I was very happy going back to using Lotus Notes after working with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. I started my career with Lotus Notes but a change of jobs and priorities made me switch to Microsoft Outlook. Again a new assignment brings me back to using Lotus Notes. Over the years, I also started using Gmail and like to configure it as POP where I can download and read my email at leisure (if there is such a thing).

Using a mail client shouldn't be this hard. Lotus Notes seriously lacks the ease of use, slickness and end user oriented features.

Using a mail client shouldn't be this hard. Especially after coming back from Microsoft Outlook I felt that Lotus Notes seriously lacks the ease of use, slickness and end user oriented features (try adding a colourful signature and then tell me) that are a given with Microsoft Outlook. But that's material for another blog post. Just skimming through the options and configuration I could not easily find a way to configure a POP account. Of course you are asked about configuring different types of account during your first setup but if you want to configure a Domino server then basically you don't have options but to skip others and configure a Domino server only.

I tried configuring Gmail and ended up spending almost two full days in finding out the correct method. Of course there are some articles on the web which document the way to configure Gmail in Lotus Notes. But all of them fall short of giving out the complete procedure. I somehow managed to piece together the story by reading the articles, Google group posts and help. I hope this will be complete in all respects.

1. Create a Lotus Notes database file to store your POP emails: Lotus Notes does not create a file automatically as Thunderbird or other mail clients do but you have to manually point the mails to flow to a file that is already existing.

2. In the local Address Book, create two accounts for accepting incoming email and sending outgoing email on Gmail. Names are not important but the configuration on the two accounts is!

Account document for Incoming Gmail:

The Basics tab

a. Account name: Can be anything (I chose In Gmail)

b. Account server: pop.gmail.com

c. Login Name: Your gmail email address (complete with the @gmail.com)

d. Password: Your password

e. Protocol: POP

f. SSL: Enabled

g. Only from Location(s): Doesn't matter. Although I would recommend creating a location document specific for Gmail if you are also using Domino Server. I chose creating a location (Gmail).

Protocol Configuration tab: There is only one field here and it doesn't matter what you do with it.

Advanced Tab: This is the most important tab.

a. Port Number: 995

b. Accept SSL site certificates: Yes (Most of the articles on the web tell you to choose No here. But it does work. Trust me. I have tried it)

c. Accept expired SSL certificates: Yes.  (Most of the articles on the web tell you to choose No here. But it does work. Trust me. I have tried it)

d. Send SSL certificates when asked (outbound connections only): No.

e. Verify account server name with remote server's certificate: Disabled

f. SSL protocol version: V3.0 with V2.0 handshake

3. Click on Save and Close to save the document and exit. Now you will need to create another account document to handle the outgoing email.

Account document for Outgoing Gmail:

The Basics Tab

a. Account Name: Can be anything. I chose Out Gmail

b. Account server name: smtp.gmail.com

c. Login Name: Your gmail email address (complete with the @gmail.com)

d. Password: Your password

e. Protocol: SMTP

f. SSL: Enabled

g. Only from Location(s): Doesn't matter. Although I would recommend creating a location document specific for Gmail if you are also using Domino Server. I chose creating a location (Gmail).

Advanced Tab: This is the most important tab.

a. Port Number: 587 or 465 (Both are SSL port and both work)

b. Accept SSL site certificates: Yes (Most of the articles on the web tell you to choose No here. But it does work. Trust me. I have tried it)

c. Accept expired SSL certificates: Yes.  (Most of the articles on the web tell you to choose No here. But it does work. Trust me. I have tried it)

d. Send SSL certificates when asked (outbound connections only): No.

e. Verify account server name with remote server's certificate: Disabled

f. SSL protocol version: V3.0 with V2.0 handshake

4. Once these two documents are created, I would recommend creating a location document to ensure that you separate your gmail from your other Domino based account on the client. The steps to create are:

5. In the same local Address Book, choose New --> Location

Basics Tab:

a. Location Type: Local Area Network

b. Location Name: Can be anything (I chose Gmail)

c. Internet Mail Address: Your gmail email address

Leave the rest as it is.

Servers Tab:

a. Home/Mail server: pop.gmail.com

Leave the rest as it is.

Ports tab: No changes (ensure TCPIP is checked)

Mail Tab (Most important):

a. Mail file location: Local

b. Mail file: My Gmail.nsf (whatever you created in step 1 above).

Update: A couple of readers pointed out that I had missed an important step in the configuration how-to. So here it is. Step C has been added to include the missed step.

c. Internet domain for Notes addresses when connecting directly to the Internet: gmail.com

d. Send Outgoing mail: directly to Internet

Leave the rest of the fields as it is.

6. There is no need to change the rest of tabs. Click on Save and Close to create the document.

Change to the the new location and you will see Gmail getting downloaded in the mail file you created.