How to set up Outlook Express 6.0 - a newbie’s guide
I’m regularly asked to help set up an email account on friends and colleagues PC’s. So here’s a quick how-to on getting Outlook Express set up to send and receive email using a POP3 email account provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
While this guide covers Outlook Express 6.0, much of the stuff covered here will apply equally to other email client software applications such as Outlook and Thunderbird, or Apple’s Mail.app on the Mac.
Before I begin, what do I need?
Before you begin to set up your email account in Outlook Express, you’ll need the following 5 pieces of information as a minimum:
- Your new email address
- Your new email account name
- Your new email account password
- Your Internet Service Provider’s POP3 (Post Office Protocol) server name
- Your Internet Service Provider’s SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server name
The process
Setting up an email account in Outlook Express 6.0 is a pretty straight forward process:
- Firstly, Open Outlook Express 6.0. No surprises there I’m sure.
(If you’re prompted to run the Internet Connection Wizard, skip to step 5, otherwise continue with step 2 and we’ll meet up in a few moments…) - From the Tools menu select Accounts
- Select the Add button from the top right corner of the Internet Accounts window and choose Mail:
The mail account configuration section of the Internet Connection Wizard will appear. - In the Display Name field, enter a name for your mail account. This ‘friendly’ name will appear in the receiver’s From field in their email client when you send them messages so use something that readily identifies yourself to your friends or colleagues. Use maybe a nickname, or ‘The Jones Family’ or something along those lines.
Click Next to continue - On the next screen, enter the email address assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider.
Click Next to continue -
On the Email Server Names screen enter the name of the POP3 and SMTP Mail servers exactly as given to you by your ISP.
(The POP3 Server is used when you RECEIVE mail. The SMTP server is used for SENDING mail.)
Click Next to continue.
-
On the Internet Mail Logon screen, enter your new account name and password in the appropriate fields. Uncheck the Remember password box if you prefer Outlook Express to prompt you each time it checks for new mail on the server. Leave the Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) unchecked unless instructed by your ISP.
Click Next to continue.
-
Click Finish then click Close
Congratulations! That’s it. Outlook Express is now configured. Send a test message to a friend and make sure it all works as you expect.
Despite all the great advice above…
After all that, my advice for those needing a new email account, would be resist the temptation and to NOT use the email account that your ISP provides. Web based email solutions such as Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail etc are far more convenient. Outlook Express (and other email clients) can be configured to work with web based email services too, so your new skill will not go to waste!
If you’d like to give one of the web based email solutions a go, I can personally recommend Gmail - Google’s excellent email service since:
- It’s completely free!
- It’s accessible from anywhere with Internet access - great for when you’re on vacation!
- You don’t have to change email addresses if you change Internet Service Providers.
- If your computer crashes in a blazing heap, you don’t lose all your email and your address book
- You get access to a number of other great services from Google like Google Spreadsheets, Google Talk and more.
- It has very effective spam filtering
- Did I mention it’s free??
Gmail is currently an invitation only service, but luckily for Easy PC Tips readers, I have 20 (yes, twenty!) Gmail invites up for grabs. Email me if you’d like one - see my contact us page to reach me, or if you’ve followed along with my Skype intro, be really clever and request one in a voicemail… but get in quick before they’re all snapped up.
Enjoy!
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