There are several reasons why you may be unable to use AT&T Mail to retrieve messages from an email account you have with a different provider. First make sure that the email provider supports POP access. If they don’t support POP access, you can’t retrieve messages from them using an external mail program, such as AT&T Mail.
Email providers that don’t support POP access - AOL®
- RocketMail®
- Hotmail® - free version. You can purchase POP access for Hotmail for a fee. (If you have questions about this service, contact Hotmail.)
Troubleshooting tips- Make sure there are messages on the external mail server. If you use an email program that deletes messages from the server, there may not be any messages to download.
- Make sure you entered the correct information when you configured your external mail settings. If you entered the incorrect mail server address, port number, username, or password for that account, AT&T Mail won’t be able to retrieve your external mail messages.
- Check for problems on your local network or your external mail server. If you recently started having problems and haven’t changed your settings, contact your local network administrator or your external mail server's administrator for help.
- Check to see if the server you're attempting to connect to is behind a firewall. If it is, the network administrator may able to make changes to give you access to your account.
Note: A firewall is a combination of hardware and software that protects a network's security.