Gmail is a free account that is great to use. It store gigabytes of storage and can be accessed from any 
computer. It could get a little tricky for the email setup if going through Outlook, Outlook Express, on your iPhone, blackberry, or another mobile device.
Typically, internet e-mail accounts are set up through a POP account which is a technology where the e-mails from Gmail, for instance, are downloaded to your computer. So, all your e-mail will reside on your computer after viewing it versus still remaining on Gmail, or the Internet site, for webmail viewing. Another way to set up your e-mails is via IMAP which stores all of your e-mails on the Internet site and is viewable from your computer or mobile device.
Lately, Gmail has required to be set up via an IMAP account since mobile devices and software, such as 
Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, and Entourage, are unable to handle downloading the e-mails. IMAP doesn’t conflict with Gmail’s technology since it basically just allows you to view what is already on the Gmail mail server versus manipulating it by downloading e-mails as POP accounts demonstrate.
Follow these 6 steps to ensure your Gmail is set up via IMAP properly:
- Lo
g into your Gmail account online - Go to Settings
- Click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP
- Enable IMAP below
- You may follow how to set up your Outlook, Thunderbird or other software or phone by clicking on the Configure your email client link
- Make sure to Save Changes to enable the IMAP setting.
