Using Gmail as mail client for an ISP account

2

First off, this is not really for me, but for a customer.

The customer used to go to iGoogle, then click the Mail link. This brought them to GMail, where they sign in with their username@telus.net account into Google. That was their Google account, and GMail basically acted like an email program for them. Last Friday, GMail kept coming up saying that they need to create a GMail account to use GMail, and that would replace their account.

When I turned on the laptop and checked their browser history, it follows the story. Their @telus.net account is their username, no doubt. The password matches their Telus account for accessing Webmail, but it doesn't look like Telus is secretly forwarding to GMail. So my question is, is it possible to use GMail as an actual email client if you don't have a GMail address? If so, how can I enable it?

Canadian Luke

Posted 2011-10-25T18:14:55.620

Reputation: 22 162

Question was closed 2011-10-26T08:56:26.987

I did make a GMail account for this customer, so question will be closed shortly. I set up GMail to accept the @telus.net login, and send mail FROM the telus account, so it should be transparent to the customer – Canadian Luke – 2011-10-25T18:34:57.740

It should be transparent to your customer, providing the address is set as the default, but it's not quite transparent to the recipient since the @gmail address is still present in the email headers and depending on the recipients email client, this might be reported as From <gmailuser>@gmail.com on behalf of <Senders Name> (<username>@telus.net) - but I don't think this can be avoided, unless perhaps you are using Google Apps as @Dave suggests? – MrWhite – 2011-10-25T19:12:21.367

I don't think so... It's a personal email address. He may be right, but it's currently not possible for me to check that :/ – Canadian Luke – 2011-10-25T20:05:58.450

Answers

2

Signing up for Google Apps allows you to create email addresses using your own Domain, then you can log into GMail using something other than "@gmail.com".

Dave

Posted 2011-10-25T18:14:55.620

Reputation: 63

Telus is a multi-billion dollar ISP in Canada, and I don't think they own it. I do know about Google Apps, but this definitely wasn't it – Canadian Luke – 2011-10-25T18:34:12.063