Setting up Outlook Express
First you have to tell Outlook Express where to retrieve the mail from. You must have an email account set up somewhere already, such as Hotmail or Earthlink or any other. You'll need your username and password as well as a couple of other bits of information...
- Start Outlook Express, and on the Tools menu, click Accounts.
- In the window that opens up, make sure the Mail tab is Selected. Click Add, and then click Mail to open the Internet Connection Wizard.
- On the Your Name page of the wizard, type your name as you want it to appear to everyone who gets email from you, and then click Next. Most people use their full name, but you can use any name – even a nickname or business name – that people will recognize.
- On the Internet E-mail Address page, type your email address and then click Next. Here, bear in mind that this is the address people will return mail to. You can use your mailbox account address or, if you have one, your business domain address.
- On the Email Server Names page, you'll probably want to leave the incoming mail server type as a POP3 server, but in some cases this should be set to HTTP or IMAP. Check the list of POP and SMTP servers below for details on this and the other two boxes, "Incoming Mail" and "Outgoing Mail." Once you're sure you've got these right, click Next. (You can easily change these details later if incorrect.)
- On the Internet Mail Logon page, type the username/email and password you normally use to login to your webmail account. If you want, you can also check the Remember Password box if you don't want to be prompted for the password each time you send and receive mail. Then click Next.
- Click Finish. You're now ready to send your first email!
CHARTER
incoming pop is pop.charter.net
outgoing smtp is smtp.charter.net
OTELCO
incoming pop is pop.otelco.net
outgoing smtp is smtp.otelco.net
Under servers tab, Place a check mark beside "My server requires authentication"
under advanced tab, change the number 25 in outgoing mail to 587
Check to see if you've set it up correctly
First off, try to send a message to yourself. Does the message send successfully? If you receive an error message about the SMTP server, then you've probably got it slightly wrong. Check the list of
POP and SMTP servers below, or check with your internet service provider. Note that some webmail accounts do provide an SMTP server, but some don't, but in any case you should try setting it to your local ISP first. If you successfully sent your email, it's likely that you didn't receive it straight away. Try pressing "Send and Receive" again, and keep trying until you do receive it. Depending on the webmail account you use, your message may arrive within moments or after a delay of five, ten, or thirty minutes – in fact, it's not unheard of for Hotmail messages to take a full day to arrive! You could try checking your webmail account too, just to see your message arrive there before retrieving it with Outlook Express. Send yourself various emails just so you can see how it all works.
Don't forget to view all the options Outlook Express offers
It's well worth browsing through the various settings and choices you have available in Outlook Express. Click
Tools > Options, then read each option carefully and decide whether you want to check or uncheck the box.
Popular POP and SMTP servers
Hotmail works a little differently to most mailbox accounts. When you go through the setup wizard, instead of selecting the default
POP3 choose
HTTP and then choose
Hotmail. You'll notice you can then skip the incoming and outgoing mail fields. However, most of the other mailbox accounts should be configured using the following information. "Incoming" is the POP3 server while "outgoing" is the SMTP server. Note that while you
can use the outgoing servers listed here, ideally you should use the outgoing server provided by your local internet service provider, such as Comcast, Bellsouth, etc (see additional list below).
Adelphia Cablepop3 incoming:
mail.adelphia.netsmtp outgoing:
mail.adelphia.net AOLpop3 incoming:
imap.aol.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.aol.com*Note: Choose "IMAP" as the email server type in Step 5 of
setting up Outlook Express AT&T WorldNetpop3 incoming:
postoffice.worldnet.att.netsmtp outgoing:
mailhost.worldnet.att.net BellSouthpop3 incoming:
mail.bellsouth.netsmtp outgoing:
mail.bellsouth.net BlueLightpop3 incoming:
pop.mybluelight.netsmtp outgoing:
smtp.mybluelight.net Cableonepop3 incoming:
mail.cableone.netsmtp outgoing:
authmail.cableone.net Charterpop3 incoming:
pop.charter.netsmtp outgoing:
smtp.charter.net Comcastpop3 incoming:
mail.comcast.netsmtp outgoing:
smtp.comcast.net Compaq.netpop3 incoming:
pop3.compaq.netsmtp outgoing:
smtp.compaq.net Compuservepop3 incoming:
pop.compuserve.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.compuserve.com Coxpop3 incoming:
pop.central.cox.netsmtp outgoing:
smtp.central.cox.net Dotsterpop3 incoming:
pop.registerapi.comsmtp outgoing:
smtpauth.registerapi.com Earthlinkpop3 incoming:
pop.earthlink.netsmtp outgoing:
mail.earthlink.net DirectNICpop3 incoming:
pop.directnic.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.directnic.com Google Gmailpop3 incoming:
pop.gmail.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.gmail.com Junopop3 incoming:
pop.juno.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.juno.com Lycos Premium Mailpop3 incoming:
pop.premiummail.lycos.co.uksmtp outgoing:
smtp.premiummail.lycos.co.uk Mindspringpop3 incoming:
pop.mindspring.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.mindspring.com Modwestpop3 incoming:
mail.modwest.comsmtp outgoing:
mail.modwest.com MSNpop3 incoming:
pop3.email.msn.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.email.msn.com Netscape Internet Servicepop3 incoming:
pop3.isp.netscape.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.isp.netscape.com*Note: Other countries may use different variations.
NetZeropop3 incoming:
pop.netzero.netsmtp outgoing:
smtp.netzero.net Rediffpop3 incoming:
pop.rediffmailpro.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.rediffmailpro.com Supanetpop3 incoming: pop.supanet.com
smtp outgoing: smtp.supanet.com
Tiscalipop3 incoming:
pop.tiscali.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.tiscali.com Verizonpop3 incoming:
incoming.verizon.netsmtp outgoing:
outgoing.verizon.net Yahoopop3 incoming:
pop.mail.yahoo.comsmtp outgoing:
smtp.mail.yahoo.com Popular local SMTP servers- Comcast - smtp.comcast.net
- America Online - aol.com
- cwnet.com - mailhost.cwnet.com
- Bellsouth - mail.bellsouth.net
- Earthlink - mail.earthlink.net
- Mindspring - smtp.mindspring.com
- Netcom - smtp.netcom.com
- PacBell - mail.pacbell.net
- Pipeline - smtp.pipeline.com
- QuikNet - smtp.quiknet.com
- Verizon - outgoing.verizon.net or smtpout.verizon.net
These lists are not exhaustive, although I got pretty exhausted compiling them. Hopefully you'll find all the information on this page correct, but occasionally these internet service providers and webmail accounts do update things without my permission.
