Yahoo Mail Free IMAP access

Adding Yahoo Mail Free IMAP support with the “ID ("GUID" "1")” command. Read this on Wikipedia on how you can access the Yahoo IMAP servers, but before logging in a non-standand IMAP command has to be sent “ID ("GUID" "1")”. Just wondering is this will be implemented in further versions of Thunderbird. Below is the paragraph from Wikipedia.

Free IMAP and SMTPs access to yahoo mail

It is possible to get direct IMAP access without signing up for paid access nor using software like YPOPs! or FreePOPs. Yahoo operates IMAP servers (imap.mail.yahoo.com in particular), which are globally accessible. However they require a specific, but non-standard IMAP command to be sent before login is done. The command is: “ID ("GUID" "1")” and it is relatively easy to modify any email client to send it. In fact this is the method currently employed by YPOPSs! and FreePOPs. There are modified version of Mutt (e-mail client) and Mozilla Thunderbird available that send this command.

There is also an IMAPs server running at imap-ssl.mail.yahoo.com. It is using SSL on the standard port 993.

In addition it is also possible to send mail through mail clients as yahoo also operates an SMTPs server (smtp.mail.yahoo.com). It is necessary to enable SSL through port 465. The username is the user's Yahoo mail address and the password is the same as for webmail access, this applies to both IMAP and SMTPs access.

Source:

1. http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/topics/yahoo_mail_free_imap
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Mail#Free_IMAP_and_SMTPs_access

Yahoo Mail Free POP access

For a long time, Yahoo allowed POP access only for Premium accounts, so people used custom applications, like Y!Pops to have this feature. This is not longer the case. To enable the POP3 access for your free yahoo mail account, all you have to change is the Preferred Content, setting it to Yahoo Asia.

STEP-1: 

Your country/language setting – what Yahoo! Mail calls your “Preferred Content” – can be adjusted by following these steps:

1. Click on your user name which is located at the top of your Yahoo! Mail page, next to the Yahoo! Mail logo. This will open a pull-down menu.
2. Click Account.
3. This will open a new window in which you will be prompted to re-enter your password. You will then be re-directed to your Yahoo! ID Card.
4. Under "Account Settings" in your Yahoo! ID Card, click the Set Language, site and time zone link.
5. Click on the link next to Regional Site and Language and from there you can select from a list that best meets your content needs.
6. Click Save.

ADDITIONAL:
Are you seeing garbled characters in a non-US-language email? If so, you can change Yahoo! Mail’s character encoding setting. It’s easy! Here’s how:

1. Select the message with garbled characters/
2. In the toolbar that appears above the message, click on the gear icon on the far right, and then select Language Encoding from the pull-down menu that appears.
3. From the list that appears, select the encoding that matches the message’s content.

Note: Only one character encoding set may be viewed at a time. And in this case, changing your browser’s encoding setting will not work.

STEP-2:

Enable POP access and change settings:

• Click the Options menu in the upper-left corner, and select Mail Options from the pull-down list.
• From the list on the left, click POP & Forwarding, then Set up or edit POP & Forwarding.

STEP-3:

Client Settings: Is there a problem with your email client settings? Please make sure that you've configured your email client with these settings:

• Incoming Mail (POP3) Server: pop.mail.yahoo.com (Use SSL, port: 995)
• Outgoing (SMTP) Server: smtp.mail.yahoo.com (Use SSL, port: 465, use authentication)
• Account Name/Login Name: your Yahoo! ID (your email address without the "@yahoo.com")
• Email Address: your Yahoo! Mail address (e.g., user@Yahoo!.com)

Now you can read your mail from any POP client; I use Gmail "Check mail using POP3" feature to read mail in Gmail and it has all the settings I need already in it.