A guide to setting up Outlook Express

Setting up Outlook Express to manage your email account is very simple and only takes a few minutes to finish. You will need to know your ISP's (Internet Service Provider's) outgoing mail server, but that information should be easily found in your welcome packet. With that information in hand, simply follow the instructions below to complete your email set-up.

Getting started

Open Outlook Express and click the Tools menu. Select the Accounts tab. This will bring up a dialog box. In it, you will find an Add option. Now choose Mail.

Internet Connection Wizard

You should now see the Internet Connection Wizard. It will ask you for some basic information. Be aware when filling this out that whatever you put in, the Name field is what people will see in the From column of their inbox, so choose whatever you would like to identify you to your email recipients. That finished, click Next.

Server Type

In the Server Type field, you will need to select POP3, POP3 mail, or POP3 account, depending on how it is listed on your particular set-up. As long as it is the POP3 option, it will be correct.

Incoming Mail Server

Next, you will need to provide the Incoming Mail Server. This will be mailed.(Your Domain Name).com.

Outgoing Mail Server

Here is where you will need the information referred to earlier. As mentioned, the information will most likely be found in your welcome packet. If not, it will be necessary to contact your ISP as the address of the mail server will vary by region.

Account name and password

On this screen, you will obviously need to enter your account name and password. Your account name will be your full email address, and your password will be whatever you assigned to the account.

Finish

Click Next, then Finish and you will be done.

Check your mail

Clicking Send And Receive at the top of the Outlook Express page will check your mail and, though it is empty now, send out anything waiting in your Outbox. You will most likely receive a confirmation and welcome email from Outlook Express right away.

Common problems

The most common problems encountered will be not being able to enter the account and not being able to send mail properly. If you are stuck on the account name and password page, be sure that you are using your full email address, including the @whereever.com, and that you are typing your password correctly. It will be case sensitive. If you are having an issue with not being able to send mail, the most likely problem is that the information in your ISP's mail server field is incorrect. Double checking this should fix the problem.