If you choose to use a third party client (Microsoft Outlook, Mac Mail, Thunderbird, etc.) to access your Gmail@Valpo account, you can setup an IMAP connection to the Gmail servers. Please note that there are some potential drawbacks to accessing your email this way.

1. You may discover duplicate messages within your account because Gmail uses labels instead of folders. Messages with multiple labels will be duplicated to be located within multiple folders in a local desktop client.
2. Filters and organizational measures setup within Gmail will not transfer over to your local client.
3. The Gmail contact list may not be available in the local client.

Google has a help page that lists specific problems known about IMAP connections: http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78771.

Setting up IMAP

To setup an IMAP connection, you will first need to enable IMAP within the Gmail interface.

1. Log into your Gmail@Valpo account.
2. Click on the gear in the upper right hand corner; select Mail Settings.
3. Select the link for "Forwarding and POP / IMAP"
4. Make sure "Enable IMAP" is selected.

You can choose which labels will by synced via IMAP as well. While in the Mail Settings, select the link for "Labels." Here you will see all of the labels that exist within your Gmail@Valpo account and you can select the ones that will be needed in your local client.

To setup your local client, you will need to input the Gmail IMAP server information when creating your account. These directions are located in the Google help pages at http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78799.

Please note that not all third party clients are supported by Gmail. The list of supported clients is available at http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=75726&ctx=mail.