using mutt to fetch email from hotmail, yahoo

[recondite]

I have several accounts (gmail, hotmail, and yahoo) and I want to use mutt to read and send emails from each one. I figured out how to do this for gmail, but am having trouble with hotmail and yahoo.

Here is the .muttrc file I use for hotmail. I seem to be able to get on (???) but when I do there is no mailbox. Also, I'm not sure what the port numbers should be. I googled for the correct information and had to paste together bits and pieces of information from different sites, none of which I trust, and this is what I ended up with.

set from = "x@hotmail.com"
set realname = "Mr X"
set pop_user = "x@hotmail.com"
set pop_pass = "password"
set folder = "pop3s://pop3.live.com:110"
set spoolfile = "+INBOX"
set header_cache =~/.mutt/cache/headers
set message_cachedir =~/.mutt/cache/bodies
set certificate_file =~/.mutt/certificates
set smtp_url = "smtps://x@smtp.live.com:587/"
set smtp_pass = "password"
set move = no
set imap_keepalive = 900

I heard that yahoo used to allow free pop access, then stopped. Is that still the case? If not I'd appreciate getting the correct URLs for POP and SMTP for yahoo.

Later I want to download all my mail, store it on my F16 box, and get rid of most of these accounts, but for now I'd like to keep them active so I'm doing it this way.

---------- Post added at 12:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ----------

I get "No mailbox is open"

[smr54]

You might prefer using something like getmail or fetchmail to get the mail.

Not sure about hotmail and yahoo.

http://home.roadrunner.com/~computertaijutsu/mutt.html

[recondite]

Well, I'm trying to use mutt so I don't need to work with too many different mail clients. Reasons for using mutt are:

1. Seems to come installed with Fedora (as of F13) so anywhere I go, it should be there.
2. I was learning it anyway because it let's me send attachments from the command line.
3. Supposed to be powerful.
4. Tried and true. I'm trying to avoid what might be fads; I want something that will be around for a long time.
5. I would have the same issues with any other client I use; i.e. finding the right port numbers and URLs.

[smr54]

IMHO, the premise of mutt is that it's a very Unix-y, if there is such a word, program. It does one thing and does it well (or, as their motto goes, perhaps less badly than others). It relies upon other programs to do the fetching, sending, and filtering, though it can manage all of those, at least to a point.


I always use mutt. However, I always use it in conjunction with other programs. I agree with much of your reasoning in the above post, but do feel that any sort of sophisticated mail gathering is better done with a 3rd party client.

[stevea]

Just an opinion - but you should listen to smr54. fetchmail and getmail are simple to setup and work wonders.

What you are doing now is collecting POP3 mail and dropping it into a local MBOX. Any email client can do that - but it's not very pretty or useful. MBOX is very fragile, annoying to backup or search. For anything but 1990s era home use you want Maildir. Getmail can drop emals directly from your ISP or gmail or ... and put it into a Maildir. Dovecot is basic to setup and can serve-up a maildir. If you don't want to setup your own server ,sendmail/postfix, - don't just point your mailclient's outbound to an ISP or gmail or ... .

Of course if you use mutt maybe the 1990s does seem futuristic

[shedyed]

I used to complain about not being able to get my netzero thru POP + mutt, but they had a page on how to get your nz mail on your smartphone thru POP. Now, the kind folks at nz made it plain and simple. See if hotmail or yahoo have a similar page (how to get mail on your smart phone) and maybe it could be done. But if they have their own 'app', that would mean they're either pay-first or proprietary.

You could check 'getmail' and configure that instead. You're making mutt do some heavy lifting. There's an easy howto to pair up getmail AND mutt to get gmail. Once you've got them up and running, then you can make more 'rc' files for the other email accounts through getmail, instead of mutt. I think even in mutt's comments it admits to not having that pop portion tested to death.

The plus side of configuring getmail and mutt is you wind up with a backup archive of your gmail.

[recondite]

I had only two yahoo accounts so I got all my emails and contact information off of them and I'm closing them down. According to a number of web sites, yahoo.com does not allow this to work unless one pays for it. Some other yahoos might work (e.g. if you use yahoo.nz and yahoo.co.uk I think). Anyway, it's moot since I'm done with yahoo, just to simplify my life a bit.

However, I'd still like to get hotmail to work. I need to know the correct port numbers and URLs. Gmail works with mutt so why wouldn't hotmail? I have been searching for the right information but everyone out there seems to be guessing at port numbers and URLs, etc, and some get it to work, and some don't. Where is the authoritative source? Port numbers can differ with live.com, hotmail.com, live.ca, live.nz, etc, and SSL or no SSL, IMAP, POP or POP3, etc. That's my problem: too many options (ports, protocols, and URLs) to try out. I would have the same problem whether I used mutt or some other client.

[RupertPupkin]

Don't know about Hotmail but you'll have a tough time getting your Yahoo! mail through mutt; the loophole that existed to allow POP3 mail downloads in the free Yahoo! mail (by switching your account location to Yahoo!Asia or Yahoo!UK) was closed some time in December, apparently. If you didn't exploit that trick by then you're out of luck now. Your best bet is either to try some third-party tool like FetchYahoo! or pay $19.99/yr to get the Yahoo! Mail Plus with POP access.

By the way, mutt is the poor man's Alpine.

[recondite]

Sounds like the other programs people are suggesting are worth looking into, when I find time. But for now, I think I should have called this thread "configuring Linux clients to read webmail" or something like that. My problem probably has more to do with finding the correct settings than it is about mutt.

[VernDog]

Don't know about Hotmail but you'll have a tough time getting your Yahoo! mail through mutt; the loophole that existed to allow POP3 mail downloads in the free Yahoo! mail (by switching your account location to Yahoo!Asia or Yahoo!UK) was closed some time in December, apparently. If you didn't exploit that trick by then you're out of luck now. Your best bet is either to try some third-party tool like FetchYahoo! or pay $19.99/yr to get the Yahoo! Mail Plus with POP access.

By the way, mutt is the poor man's Alpine.

Same thing regarding Hotmail. In the '90's it was free and pop was available. Not anymore. Its still free but only as a web login.

[bbfuller]

Sssshhhh!!

you'll have a tough time getting your Yahoo! mail through mutt; the loophole that existed to allow POP3 mail downloads in the free Yahoo! mail

let sleeping dogs lay!

My free Yahoo(UK) e-mail account, which I've had for some eight years, is still popping nicely thank you. Though I believe it's been some time since new accounts did.

[recondite]

On my Win7 computer I was able to use Thunderbird to access one of my hotmail accounts at hotmail.com. When I entered my hotmail address it used something called the Mozilla ISP database to fetch the URL and some other information as follows:

POP3: pop3.live.com SSL, port 995.
SMTP: smtp.live.com STARTTLS (port 465 I think).

It works on Thunderbird/Win7 so it must be possible for hotmail. Still no luck with mutt/Linux however, either sending or receiving. Attempting to send I get a timeout, and attempting to receive I end up with no mailbox.

---------- Post added at 05:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:49 PM ----------

I heard that ports on Linux below 1024 (?) were blocked. Could it be a port blocking problem? If so, why does gmail work with mutt on Linux?