AOL Mail To Be Accessible Via IMAP

jfruhlinger writes "News.com.com is reporting that AOL's e-mail service, long accessible only via AOL's proprietary, monolithic app, will be available via IMAP starting Thursday. The story notes that this is part of a series of initiatives from AOL to move content beyond its walled garden and into standards-based formats such as HTML and IMAP that any Internet app can access. Supposedly a 'a dramatically different direction' for Netscape is in the works, too."

And the best IMAP Client is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mozilla Thunderbird [mozilla.org]. They've even recently added IMAP IDLE support! (It's in the nightlies.)

Unofficial AOL Email FAQ

[bcolflesh]

Accessing the AOL Mail System using [aol.com]
IMAP & Authenticated SMTP
An Unofficial Guide

Re:Yummy!

[garcia]

no. In fact, when I was working for ATTBI a while back, people would get broadband just so that they could use AOL over it...

AOL email is currently accessable via the web and their client (either dialup or broadband).

Re:Yummy!

[tkrotchko]

Only email.

The "core" of AOL is the content that is inside of AOL. In that regard, AOL is not fundamentally different than it was 15 years ago (or so).

Now, allowing email via IMAP is pretty significant, but the community of AOL will still remain.

not new in the UK at least

[Anonymous Coward]

AOL UK have offered this since about January - AOL Keyword: IMAP has details

Re:Wish AIM were next

[fanfriggintastic]

But there IS something [trillian.cc] better than AOL's version

MOD PARENT DOWN.

[Anonymous Coward]

Only email.

Wrong. You can access email via a web-based interface.

Re:Wish AIM were next

[cygnusx]

It still is. TOC is a stripped down version [carleton.edu] of OSCAR, which is what AOL's IM clients (and other licensed IM clients like IBM's Sametime) use.

Re:AOL on the outs

[bhtooefr]

And they still do. It costs (AFAIK) (for cable) about $5 more than RoadRunner. It's the same basic service, but without the RoadRunner brand and with a cheaper version of AOL's BYOI (Bring Your Own ISP) service (which costs about $7/mo, IIRC).

Re:And the best IMAP Client is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently support is there, but it may need to be enabled:

http://resin.csoft.net/cgi-bin/man.cgi?section=8&t opic=imapd [csoft.net]

"Setting the IMAP_ENHANCEDIDLE to 1 in /etc/courier-imap/imapd enables realtime concurrent folder status updates."

Re:And the best IMAP Client is...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're wondering what IMAP IDLE is, and why you should care, read this review of IMAP email clients [msdn.com] -- by an MS developer who works on their email software (the review's conclusion may surprise you).

10 bucks/month

[zogger]

both netscape and walmart (and probably some others) have AOL linked/styled/ whatever you want to call it dial-up service for 10 clams a month. I was going to get it, instead of the 20$/month I have now from a mom and pop local ISP, but upon inspection you HAD to use their crappy interface and browser to get an account and surf through them, at least near as I could figure out. If anyone knows a way around that I would be interested. 10 bucks is ten bucks. 120 a year savings would buy me some more RAM for instance. I'm in a rural area that has few local number dial in options (2 actually, the walmart number and the local mom and pop), and forget broadband. You take what you can get. I'd love to get like-say- speakeasy dsl, or T mobile wireless unlimited data, but neither is in my locale, and any sort of new extended covereage wi-fi is still a ways off. Until then, dial up is a lot better than nuthin....

Re:10 bucks/month

[Anonymous Coward]

upon inspection you HAD to use their crappy interface and browser to get an account and surf through them, at least near as I could figure out.

I use Wal-Mart Connect as an ISP. It's not too bad, the browser software they provide is pretty ancient with an ugly interface. You can minimize the browser and use IE, Mozilla, or what have you. I've even gone so far to hide the browser as using a window hider called cmdow [commandline.co.uk]. A simple

cmdow "Wal-Mart Connect" /hid

at the command prompt removes the window button from the taskbar, saving some memory in the process. If you use the Wal-Mart software to browse, images are compressed and all your connections go through Compuserve's slow proxy servers. The software crashes about once a month, and I've noticed it has problems responding after a system Standby. As far as I can tell, all email must be done through their GUI browser. For 10 bux a month, I can live with it.

