePOPs";
  };
}

Finally you need to set the correct permissions.

chmod /Library/StartupItems/FreePOPs/FreePOPs 744
chmod /Library/StartupItems/FreePOPs/StartupParameters.plist 644

Once the permissions are correct, it’s time to move on to configuring your email client.

Configuring Apple Mail to check Gmail

From the "Mail" menu, choose "Preferences".

Click "Accounts" and then the "+" symbol to add a new account. The settings should be as follows:

• Account type - POP
• Description - [description of account]
• Email address - [your email address]
• Full name - [your name]
• Incoming Mail Server - localhost
• Username - [your email address]
• Password - [your password]
• Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) - You will need to provide an outgoing SMTP server to send mail. If you aren’t sure what you should use here then check with your ISP.

You will also need to change the port used for the connection from 110 to 2000. This can be done under the "Advanced" tab. If you would like to leave a copy of your messages on the server, this can be done from the same tab by deselecting "Remove copy from server after retrieving message".

That’s it! Now when you check your email, messages from Gmail should be downloaded and stored locally on your computer.

Configuring Microsoft Entourage to check Gmail

From the "Entourage" menu, select "Account settings".

Click "New" and then select "POP" account.

The settings should be as follows:

• Account name - [name of account]
• Name - [your name]
• Email address - [your email address]
• Account ID - [your email address]
• POP server - localhost
• Password - [your password]
• SMTP server - You will need to provide an outgoing SMTP server to send mail. If you aren’t sure what you should use here then check with your ISP.

You will also need to change the port from 110 to 2000. This can be done by clicking "Advanced receiving options".

And you’re done. Now Entourage can check your Gmail messages as easily as any of your other accounts.