Gmail down but not out
It had to happen one day and today it did – Gmail went down leaving millions of users without email for at least two hours.
It just goes to show the importance of having a “plan B”. Gmail may still be down as I write this but I have full access to my account. How’s that? I hear you ask. Well you can still access Gmail using any email program, the only catch is that you have to have enabled IMAP or POP in Settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP first though).
IMAP is the best way to read emails in an email program as it shows your Gmail labels as folders. Here’s how to set it up.
If you set your email program to download the full emails (not just the headers) from Gmail you will also end up with a full backup of your emails.
For a web-based alternative way to access your Gmail account login at http://mail2web.com/ with your Gmail address and password.
Configuring other mail clients – Gmail Help
You can use the following information to configure IMAP with many mail clients. If you encounter difficulties, we suggest contacting your mail client’s customer support department for further instructions — we’re unable to provide assistance with configuring mail clients not listed here.
Incoming Mail IMAP Server – requires SSL: imap.gmail.com
Use SSL: Yes
Port: 993
Outgoing Mail SMTP Server – requires TLS: smtp.gmail.com use authentication
Use Authentication: Yes
Use STARTTLS: Yes some clients call this SSL
Port: 465 or 587
Account Name: your full email address including @gmail.com Google Apps users, please enter username@your_domain.com
Email Address: your full Gmail email address username@gmail.com Google Apps users, please enter username@your_domain.com
Password: your Gmail passwordPlease note that if your client does not support SMTP authentication, you won’t be able to send mail through your client using your Gmail address.
Also, if you’re having trouble sending mail but you’ve confirmed that encyrption is active for SMTP in your mail client, try to configure your SMTP server on a different port: 465 or 587.
From Google’s Gmail help page: Configuring other mail clients – Gmail Help
Check Gmail’s status and help page