More about Internet Servers

POP3 is by far the most common type of incoming e‑mail server for personal e‑mail accounts. And SMTP is the only type of outgoing e‑mail server that works with Windows Mail, so you normally don’t even need to check the outgoing server type with your e‑mail provider. Practically all personal e‑mail accounts—with the exception of web-based e‑mail—use an SMTP server for outgoing e‑mail.

E‑mail server addresses usually have the same format. Most ISPs (named “myisp” in this example) have server addresses like this:

Incoming server: pop.myisp.com (or imap.myisp.com, if they use an IMAP server)

Outgoing server: smtp.myisp.com

You can usually substitute the name of your ISP in place of myisp in the example above. If this doesn’t work, check with your ISP. Questions about e‑mail server addresses are among the most common inquiries e‑mail providers get, so they usually have this information posted in the support section of their websites.

Here are server addresses for some of the most popular e‑mail services:

Yahoo!: pop.mail.yahoo.com (incoming) and smtp.mail.yahoo.com (outgoing)

AOL: imap.aol.com (incoming) and smtp.aol.com (outgoing)

Gmail: pop.gmail.com (incoming) and smtp.gmail.com (outgoing)

Finally, you must know whether your outgoing e‑mail server requires authentication, since there is a check box for this when you set up a new e‑mail account in Windows Mail. If you can’t find out the answer from your e‑mail provider, try sending a test message with the check box selected and another one with the check box cleared, to see which works.