In parts 1 and 2 we created a googlemail account for our domain’s emails and then set our domain to use Googlemail.
Now we’re going to configure MS Outlook to send and receive emails to we aren’t just limited to the web interface (and adverts) that Googlemail provides us with.
Open up Outlook – click on Tools – Account Settings and then click on the little ‘new’ icon to add a new account:
We select the first option and click ‘next’.
Here we add our name, email address, type in and confirm password. Make sure that you check the box ‘Manually configure server settings or additional server types’ or Outlook will go off and try and fail to autoconfigure your account. Click ‘next’
Select ‘Internet E-mail’ and click ‘next’.
On this screen we need to ensure that the settings are set to POP3 for Account Type,
Incoming mailserver should be set to pop.googlemail.com
Outgoing mailserver SMTP set to smtp.googlemail.com
Make sure that your username and password are correct and that remember password is checked.
We’re almost there we just have to tell Outlook which ports to use – click on ‘More Settings’.
Select the ‘Outgoing Server’ tab:
‘My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication’ must be checked.
Select ‘Use same settings as my incoming mail server’.
Then click on the ‘Advanced’ tab.
Make sure the incoming server is set to port 995, the outgoing to 465, check the box ‘This server requires and encrypted connection (SSL) and select SSL from the dropdown next to ‘Use the following type of encrypted connection:’.
Then click ok – all we need to do now is test and we’re done.
If we now click on the ‘Test Account Settings’ we should see the following:
You can now send and receive emails on your pc, via your website/domain name using googlemail’s service.
We moved some sample domains over 1 month ago to test and it has worked out very well. On one domain twice we had what appeared to be a transient connectivity issue where Outlook said that the server could not be found but it lasted only a few seconds each time.
So far we haven’t moved any clients over. We’re still undecided and undoubtedly some will have issues with handing over the service to Google. As far as our email goes we’re able to forget about that and concentrate on building websites.
