More often than not we are required to set up our company emails (e.g. john@xyzcorp.com) on our computers and smartphones. Our company email is crucial for us to receive official emails, documents and anything that can be helpful in our daily operations.
Setting up emails can be a nightmare for some, fortunately, we are here to show you step by step on how to setup these emails and make your life easier.
IMAP vs POP3; Which Should I Choose?
Before we begin any setup on our email, we will be first prompted to choose from the following two options: IMAP and POP3. But what are these?
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol)
IMAP is an email setting where all emails are synchronized with the server, and your mailbox mirrors EXACTLY what is on the server. Just like how our normal Gmail, Yahoo emails are, IMAP allows you to sync both incoming and sent email folders regardless of which device you sent your email from.
For example, if you have sent an email from your phone, you can later refer to that email on your computer as well, that is if both your phone and computer are set to use IMAP. This can be helpful especially for people who actively use both devices.
The downside to this setting is however, as the emails are stored on the server and not on your device, your server can tend to clog up and get full fast, and a full email inbox on the server will not be able to receive any new emails until the old ones have been cleared off. If you have a large server, this would not be much of an issue, but if your server space is limited, it can be a real headache to deal with.
Another downside would be if you were to transfer your hosting server from one provider to another, your emails will vanish as they were not on your device in the first place, but on the server instead.
Pros : Both incoming and outgoing email is synced across your devices
Cons : Uses up your server space, emails can vanish if hosting server provider is changed and emails are not backed up.
POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3)
POP3 is an email setting that is used to retrieve mail from your hosting server and keep the emails locally on the device. This is the most commonly used setting for most corporations as the emails are safe as long as they are stored on your device. With this setting, you can opt to delete the emails from your server after a certain time as they are safely stored on your device. Since the storage used is on your device and not the server, there is almost no limit to the number of emails that you can store at one time.
For example, when you receive an email, the email file is stored locally on your device, and after a certain period of time (usually two weeks, but this may differ according to your set duration), the received email is deleted from the server, but kept on your device. As for sent emails, the emails are permanently stored on the device that you send the email from, and does not take up any space on the server. This is ideal for those who have limited server space, and would like to keep emails for retracing purposes.
Even when you change email hosting providers, your emails remain on your device as they were and are not affected at all. After the change, your hosting provider will furnish you with the new settings, and all you have to do is to update these settings in your Account Settings for the respective email, and you can resume using your emails as if nothing has changed.
The downside of using POP3 emails is that your sent folders will not be synced. As sent folders are stored only locally on the device and never on the server, you will not be able to retrieve an email sent, for example, if you sent the email from your phone, you will not be able to see it on the sent folder in your computer, unlike IMAP. A quick workaround for this, especially for important emails, would be to include your own email in the BCC field when sending an email to another person. That way a copy of the sent email will be there in your inbox, which will be fetched by both your phone as well as your computer.
Pros : Saves server space, uses local storage, can transfer hosting provider easily
Cons : Sent emails are not synced across devices.
Now that you are aware of the differences between these 2 email setting types, you can proceed to choose the one that best fits your usage during setup.
Setting up emails in Microsoft Outlook
Outlook is one of the most widely used email client software in the world. Many corporations choose Outlook for its functionality, cross platform compatibility and easy set up.
Make sure to get all the necessary credentials from your administrator, or if you are dealing directly with your domain and hosting provider, they will be able to provide you with these details.
Details to be collected prior to setup would be:
Email address
Password
Incoming Mail Server Address
Incoming Port Number
Outgoing Mail Server Address
SMTP (Outgoing) Port Number
An example of the above information would be as follows:
Email address : john@xyzcorp.com (make sure to use the FULL email address)
Password : Xyz123
Incoming Mail Server Address : mail.xyzcorp.com
Incoming Port Number : 993 (this port number may differ according to mail type; IMAP or POP3)
Outgoing Mail Server Address : mail.xyzcorp.com
SMTP (Outgoing) Port Number : 465
Once these details are prepared, you are good to go on Outlook.
Click “File” and then select “Add Account”.
Choose “Advanced Options”.
Select the option “Let me set up my account manually”, and then hit “Connect”.
A new window will open to ask the type of email that you would like to use, you can choose either POP3 or IMAP. The following procedure is the same for both settings, but for this tutorial lets choose POP3 as it is the most commonly used and safest option.
In the “Settings” page, you will need to enter the information that was collected previously.
Enter the encryption methods as well, password information, and the rest and then click “Connect”.
Outlook will proceed to do the rest and you will now be able to send and receive emails from your computer.
The above steps are somewhat similar with mobile device email clients as well. Lets look at the setup process for iPhone’s default Email application now.
*Note: Before proceeding with the settings for iPhone, make sure that your phone is either on cellular data or Wifi and not connected to a hotspot. Connecting to a hotspot or a shared data connection from another Apple device may slow down or even not allow you to go through the setup process at all.
Email setup on iPhone mail application
Go to “Settings”, “Mail” then tap “Accounts”.
Tap on “Add Account”, followed by “Other”, and then tap “Add Mail Account”.
Enter your “Name”, “Email (in FULL)”, “Password” followed by “Description”.
Tap “Next”. Mail will attempt to find the settings and finish your setup. On some occasions, Mail will not be able to auto-setup, which leads us to the next steps.
Setting up Manually
Choose IMAP or POP as the setting for your account.
Enter the credentials received accordingly.
If the settings are correct, you can proceed to tap “Save” to finish the setup.
Email setup on Android devices
Since Android devices come pre-installed with Gmail, Gmail allows you to setup both POP3 and IMAP type of emails within Gmail itself. You can do the same for iPhone if you have the Gmail app installed, but there is no POP3 option for that.
Open the Gmail app and head to “Settings”.
Tap “Add Account”, then choose “Personal (IMAP/POP)” and hit “Next”.
Enter your full email address and tap “Next”.
Choose your email type (POP3/IMAP).
Enter your password and then hit “Next”.
Fill in the “Incoming Server Settings”, choose Security Type as “SSL/TLS” and make sure to use the correct Port Number as per the settings given.
Do the same for “Outgoing Server Settings”. Also choose “Require Sign-In” here.
Once that is done, you will be given options to choose “Email Checking Frequency”, “Notify me when email arrives,” and “Sync Email from this account”. Make sure to check all to be able to periodically receive emails as they come.
The above settings apply if you wish to use any other email client, such as your built-in email application, Outlook Mobile or any email client available. The words used throughout the setup process may be different, but the core process is still the same.
We hope this guide helps you to set up your emails successfully on your Outlook as well as your phone as well.
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