Gmail setup issues

I received a few emails lately requesting that I blog about setting up Gmail. Sometimes it is not quite as straightforward as one would have thought. Even if you manage to get through the settings, tap Send/Receive and, if you are unlucky, you get a message saying "An error occurred while downloading messages. Verify that you have network coverage and that your account information is correct and then try again." I remember when I first setup Gmail on my Pocket PC, I skipped the detect settings automatically to type the Incoming/outgoing mail settings manually. While this is the right way to go when settings are not automatically downloaded to your device, it is also recommended that you let the software acquire the settings online by itself.
The download error message almost always pops up after manual configuration of Gmail. So, I would type pop.gmail.com for the incoming mail and smtp.gmail.com for outgoing emails and ignore the port numbers. Automatic configuration will add the numbers 995 and 465 to the settings mentioned above. Once you have these numbers, which by the way are ports used to access gmail servers; you will never experience any error. My advice: Let Gmail do the setup for you. But if you want to be in control, then remember to type the port numbers.