I have to pay to use .mac address?

[skedealz]

I want to set up my .mac account on mail. I made the .mac account while setting up an ichat account and it works fine on ichat, but do i have to buy mobileme to use it to send and receive email? Is there no way to set up the .mac account so that it's not the mobileme type when i set it up? I notice that that under type, theres mobileme, pop, imap and exchange. Is it possible to set up the .mac account using one of the other 3 options? and if so, how would i do that? I don't know what incoming and outgoing servers i should use, etc.,

[robbieduncan]

If you want email you have to pay: it costs money for Apple to provide this so they charge you .

[skedealz]

thanks for the quick reply, i guess i'll just set up a new gmail account to link with mail

[*Sandy*]

If you want email you have to pay: it costs money for Apple to provide this so they charge you .I still remember when it was free :(

[shfreelance]

I do pay for .mac/mobileme, because I like how it integrates so early with the computer. But I don't get why we have to pay for it, since there's so many free wants our there. But if it's since there's no advertisement and stuff, then it's completely worth it in my book...

[macwall]

i look for deals when buying mobile me, the integration of the email, idisk, and picture galleries makes it worth the money for me

[bilboa]

But I don't get why we have to pay for it, since there's so many free wants our there.

You answered your own question. There's nothing to get: you DON'T have to pay for it if you don't want it, since there are plenty of free online email/address book/calendar solutions that you can use. You might CHOOSE to pay for MobileMe if you want what it offers -- tighter integration with Macs and iPhones, and no ads. If you don't need either of those things, then I'd say Google's gmail/address book/calendar/notepad/etc combination are much better than me.com.