Yahoo Mail On Your Palm

Update:  Yahoo now charges for POP access so this project can no longer be done unless you pay.  The instructions below have not been tested since Yahoo began charging for POP access.

Equipment I Used
Palm: Palm IIIc running PalmOS 3.5.2

Phone: Motorola StarTAC ST7867W
Phone Service Provider: Sprint PCS
Internet Service Provider: Mindspring (Earthlink)

Before You Begin
In order to use your Yahoo mail on your Palm you’ll need either a Palm modem, wireless modem for the Palm or a cell phone that can be used as a wireless modem so that you can access the internet.  (You can find instruction for how to set up your Palm to use a cellphone as a wireless modem here.)

You’ll also need need an email client for your Palm (not the standard Mail applet).  For this demonstration I used MultiMail Pro 3.1.

Setting Up Yahoo
The first step toward setting up your Palm to use Yahoo Mail is to configure your Yahoo Mail account for POP access.

  1. Go to mail.yahoo.com and sign in to your account.
  2. Click the Options link in the upper right corner.
  3. Click the POP Access & Forwarding under Mail Management.
  4. In Step 1 choose Web and POP Access.
  5. In step 2 choose Text messages only.
  6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Submit button.
  7. Print the resulting page. It will have all of your settings on it.

Setting Up MultiMail Pro
Now that you have your Yahoo Mail settings it’s time to enter them into MultiMail Pro.

  1. Launch MultiMail on your Palm.
  2. Tap the Menu button.
  3. Tap Setup Wizard in the Options menu.

  4. In the Setup Wizard tap the Next button.
  5. In the outgoing mail server field type smtp.mail.yahoo.com.
  6. In the name field type your name.
  7. In the email address field type your email address exactly as it appears in the printout you made from the Yahoo page. Your screen should now look something like this:
  8. Tap the Next button.
  9. In the incoming mail server field type pop.mail.yahoo.com.
  10. In the Mail Type drop down be sure POP3 is selected.
  11. In the Mail Server Username field type you Yahoo login exactly as it appears in the printout you made from the Yahoo page.
  12. Tap the Mail Server Password field, type your Yahoo password and tape the OK button.   Your screen should now look something like this:

  13. Tap the Finish button.

MultiMail is now configured to check you Yahoo Mail.  Just connect to the internet, launch MultiMail Pro and tap the Get button and you’re on your way.

Can I access my Yahoo Mail With A Different Palm Mail Client?
Yes.  Any Palm Mail client that can receive the POP compliant mail program for the Palm should usable with Yahoo Mail.  I have not personally tested any other mail clients.  If you have used a mail client other than MultiMail Pro to use Yahoo Mail please email me and let me know what program you tried and if it worked.