How-to setup your email

I frequently hear questions about home email set-up from a lot of people! To be honest, getting your email client software, such as Outlook or Thunderbird, set-up to send and receive email with your ISP's (Internet Service Provider) POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3) and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) servers is really quit simple. Most of the time, your ISP will provide a CD or at least a phone number to get you started.

For your computer to connect to your ISP's POP3 and SMTP servers, you will need at least an email address, username and password for authentication, and the addresses of the POP3 and SMTP servers.

First, you must create an email address for yourself. For example, an email address would look similar to email@yourisp.net. Usually, you can simply type in your desired email address, submit your requested email address to your ISP, and then your ISP will notify you if your particular email address is available or not. If the desired email address is not available, then your ISP will most likely offer you variances of your desired email address which are not being used.

Secondly, you will need a username and password to gain access to your ISP's POP3 and SMTP servers. Your username can be simple but I would have a password that consisted of lower and capital letters, numbers, and be at least 8 characters long such as 1A6d90bZ. Once you have your desired username and password combination, submit your username and password to your ISP and then your ISP will notify you if the username is already taken or not. Again, your ISP will most likely offer you variances of your desired username which are not being used.

Finally, you will need the addresses of your ISP's POP3 server and SMTP server. Your ISP should provide the POP3 and SMTP addresses to you. For example, a POP3 address may appear similar as incoming.yourisp.net and a SMTP address may appear similar as outgoing.yourisp.net.

Now that you have your email address, username and password, and the addresses of your ISP's POP3 and SMTP servers, you can now enter all the information into your desired email client. Since the vast majority of people have Microsoft Windows and that Outlook Express is readily available, I will be demonstrating how to enter all the information needed to get Outlook Express sending and receiving email. In Outlook Express, perform the following if the internet connection wizard did not automatically appear when Outlook Express was loaded.

1. Open Outlook Express
2. Click on Tools
3. Accounts
4. Mail tab
5. Add
6. Mail
7. Follow the prompts and insert your information accordingly until the wizard finishes.

Now that your email address, username and password, and server addresses are configured with Outlook Express, we need to tell Outlook Express that the SMTP server requires authentication.

1. Click on Tools
2. Accounts
3. Mail tab
4. Select your email account
5. Choose properties
6. Servers tab
7. Check the box that says my account requires authentication
8. Press ok.

You should now be able to send and receive email messages to and from your ISP.