Friday, May 14th, 2010
The iPhone is a portable computer which just-so-happens to also have phone capabilities.
I use it myself to read emails, news, and blogs.
Recently, we’ve had a number of people come in and ask for their iPhones to be set up to receive email, so I’ve written this post to explain how it’s done.
Setting Up
You need your email address, password, and the name of your subscription service (O2, or Vodafone).
Turn on the iphone, and tap the Settings icon (looks like gear wheels).
Scroll down to “Mail, Contacts, Calenders” and tap it.
Tap “Add Account”.
Choose “Other” (we’re not quite as big as Google or Yahoo yet 
).
Tap “Add Mail Account”.
Enter your details on this page then tap “Save”. The “Description” field is optional.
The phone will take a few seconds to check some details.
IMAP should be highlighted in blue. Leave that as it is.
Change Host Name in Incoming Mail Server to “postfix.webworks.ie”.
Enter your email address in the User Name section.
In Outgoing Mail Server, if you’re using O2, then enter “smtp.o2.ie”. Otherwise if you’re using Vodafone, enter “mail.vodafone.ie”.
Leave the Outgoing’s User Name and Password fields blank.
Tap “Save”.
After a few seconds, a popup will appear complaining that a certificate may not be valid. Click “Cancel”, then click “Save” again, and “Ok” if it appears.
Your email is now set up.
Click the square button on the phone to get back to the main screen. You can use your Mail application now to read email.
Receiving Pushed Mail
If you want the email to be pushed automatically to your phone every few minutes (like SMS), then do this:
Tap “Settings”, then “Mail, Contacts, Calendar”.
Tap “Fetch New Data”.
Make sure “Push” is set to “On”, and choose “Every 15 Minutes” (or which ever you want).
You’re done. hit the square again to get back to the main screen.
Note
Most laptops and office computers are set up by default using the “POP3″ method of receiving email. This is the equivalent of a postman delivering your letters to the house – if you’re on the road, you can’t read the letters unless you go back to the house.
If you want to receive your emails to the iphone while on the road, you need to either turn off the home machine, or change it so it uses the “IMAP” protocol instead (this one is the equivalent of leaving the letters in the post office, so you can read them while out and about).