How can I configure my email client

The most popular email clients outside of the enterprise are probably Microsoft Outlook Express, Apple's "Mail" and Mozilla Thunderbird. Links to information on configuring each of these mail clients is given below.

First some general tips:

Microsoft Outlook Express

Microsoft information on configuring Outlook Express.

Windows Mail (all Microsoft Vista users)

Microsoft Vista information on configuring Windows Mail.

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla information on configuring Thunderbird.

Mac OSX "Mail"

Apple information on configuring Mail.

Others

If you use one of the myriad other email clients (Eudora, The Bat, Mutt) then we recommend you use Google to find configuration information in the first instance.

Further help

If you require further help you can raise a service call in the usual way. We can send a technician to your site to configure your email client but a charge is usually levied for this service.

Some FAQs:

I get a warning that my quota has been exceeded, what gives?
We set a quota to avoid abuse of the email servers and to avoid people using them as the sole email backup. You should ensure you keep a local copy of your emails (eg by using POP which copies all emails to your own machine). It is good practise to delete emails that are no longer required - particularly spam. Some email clients need to be told that they can delete emails from the server.
Can I increase my quota?
Yes, just ask - there usually isn't a charge for this up to (a very large) limit.
What's IMAP?
POP3 and IMAP are two (2) ways that your computer can contact the server to receive emails. POP3 downloads all the emails and keeps a copy locally - but you can set it to leave a copy on the server too. IMAP goes the the server to get the emails as you access them and so needs a faster connection (broadband is fine, not dial-up); it keeps a local cache but the servers copy is authoratitive.
The result is that IMAP can be useful for those that want to access their email from more than one computer.
Long winded example POP: I use pop3 and keep a copy on my server. When I boot my desktop I delete the 50 spams I've received and read my 5 emails. I go to work and want to re-read one of my emails. I fire up my laptop and receive the same email that I got earlier, including all the spams, I can't tell if it's been read or not.
Same situation with IMAP: I use IMAP which keeps all my email on the server. When I boot my desktop I delete my 50 spams and read my 5 emails. I go to work. I fire up my laptop and view my IMAP account - the spam is deleted and I can see the 5 emails I received but they are marked as read. Receiving emails takes a little longer.
Do you seriously think I should write down my password!?
Yes. At first this seems contrary to good security. However, it is preferable to set a hard password (at least 8 characters, including at least one number and one non-alpha character like £ or #) and write it down in a secure place than to set an easy password (like a dictionary word, name, place, etc.). The suggestion is that your wallet is quite secure - we're saying that we think you should value your passwords like you value your credit cards. At the end of the day it's up to you. For added security you could write 10 random strings of characters down ... you just have to remember which one is your password. Don't write your passwords down on your computer nor leave papers with passwords in an unsecured location.
I can't contact the servers at all - not to send or receive
Check if yahoo.com is available via your browser. If not it's probably your connection to the internet that is at fault.
If major internet sitea are available then check if you can view your own website (assuming you have one on the this domain). If you can't view the website it's probably a server problem - please contact us and let us know.
If you can access your own website, the username and password are definitely right but you still can't get the mail server to work with your mail application then there are several possibilities.
  • Your computer is blocking traffic to the ports (eg. POP3 = 110, SMTP = 25) required to use that service. For example with Microsoft Windows built in firewall or with a third-party firewall application. On a *nix machine it may be iptables rules need adjusting.
  • Your router or network adminstrator is blocking access to the particular ports required.
  • Your ISP is blocking your access to the ports used to send and/or receive email. If you're having problems sending email this is usually the culprit. Several large ISPs (eg Orange at the time of writing) only allow you to send emails using their servers — just set their server for outgoing mail and your should be away.
  • The server address could [also] be blocked.
  • Some other issue.

If you know what you're doing then you could try pinging the server to make sure it's working. If the server is up then you can telnet in, eg. telnet mail.example.com 110 (for POP3) and type the raw commands necessary to check that the server is working. By this stage however you should definitely have contacted us!