Outlook Express / Yahoo POP3 Help 


The use of a mailer like Outlook Express can greatly simply 
email operations. You can use Outlook Express with many 
mailer servers that have POP3 mail access. Most HTTP mail 
servers do not support the use of mailers. Check to see if 
other mail servers outside of Yahoo support POP3 access or 
otherwise support the use of a mailer. The instructions below 
are for Yahoo POP3 email, but most POP3 mail servers are 
about the same. You will also need to sign up for Yahoo 
Delivers email option to have POP3 access on the Yahoo 
mail server. One final point to touch upon is security. The 
use of any mailer allows a program that access the internet 
for you. Regardless of what program is used, it leaves a 
possible way for someone to take advantage of your system 
or programs on your system. You should keep up with security 
updates fro any software used on the internet and mailers are 
no exception to this. There is little risk from the use of Outlook 
Express if you keep up with security updates from Microsoft for 
the program, and keep a current, correctly set up antivirus 
program on your system. Without taking these simple steps, 
the benifits of using a mailer can quickly become rather moot 
if you end up infected with an email virus attachment due to 
not correctly setting up your mailer. Depending on the version 
of Outlook Express you have or desktop options selected, these 
screens may varry slightly in appearance or wording from the 
examples. 
 

To start this process of setting up Outlook Express, find the 
Outlook Express icon on your desktop or toolbar. It will look 
like an envelope. You may also be able to start Outlook Express
from a keyboard button (email) or from the Internet Explorer 
Toolbar (mail). You should see a screen about like the one to the 
right. 
 
The next step would be to set up Outlook Express to access the 
existing email account. (the only accounts Outlook Express will 
set up automatically is Hotmail) Go to the TOOLS on the top of
the Outlook Express screen and then selection Options as shown 
to the right. 

This is what you will see next. Select the mail option to set up a 
mail account. This should open the connection wizard. 

This is the next screen you should see. It would seem this would 
be a pretty simple item to fill out but often it is best to enter your 
Yahoo or account ID name here. I DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU PUT 
YOUR FULL REAL NAME HERE!!!  Putting you first name like John or 
Jane is ok. I would however avoid putting my legal name in this area. 
There will be people that you would not care to know all that much 
about you sending you email. If you happen to reply to them, they 
will have your real name and in many cases area where you are 
located to look you up personally or via phone. If for no other reason 
avoid putting your real name in full here as it can be used by email 
spammers to be sold on mail lists. Less is best in this case. 

The next thing you will be asked is to enter you email address 
somewhat like the example shown. This is so that persons wishing 
to return mail you can do so. This may or may not be seen by persons 
you sent email to depending if they are using a mailer or not, and the 
settings. It however can be read in the properties of the message in 
anycase. ( yes the message can be traced if you enter the wrong 
address here, just takes a bit more work is all. Many mail servers 
will not accept email when this entry does not match the account name. ) 
 
This screen is where you enter the address the mailer sends mail to, 
or receives it from. The addresses show are for Yahoo POP3 mail access. 
Other email servers might be simular but some omit the "pop" on the 
incoming mail. Check with the Webmaster of your email server for 
addresses for mail servers other than Yahoo. Most will list them in a 
help file for the mail server you are with under POP3 or Outlook Express
 help. Make sure you set the correct mail server type in the first box on
 this screen. It will offer POP3 or HTTP as an option. HTTP is generally 
going to default to Hotmail account setup. 
 
This screen is next and it is where you enter your account name and 
password for access to your mail account. If this is not correctly entered 
and the password saved one of two things will happen. The mailer will 
ask for the password each time it attempts to check the mail or it will 
come back with a failure message about checking the mail, depending 
on the error and mail server. Do not use the SPA option unless your 
Webmaster or mail server set up file instructs you to do so. Depending 
on the version of Outlook Express these screens may varry slightly as 
far as wording. 

This screen is what the name of the account will appear as in 
Outlook Express on your computer screen. It is there incase you 
have more than one email account so you can keep them straight. 
With Outlook Express you can manage several POP3 accounts at the 
same time, however they may need to be on different email servers 
to work 100% trouble free all the time. 
 
You may or may not be sent to these screens, depending on the version 
of Outlook Express and if you have email set up already or not. If you 
see these screens chances are it is the first time you are using Outlook 
Express to access email accounts. If you are using a Modem that dials 
an ISP use the option shown. If you are using DSL or Cable modems 
you may need to select the LAN option as many of them connect to 
your computer by way of a network card. If you wish to have the 
greatest level of control over the program (Outlook Express) manually 
establishing the connection is the best option for you. 
 
You can use this screen to set up the options for differnet dial up 
networks or connections for different email accounts on different 
networks or connections. Just be aware of the fact your connection 
will need to disconnect to each different network connection used. 

You are finished. If you have done your work correctly it should 
connect and check your mail for you. There are several options 
about how the program can go about doing this, and the look of 
the messages you send with the program. To get to these options 
you would close this window (Finish) and then click on the TOOLS at 
the top of the Outlook Express Window and then OPTIONS. You should 
see a screen somewhat like the one show below. 
 
On this group of screens you can select the options that apply to how 
Outlook Express operates. It can be set up to check email and 
disconnect from the internet all by it's self on a set interval. 
( this option can cause you to disconnect as it will hang up the connection 
after checking the mail even if Outlook Express did not open the connection.) 
It can also be used to defeat 20 minute timeout timers used by some 
ISPs that require something other than acks be sent to keep a connection
 open after 20 minutes. If you set Outlook Express to check email more 
often than 20 minutes, it will defeat the 20 minute timeout timers. There 
are also settings to set the text color, font, background or stationary 
used on your email. There are options about how soon email should be 
deleted after it read and so on as well. Even a spelling checker. One 
word of caution however. Make sure you have your antivirus scanner 
set up to scan incoming email. You will need to check these settings on
 your antivirus program! It is also prudent to update your antivirus 
software on a timely basis (at least every 2 weeks) when using a mailer. 
The use of a firewall program is also recommended. 
You should also NEVER open attachments sent to you that you did not 
ask for, or from people you do not know. It is VERY possible to hid 
scripts and programs that can cause damage to your data if allowed 
to run. If you do decide to open any attachment make sure you have 
scanned it with good current antivirus software and have a program like 
AnalogX script defender in place to stop it from running VB or JAVA scripts. 
To do less is inviting a problem. See the security settings in this section to 
stop any script from being run on most of the newer versions ( 5.5 and newer) 
of OutLook Express. You should also upgrade to 5.1 or newer if at all possible 
and check the Windows Update website ( link below ) for any security 
updates for this software. 
 
Ok, now that you have read all of this, and if you wish more information 
about Outlook Express, perhaps the next stop to make is the Microsoft 
Outlook Express Website. This will open in a new browser window so that 
you can also remain here. There should be answers there to about any 
question about the use of the Outlook Express mail client.