how do I set up apple mail to get my email?

Hi elliesbatmitzvah,

The step-by-step walkthrough guide that beebeesa provided hit it right on the nail. Hopefully, this got your e-mail setup, but if not, let us know what the errors you are getting, and we can further investigate what issue might be causing it to not work.

In the solution at http://forums.att.com/t5/U-verse-email/how-do-I-set-up-apple-mail-to-get-my-email/m-p/3608133#M485 it says:  

6. Type your full email address, including the domain name in the Email Address block.

     IS THIS THE NEW ADDRESS OF THE NEW ACCOUNT OR THE EXISTING PRIMARY ADDRESS?

7. Type in your password in the Password field.

     SAME QUESTION AS ABOVE

8. Click the Continue button. 

     NO MATTER WHAT I ENTER, IT FAILS.  HOW CAN IT FAIL IF IT'S NEW?  WHY DOES IT FAIL IF IT'S FUNCTIONING FOR AN EXISTING ACCOUNT?

I am on Mac Snow Leopard 10.6.8, Mail 4.5, with a U-Verse account,  My primary email is @att.net

I logged into my U-verse sccount with a saved email address and its password.  They were accepted.

On the Apple Mail Preferences Add Account window, I entered my Full Name, the same User Name (email adddress) and Password and hit Continue.  And I got:  "The account  "(my email address)" already has this host name and user name"  and won't let me continue.

It seeeme logical to enter the desired name and password of the account to be added, but that fails.  

What is the program testing?  It can't check a new name and password against what is stored on the host/server  because they haven't been created yet.  It can check that they match what is on the host/server but then why doesn't it let you continue?

I have previouslly tried to follow the offered solution many times.  If in the Add Account window I enter the name and password for the account I want to create, I get a message that the Name/Password don't match up.  If I enter the name and password of my primary account, I get a message that it's already in use on the host computer.  It's Catch 22.  Just what name and password is it looking for?

In the mail preferences selecting the account tab there is a column on the left that lists all your active accounts.

You can click on each to display the details to see if there is one that you already set up & you can use that to access your primary account.

If youy are try to create a new account, do that first with your provider via web access. THen you suould be able to add it to the macmail without getting an error message

Continuing:  I see that I repeated myself because I just posted a reply not noticing that there were helping messages in the interim.  I comprehend that the server computer wants verification that I'm entitled to an additional Mail account.  But if I feed the server account identification back to the server in the Add Account window, why does it complain that it's already there?  Just what would make the server happy?

The macmail is just a means of accessing e-mail servers that is more efficient than accessing them via a browser, As such, you are just giving the macmail info to find and access an existing account.

Based on that, I am guessing that the error of mismatch of ID & password is coming from the mail server because there is no account with that ID/PW.

The already exists message is coming from the macmail because you aleady have have a record with that info. in macmail.

Are you using any accounts in macmail & have you any records there? If you are not using but do have records, use the minus sign to remove all records to eliminate the duplication. Them it should accept that one with the Plus sign.

For the new one you habe to create it on the e-mail server first, using browser access.