Outlook Express Setup

If this is your first time starting Outlook Express, (OE), cancel out of all the wizards since they don't do the job completely anyway.  This should leave you in the main OE window.  But that main window is rather confusing, so there are several OE options that make it a little more user friendly that I'll cover here first.  Personally, I want my email client to be set up such that:

If all this sounds reasonable to you as well, then lets get started.

First of all, look to the left side of your screen, find the "Inbox" listing and click on it.  Next, go to the "View" pull-down menu and click on "Layout".  That will bring up the box you see above, and all you need to do is match the settings both top and bottom.  Click "OK" when you're done, and that will return you to the main screen.

Next click on the "Tools" pull-down menu and select "Options".  This will bring up the "Options" dialog box you see below with the 10 notebook tabs on top.  You should already be on the "General" tab.  Check the top box, "When starting ...", and in the middle section, the last box, "Check for new messages....".  Also on that line, change the value from every 30 minutes to 2 minutes.  Occasionally you'll get into a running email dialog with a client, and you don't want there to be a 30 minute interval before you see their next response!

Next, go to the "Read" notebook tab.  On the first line, (Mark Messages Read ..."), change the value from 5 to 0.  When I click on an email and delete it, I don't want it showing up in my "Deleted Items" folder as unread just because I did it in under 5 seconds!

Finally, go to the "Security" notebook tab.  In the top section, there are two radio buttons and two checkboxes.  UNcheck the last checkbox, "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened..."  You have an antivirus program to protect you from viruses, and to not allow ANY attachments is like killing a mosquito with an artillery barrage ... a bit of overkill.

When you're done, click "OK", then close and restart OE.  Now you should have a window that looks something like the one below.

You'll note that I have a "Saved items" folder, (and as you can see by the plus sign beside, even more sub-folders under it), and you don't.  No problem.  You can create as many folders as you want and simply drag and drop the business emails you want to save into them.  Just right-click on the "Local Folders", select "New Folder", and give it a name like "Saved Items" or such.  Then you can right-click on that folder to create unlimited sub-folders.

Multiple Identities

If all your email addresses feeding into the same place doesn't bother you, and you clicked the "Auto-Config Outlook Express" button in cPanel beside each one, then you're done!  If, on the other hand, you want to separate your business email from your personal, or if you want to set up email addresses for the whole family on your domain, (so they can advertise for you when they email someone instead of for RoadRunner!), you'll want to set up different "identities" in OE and assign those varying email addresses to them.

In the "File" pull-down menu, go to "Identities", then "Add New Identity".  The New Identity box comes up and asks for a name.  This can be anything you want, (Joe, Suzy, Personal, Business, etc); it's just a plain English name for you to recognize that "identity" by.  A word of caution here: unless there's a need I'd stay away from passwords here, mainly because if someone forgets theirs, they are not getting back into that identity.  When you click OK, you'll be prompted to switch to that identity.  Click "OK".  Now you get to cancel the useless wizard again, and then you'll be aghast to see that all the changes you made above to Outlook Express are gone!  Yep.  Unbelievable as it seems, there is no "Apply Changes to All Identities" button.  You have to go through all the steps above with each identity.

Got that done?  Great!  Now you're ready to manually set up the various email accounts that can't be automatically configured, (because they're not in the "main" identity).

Manual Configuration of Accounts

In the Identity you want to assign the email account to, click on the "Tools" pull-down menu and select "Accounts".  This brings up the "Internet Accounts" box you see below.  Make sure you're on the "Mail" tab, click the "Add" button, then select "Mail".

This time we'll actually use the wizard that comes up!  In the first box that appears, type your name (or your company name) as you would like it to appear in the "from" field when you send someone an email. In the next box, fill in the full email address for this account (including the "@yourdomain.com".  You'll be asked for this 4 more times, so to save yourself some time I would highlight the full address, right-click on it and copy it into memory.)

The next box is for your email server information (see below).  The name for both your POP3 and SMTP servers is the same, i.e., "mail.yourdomain.com", with "yourdomain.com" being replaced with your actual domain name.  Example:  mail.roses.net

When you click next this time, you'll be asked again for your email address.  If you copied it into memory, you can just right-click here and "paste".  Then type in the password for this account and check the "Remember Password" check box. 

When you're done, the wizard will close, leaving you right back at the "Internet Accounts" window.  You should see the mail account we just created, and it should already be highlighted.  Now click on the "Properties" button to the right.  That will take you to the "properties box" of this account, which has 5 notebook tabs at the top.  The only thing you need to check on the "General" tab is that the email address is complete, then click on the "Servers" tab.  That page should look like the example below except, of course, that your information would be substituted.

Next, check the final box on the page, "My server requires authentication".  When you do, the "Settings" button will light up, and you can click on it.  That brings up the final box as seen below.  Select the "Log on using" radio button, and fill in (or paste in) you're full email address yet again!  (See?  I told ya'!).  Enter your password, check the "Remember Password" checkbox, and believe it or not, you're done!  click "OK" on the first two boxes, and "Close" on the last.  Test the account to make sure everything is right.  Address an email to this account, and click the hit "Send/Recieve" button on the toolbar.  Wait 60 seconds, and hit "Send/Recieve" again.  If it's all good, you should get your email right back.

To set up multiple accounts in multiple identities, repeat ad nauseum!