So here's the dillema: I have two email addresses, my gmail account for general use, and the university email address for… university use!
Both email systems are web-based, which has two downsides: it means I have to login to two seperate websites several times a day, which is a right royal pain in the rear end, so ultimately what I'd like to do is to have my uni email AND the Gmail email (that sounds cool) download into one mail client, either Mozilla Thunderbird or the Apple Mail.app program.
But herein lies the problem: the uni network uses the incredible, open standards, open source software suite called Microsoft Exchange (note the sarcasm), which is impossible to get working with anything other than Microsoft's own proprietary-protocol compatible programs, such as Craplook or Craplook Express. So that rules out use with Thunderbird and Apple Mail.
Plus, apparently, you can set up Gmail to use POP3 to download your messages into a mail client of your choice, but as of yet neither Thunderbird or Apple Mail have been able to make a successful connection.
Now with the internet back online at home (???) I'm going to try again. Wish me luck, it looks as though I'll need it!