Many on line email providers don’t allow you to use their accounts with POP email clients such as Thunderbird 3.1. To solve this “matter” we have a couple of possible solutions: FreePOPs and WebMail. Today, we will discuss about Webmail that we tested on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and Windows XP. WebMail is substantially a Thunderbird’s add-ons but it is not featured by Mozilla. Using this add-on you are able to manage Yahoo, Hotmail, mail.com, GMail, Libero, and AOL email accounts. The installation is similar in Ubuntu and Windows; on both, you have to install the core WebMail add-on and restart Thunderbird then you can add all the other components (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc..) you prefer. Then you have to modify the Thunderbird server settings following the instructions provided by WebMail:
POP
Server Type : POP
Incoming Server: localhost
UserName : username@domain
SMTP
Server Name: localhost
UserName : username@domain
Do not forget to set the Connection Security to None.
Only on Ubuntu, you need also to manually modify the incoming and outgoing ports because when you use Thunderbird through WebMail on Ubuntu, you will have a “could not connect to server local host; the connection was refused” message. This problem can be easily solved substituting the default ports on both WebMail add-on and Thunderbird ports:
– Thunderbird —> Edit —> Account Settings. Highlight the account you want to manage and go to Server Settings. There you can modify the POP Server Mail port setting it to a number bigger than 1000 (in my case I put 1250). Then go to Outgoing Servers and Edit the SMTP account you want to modify (I changed the default port to 1025).
– Thunderbird —> Tools —> Add-ons —> WebMail —> Preferences and put the same port numbers you have set on the previous step.
All this because ports below 1024 seems to be blocked on Ubuntu (if you know why, please post a comment).
For security, restart Thunderbird and it will immediately download and send your emails. Last but not least, if your on line email account is not supported by WebMail, do not forget to try FreePOPs. 
We need to apologize to all of you because we promised weekly posts and then we took quite a long hiatus. We didn’t mean to be gone for so long, but life got strange, and so on and so forth. But now we are back, and we would like to apologize with all you.
On a more positive note, though, we just checked our reader’s statistics, only to see that we still have almost 200 daily readers. And, believe us, we are shocked! Thanks for waiting our return, everybody.We decided to change something on our blog. First of all we will not duplicate our posts in the Linux and Freeware pages but we post them just in the homepage. In this way, we will have some posts in English and other in Spanish… it is not orthodox but…. why not? We dare!
We would like to know what you all think of the blog so far. What would you like to read? Leave us plenty of criticism in the comment sections. And, you will see a weekly post, starting Monday!
This week, in our Freeware Page, we would like to share our personal list of the 10 best freeware websites. Of course, this is just our personal opinion but we are 100% curious to learn new website from your comments!
#1 http://sourceforge.net/
In our opinion FileHippo is the #1, a lighthouse for all the other freeware distribution sites. The programs here are open-source and you can find freeware for all the most used OS: Linux, Windows and Mac
#2 http://www.filehippo.com/
Full of real freeware, well structure and it has developed a powerful “update checker” http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/
#3 http://www.techsupportalert.com/
Well organized, contains brief but effective review about each software
#4 http://download.cnet.com/
The software is categorized between Windows, Mac, Mobile and a very interesting Webware category for the online stuff. Use “The Download Software Finder” to be sure to surf between real free programs
#5 http://majorgeeks.com/
Good site, full of stuff and Shareware programs are clearly labeled!
#6 http://www.tucows.com/
An evergreen site; it was one of the first to share freeware, interesting but it does not contain a huge variety of freeware as others site
#7 http://www.nonags.com/
Elementary graphics but it contains a site menu and the proposed software is really freeware so….
#8 http://www.freewarefiles.com/
Interesting site but sometimes you find old version of proprietary software distributed as free…
#9 http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/
Well structured, easy to navigate and updated. Watch the tags (freeware or free trial) before downloading programs!
