Hopefully you will have already discovered our Members Access page, giving you quick access to our webmail services, especially Roundcube Webmail (rw). The convenience of Webmail is great when you’re out and about and not at your usual PC, enabling you to get to your latest emails without fuss. We would not recommend storing all your mail on the server long-term, though, as it may eventually consume all of your web space quota, causing your contacts’ emails to be returned. Thus, it is best to download them regularly to your local computer and, with this goal, we have written this email configuration tutorial to help you to get your email client up and running quickly and easily.

Settings

Before we proceed, refer to the Email Settings page and take a note of the latest recommended settings, as the ones in this tutorial (specifically, those shown on the “Advanced” tab in Step 12) are out of date.

Choose an Email Client

Your first job is to find an email client that you will be comfortable with. While most of us have heard of Microsoft Outlook, its cost and licensing requirements for home and small business users can be prohibitive, particularly for those who need an installation on more than one computer. With this in mind, this tutorial will concentrate on Outlook Express, which comes bundled at no extra charge with Microsoft Operating Systems.

Step-by-Step Guide to Configuring Outlook Express

You will find Outlook Express somewhere in your Programs Menu, which you may find via the Windows Start button / Programs Menu / Accessories.

Step 1

  1. Select Tools / Accounts…
  2. Click Mail tab
  3. Select Add / Mail
  4. Type your name – this will be shown in the “From” column of your recipients’ Inboxes when they receive an email from you

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 01

Step 2

  1. Type the email address of the mailbox on your mail server – this will be shown in the “From” field when your recipients open your emails
  2. Click the Next button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 02

Step 3

  1. Ensure that the POP3 email protocol is selected in the drop-down list
  2. Type the name of the Incoming mail server
  3. Type the name of the Outgoing mail server. Usually, this will be given to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
  4. Click the Next button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 03

Step 4

  1. Enter your email account login. If your email address does not work, for instance, at the end, you can receive email but not send it, try substituting the @ sign with a plus (+) sign, as shown
  2. Enter your password, and tick the checkbox so that you don’t have to enter it every time you connect to the server
  3. Click the Next button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 04

Step 5

  1. Click the Next button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 05

Step 6

  1. Select the account that you have created (select Tools / Accounts… / Mail tab, if the dialog box has closed)
  2. Click the Properties button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 06

Step 7

  1. Ensure the General tab is selected
  2. Enter your email address in the “Reply address” field. The easiest way to do this is to highlight the “E-mail address” field (press CTRL+A keys together to select all), then press the CTRL+C keys together to Copy, and then move the cursor to the “Reply address” field and press the CTRL+V buttons together to Paste

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 07

Step 8

  1. Ensure the Servers tab is selected
  2. Tick the “My server requires authentication” checkbox
  3. Click the Settings button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 08

Step 9

  1. Select the “Log on using” radio button
  2. Enter the account logon details for the Outgoing mail server. Usually, this will be given to you by your ISP
  3. Enter the password, and tick the “Remember password” checkbox so that you don’t have to enter it every time time you connect to the server
  4. Click the OK button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 09

Step 10

  1. Select the Connection tab
  2. Leave the “Always connect to the account using” checkbox unticked

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 10

Step 11

  1. Select the Security tab
  2. Leave the options at defaults

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 11

Step 12

  1. Select the Advanced tab
  2. Tick the checkbox “Leave a copy of messages on server”. Without this, all email will be downloaded and then deleted from the server, and hence will no longer be available when you access your email via the Webmail service
  3. To ensure that all the email your account receives does not eventually consume all of your web storage quota (causing undeliverable messages to be sent to the sender), tick the checkbox “Remove from server after X days”
  4. Click the OK button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 12

Step 13

  1. Click the Close button

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 13

Step 14

  1. Select the Inbox mail folder
  2. Click the Send/Recv button on the toolbar to simulataneously send any email waiting in your Outbox mail folder, and download any email waiting on the Incoming mail server
Tip: Try sending an email to the address you have just configured, to verify that everything is working correctly (you may have to wait a minute, and click the button again). If it is, then you will see the same message in your Sent Items and Inbox folder.

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 14

…but where are the actual files?

  1. Select Tools / Options…
  2. Click the Maintenance tab
  3. Click the “Store Folder…” button
  4. If you wish to move your data to another Store Location, take a note of the path of the “Outlook Express” folder shown, then close the application, move the folder using Windows Explorer, start Outlook Express again, and lastly use the “Change…” button to point to the new location
Tip: Remember to take regular backups of the folder shown in the “Store Location” dialog box!

Outlook Express Setup Guide Step 15

As always, if you still aren’t successful after following these steps, please get in touch using our Contact Us page, and we will be happy to help you isolate the problem.