[PLUG] Need new e-mail account

[John Jason Jordan]

For years I have used a free e-mail account at Hotpop.com for most of
my e-list activity (but not for PLUG). For the past several days I have
been unable to access my mail with Sylpheed, which normally accesses
the Hotpop account without problem. I can log in via the web and I see
183 messages. Unfortunately, Hotpop's web interface does not allow
reading mail in a browser - you have to download it with a mail client. 

This is not the first time Hotpop has done this to me. Now, since all
the messages in the inbox are either from an e-list (which are archived
online anyway), or are spam, I just deleted them all. Then I canceled
the Hotpop account. 

So now I am shopping for a replacement free e-mail account. I started
with Gmail, but I can't get it configured so that Sylpheed can download
messages. There are a lot of specific requirements and I must have one
of them off. I got it to the point where Sylpheed goes to the Gmail
account, but the GUI window then hangs. Sylpheed has a log utility so
you can see what kind of messages you are getting. When I try to
download messages I get 

* Connecting to POP3 server: pop.gmail.com...
* Incorporation cancelled

Does anyone know what incorporation is?

An additional fact: When I am at PSU I cannot send e-mail unless I send
it through mailhost at pdx.edu using my pdx.edu account. This works OK,
and it works even from home. Hence, I have always configured my e-mail
accounts in Sylpheed to download from the account's pop server, but to
send via mailhost at pdx.edu. Comcast doesn't seem to mind, and Hotpop
didn't either. On the hunch that this might be what is screwing up my
Gmail account I changed it to use smtp.gmail.com and to use my Gmail
username and password. However, that doesn't work either. I can't send
from the Gmail account any better than I can receive.

Any suggestions welcome, including suggestions for a different free
account.