#10 http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Freeware/
Basic graphics; it has many freeware but you have to dig them from the lists.
This week in our Freeware Page we posted a brief review about FileHippo Update Checker for Windows. This Updater is very light (just 155 Kb) and very fat. This particular checker has uses the large software database contained on FileHippo.com and in just 2-3 seconds is able to detect all the necessary updates and it also find the beta version ready to be installed. During the installation you can decide if FileHippo Update Checker has to run at each start-up or if you prefer to use it only when you prefer. Anyway, FileHippo Update Checker easily shows the results of the available updates on a html page on your browser. Recommended!
This week, in our Freeware Page, we posted a brief review about Rocketdock, a terrific “Apple style” dock for Windows. We decided to test Rocketdock on a Windows XP and the results were positive and we did not find bugs. Rocketdock is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista and the brand new Windows 7 using just 10MB of RAM. To add a new icon it is sufficient to drag and drop it into the bar and it will be automatically added. To cut off an icon you have to drag it from the dock to an empty space on the desktop and it is immediately removed. To conclude we suggest this freeware because it is really customizable and easy to add & tune to your existing desktop. Recommended!
This week, in our Linux Page (in Spanish), we have added a brief post about allmyapps.com a useful website which allow you to easily install software on Ubuntu (8.04, 8.10, 9.04, 9.10) and Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7). After a simple registration you can choose the free software you prefere to install and in few clicks and some minutes you are ready to use your new programs. Allmyapps.com, automatically recognizes the OS you have installed on your PC. On allmyapps we found many useful softwares and every month more programs are submitted by readers and added to the website for the installation. For Windows we also positively tested another website ninite.com where we found many free softwares ready to be dowloaded and automatically installed. Easy to use and useful!
This week, in our Freeware Page, we posted a brief review about Gmail Tips, a terrific pdf printable guide with tons of useful information to better manage your gmail account. You can decide to read online the document at www.gmail.com/tips or download the printable pdf version. As for martial arts the tips you receive are related to your skills and are progressively more difficult. At the “white belt” level, I am sure, you will find some feature you have been using for years but when you become a “black belt” or a “Gmail master” you are able to deeply enjoy all the Gmail’s most useful “secret” features. For example you learn how to remotely sign out your Gmail account when you forget it open at the office or in an internet cafe’. Moreover, properly using the Gmail filters, you will able to send automatic responses reducing the time wasted in routine replies. We are sure that everyone will find other useful tips depending on what he/she is looking for. Useful!
Today, in our Freeware Page, we posted a brief review about SmartViper, an online search engine which allows you to analyze your website and all the similar sites built by your competitors. SmartViper is very simple to use: you can directly insert the web-address of the site you want to analyze or a keyword to find your direct competitors and find datas related to their websites. SmartViper has a double goal: you can study deeper your site and try to improve it or find the “winning” features your competitors use to predominate. SmartViper generates complete and interesting reports which are full of links to its blog where you can learn more about developing some peculiar characteristics of your website. Something to try!
This week, in our Freeware Page, we posted some thoughts on pdf readers. Some days ago I had some problems with my office Windows XP PC because the hard disk space was ending. As usual, I cleaned up the disk using CCleaner and I earned ca. 200MB of space and proceed to compress the hard disk. Unfortunately, this strategy did not solve my problems so I decided to have a deep look into the numbers of Kb each program occupied on the HD and I was surprised in noticing that Acrobat Reader needs more than 200MB of HD space to work. Then I focus my attention on Foxit Reader and I discovered that it occupied more or less 7MB of HD space. Obviously I disinstall Acrobat Reader and earned ca. 190MB of hard disk. Today, I am not able to affirm that I solved all my problems with my PC but I am confident that, with an intelligent use of CCleaner, I will able to go ahead for another couple of months without contacting the administrator for a new HD and stop my work for (sic) at least a couple of days. Something to think about….
Computer Borders 