Re:Wish AIM were next

[fanfriggintastic]

Trillian has all of the useful features of AIM, tons of useful features not available in AIM, support for skins and plugins, but none of the ads or spyware (WebTangent).

I have both AIM for Win32 and Trillian running right now. Currently memory usage:
AIM: 6060K
Trillian: 5456K

Which client is bloated?

Only their software?

[Transcendent]

...AOL's e-mail service, long accessible only via AOL's proprietary, monolithic app...

AOL Mail has been available online via HTTP [aol.com] for quite some time.

Re:Wish AIM were next

[The Lynxpro]

"You can use AIM Express from any browser, you have to allow the window itself to pop-up though. AIM even has a Linux client. Read all about it.Where IM is concerned, the market is cornered because the market is cornered. If someone were to come out with an awesome IM service, would anyone use it? "Hey, what's your AIM screen name?" 'I don't have one, I use Florbnab.' "What's that?" People already have established their screen names in various IM networks already"

Not to mention AIM is also on the Palm OS and PocketPC platforms, and every major mobile phone operator in the US. And as you noted, Linux. Can MSN do that? Nope - because they won't.

AIM will also be on the PS2/PS3 online project. Sony never got around to releasing their hard drive accessory for the PS2 (looks like Square did), but you can best bet AIM will be the IM client straight out of the PS3 box.

Re:YES!

[Anonymous Coward]

The insult puppet dog is from Conan O'Brien, not Letterman.

Re:Funny comment on NPR

[ionpro]

Two words: stack reset. IE is just integrated enough into the OS to get utterly fucked when the TCP/IP configuration of Windows is the slightest bit off. For any version of Windows prior to XP, remove TCP/IP and reinstall it. For XP, open a command prompt and type "netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt", and then merge Winsock and Winsock2 keys from a working registry. There are utilities [members.shaw.ca] which will do it for you.

Re:IP stack and access to AOL content

[wawannem]

It's not that AOL's IP stack is different, it is that AOL uses a different data link protocol than most dialup ISPs. Rather than opening a PPP session, when you connect to AOL, you establish a bastardized L2TP session with a machine referred to as a BERP. The BERPs essentially act as proxies for everything you attempt to access once you are connected. There are open source attempts to reverse engineer their protocols with pengAOL being the only one I can remember off the top of my head.

In regard to using proprietary protocols, it isn't that AOL has some master plan to lock customers into this proprietary infrastructure, it is just the way AOL has evolved. Imagine for a second, that you worked at an ISP with 22 million customers (up to 35 million at your peak). There is a point where the open protocols just don't fit your needs any more. AOL simply patched a solution together that has been working ever since.

Already available

[mstockman]

AOL's e-mail service, long accessible only via AOL's proprietary, monolithic app, will be available via IMAP starting Thursday.

Just for the record, it's already available and I've been using it for a couple of weeks now. There's an unofficial Web site describing it at AdamKB's site [aol.com].

There are a few quirks I've noticed... AOL auto-deletes older mail that you've read unless you move it into the Saved Mail folder (max. 20 MB, I believe). Unfortunately, users of AOL's Mac client or the Web mail interface don't have a Saved Mail folder... that's created by the AOL 9 for Windows software only. AOL's IMAP implementation doesn't allow creating folders, so I have to find a Windows machine with AOL 9 installed to create this.

Also, there are some people who have had problems sending through AOL's authenticated SMTP server using Apple's Mail.app client, but that's probably an Apple bug, not AOL.

This is definitely a great move... I've been using Claris Emailer for years because it was the only authorized third-party AOL mail client, so now I have alternatives. And I've had my AOL address since 1990, so I'm reluctant to give it up.

Re:They Could Do THis All Along

[dossen]

FWIW, Hotmail also has a modified IMAP interface that is accessible via Outlook Express. One wonders if they will follow AOL's lead in this; it would not be all that difficult for them to do so.

It is not IMAP, it is called HTTPMail and is a derivative of WebDAV. And it is not just for OE, hotwayd [sourceforge.net] is an neat little gateway that allows any POP3 client to access hotmail mailboxes.