How Do I Read My Email From Another Computer?

Problem: I'm going on vacation, and I want to be able to read my Kearney.Net email. Is there a way that I can do this via the web?

Explanation: We have received many calls to our tech support desk regarding this very issue. Kearney.Net does not provide a web-based system for reading email. For technical reasons, if we were to provide a service like this, we would have to limit the size of customers' email messages. Currently, we do not limit the size of any emails, and we believe that it is important for customers to receive any email message rather than placing restrictions on size (America Online, for example, restricts the size of their customers' email messages). 

Solution: There is a way around this, however. It involves setting up a Hotmail.Com email address. This process is free, and is painless to set up. The reason that we set up a Hotmail.com email address is so we can program Hotmail.com to read your Kearney.Net email account. This way, you can check your mail from any computer that has internet access by simply going to http://www.hotmail.com, entering a sign in name and password, and clicking the POP Mail button. We recommend printing this tutorial first; that way it will always be handy as you go through the steps to set up an account.

1. Go to the Hotmail.com home page by typing www.hotmail.com in your web browser's "Address" or "Location" field and hit your "Enter" Key or "Return" Key.
2. This will take you to the Hotmail.com home page. In the upper right corner of the screen, you will see some text that reads "New User? Sign up Now!". Click on the "Sign Up Now!" text. This text is circled in red in Figure 1 below.

 

Figure 1: The Hotmail Main Page

3. This will take you to the Hotmail Account Information Page (see Figure 2). Here, you will pick a sign-in name and password. The sign-in name and password that you choose here are completely separate from your Kearney.net sign-in name and password. They are designed to log into Hotmail.com alone. Pick a sign-in name. There can be no spaces, and it's a good idea to stick with lower case letters.
4. Next, type in a password. The password must be at least 8 characters in length. Again, there can be no spaces. Re-enter the password a second time.
5. In the "Secret Question" box, type in a question that only you know the answer to. This is required by Hotmail in the event that you forget your sign-in name or password, so they can verify who you are. This prevents someone from simply asking Hotmail to give them your password.
6. Enter the answer to your secret question. In our example below, we're paying tribute to Senator Byrd's dog Billie.

 

Figure 2: The Account Information Screen

7. If you see a screen that tells you that there has been a registration error, then the sign in name that you have chosen has already been picked by another user. Hotmail will give you some other choices based on your original sign in name. Choose one and click on "Submit New Sign-in Name".
8. You will see a License Agreement, the Terms of Service. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click the agree button. You may also see a screen congratulating you on your new account.
9. Next, a screen will pop up asking you to subscribe to some WebCourier Free subscriptions. We recommend not signing up for anything here, as this may cause unwanted "junk" email to show up in your email. For more information on Junk Email, or spam, click here.
10. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click OK.
11. You will now be taken to the Hotmail.com Inbox section. You can think of this screen as a kind of email program that is located on the internet instead of on your computer. On the left hand side of the screen you will see several options. Click on the option that is labeled "POP Mail".
12. The "POP Server Settings" should now appear. Fill in the blanks similar to the way we have done below in Figure 3. Your information will differ. You will need to enter your username and password for your Kearney.Net account. You may be on mail2.kearney.net, pop3.kearney.net, or mail.unk.net. If you are still on mail.kearney.net, you will need to call us (865-4736) so that we can move your email over to pop3.kearney.net. The server mail.kearney.net is going to be deactivated in the near future. For more information regarding mail.kearney.net click here
13. Make sure to check the boxes labeled "Leave messages on POP server" and "Download new messages only".
14. Click "OK".

Figure 3: POP Mail Option