How to Secure Gmail with HTTPS (and still use Gmail Notifier)
For all the love I have for my gmail account (I use one gmail account to manage all my other accounts), the one thing I couldn’t get over is that it wasn’t using SSL, which is the main way to secure communications from your browser to the Google servers. If you happen to see “https://…” in the URL of an web page, you’re on a secure page (assuming the site uses proper encryption and certificates).
So when, oh when, will Google finally allow me to use https in the URL???
Finally, you can now use HTTPS (SSL) with Gmail!
How to Secure Your Gmail Account
Google has made securing your account very easy, although it’s buried in the options page:
- Log into your gmail account
- Click Settings in the top right
- In the General tab, scroll down to the bottom of the page
- In the section labeled Browser Connection, choose Always use https
- Click Save Changes
- Log out and log back in to see that you’re now using HTTPS in the URL!
Now the next problem I realized is that my Gmail Notifier couldn’t connect to check email. I knew it was because notifier still wasn’t using SSL, so I did some searching…
How to Secure Your Gmail Notifier Agent
This only applies to Windows users:
- Download http://www.google.com/mail/help/downloads/notifier_https.zip
- Open up the folder.
- Double-click on the file called notifier_https.reg to install it.
- Click ‘yes’ when you’re asked to confirm if you want to add the information to the registry.
- Restart the Notifier.
Voila! You can now see the bright blue icon in your toolbar to notify you of your Clever Dude email subscription!
Great find, Clever Dude. I’ve been wondering about this for a while.
I’m assuming that this won’t impact my ability to access gmail using my BlackBerry?
@Lawyer, it’s not just for that browser or computer, it’s for anytime you log into the gmail web client. If you’re downloading your gmail emails using a pop account (or some other protocol), then no, it shouldn’t affect you.
Thanks, I am surprised there is not more news about this. I have not liked the fact that was missing but as of yet had not made too much about it. I feel better knowing that it is using SSL.
This worked beautifully!
Thanks so much!
I have been trying and trying for weeks, all hail the Clever Dude!
:Dax
That option is there for me, but it’s missing on my wife’s account. Too weird. We can both login, but when I go to the bottom of the options on hers it ends with the Attachment setting (there’s no Browser Connection setting).
It doesn’t matter which computer or browser we use either, the option never shows up on her account!
A good Free Cross platform Gmail notifier (windows xp, windows vista, windows 7, mac os, linux) with cool animations http://home.b2labs.com/b2-gmail-notifier-freeware-animated-gmail-notifier
Thanks so much…. this was bugging me to no end!