I'm using a low RAM laptop so I want to use the mail program in BASH to check my emails as GNOME runs very slowly. I am using the Fedora core 5 distrobution.

I tried:

fetchmail pop.ntlworld.com

this seams to be along the right lines but it uses my local username prompting:

enter password for chris@pop.ntlworld.com

whereas I want my ntl username:

<ntlusername>@pop.ntlworld.com

I get the impression that I need to change something in ~/fetchmailrc but the file doesn't exist!

How can I sort this or if I'm barking up the wrong tree what should I be doing? Any help would be appreciated.

Instead of looking for ~/fetchmailrc, you should be looking for a hidden file: ~/.fetchmailrc. Note the dot in the name, .fetchmailrc.

In Konqueror, click on View - Show hiddef files. From a console, ls -a ~ will show hidden files.

Thanks I should have thought of that but there is still no .fetchmailrc file. I used ls -a and found a file called .fetchmail.pid but that only contains the number 2810. I also tried

locate .fetchmailrc

as the su and still got no results!

Can I create the file myself?

You can create the file yourself, I did. Look at the man page for fetchmail and it should tell you about what kinds of things go in it.

Thanks guys everything is working fine now and I get my mail lightning fast... I'm a happy bunny.

If anyone else hap the same problem here's what I did:

create the file ~/.fetchmailrc in your preffered editor with the line

poll pop.whatever.com protocol pop3 username "whatever"

save it then change the permission as follows

cd ~
chmod 600 .fetchmailrc

#that is read & write for user only

you can also add

password "whatever"

to the end of ~/.fetchmailrc but I prefer to be prompted for my password.

sorry posted the same message by mistake

again don't know why but the same message posted - ignore!