So let's work our way through the steps.

Step 1
In Gmail, under Settings, "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" select to Enable POP -- either for all your mail or everything starting today.

"All Mail" appears to have a rolling date and, once you're set up, it only sees mail newer than 7 days ago that hasn't already been downloaded. I set up the account on Monday, created some mail, re-installed the Notes client several times over the next few days, and by Friday I wasn't getting all the messages from the Gmail Inbox. Two weeks later, after several more re-installs, nothing came down.

I needed to reconfigure Gmail to "enable POP for all mail, including mail that's already been downloaded".

Step 2
Configure your Notes client. Note that Notes is on neither the supported nor unsupported list of Gmail clients. So don't expect a lot of sympathy or support. Different versions of Notes will have slightly different options. As I said earlier, I used the Notes 8 client.

Not all of the configuration can be done through the prompts during setup. Much of it has to be done from File->Locations->Manage Locations after you open the client. The important items are under Accounts and Locations.

Your client will probably chose the Location of Online or Home during setup. Edit whichever Location it chooses and put in your Gmail account name, the gmail.com Internet name, and whether the mail is going directly to the Internet or through a Domino server.

Since my mail wasn't going through Domino, I left all the lines on the Servers tab blank. On the Mail tab, I set the file location to Local, though it doesn't seem to make a difference, and made sure to select "Send outgoing mail Directly to Internet".

Getting them to talk
Gmail requires SSL for both POP and SMTP. During client setup, you have an option of selecting SSL for incoming (POP) but not for outgoing (SMTP) mail. SMTP has to be configured after Notes is installed.

The client won't negotiate a connection successfully, reliably. While it negotiated an SMTP connection for me once it refused to negotiate for POP. I found the protocol "V3.0 with V2.0 handshake" works for both SMTP and POP, as shown in Figure A.

FIGURE A


Make sure you set the SSL protocol version correctly. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The other odd quirk is that sometimes some messages appear as white text on a white ground or black text on a black ground.

While disconcerting, the fix is simple: go into File->Preferences->Basic Notes Client Configuration and put a check mark next to "Disable embedded browser for MIME mail". You don't have to close the client, just save the change and re-open the message.

Downsides? The Gmail calendar entries don't download into Notes though you can send them to your cell phone. Otherwise? I object to Notes changing the time stamp on all my messages. If there's a way to prevent this, I haven't found it. Right now I have to check the internal time stamp on a message to see when it arrived at the server. I wonder if IMAP would solve that?

DominoPower Contributing Editor Nancy Hand is primary Notes admin at a remote site for a large corporation. She earned both Novell and Microsoft certifications in network engineering before being introduced to Lotus Notes. The 3,000 users she supports constantly challenge Nancy to keep up with their creative missteps. With a background in art, she brings a different perspective to working with computers and their users. In the past, Nancy has worked in the fields of accounting, criminal justice, and museum display. To balance the challenges of the job, she continues to draw and sculpt between stabs at writing novels and designing knitware.