Configuring Outlook.com for mail retrieval

This guide will show you how to add your Websavers hosted email address to an Outlook.com web-based email client account. It should also work just fine for any Plesk 12.5 hosted mail account.

Please be sure that you’ve already set up the mail account in Plesk. This creates the account server-side so that when you go to access it, the server will know it exists and respond correctly when you go to connect it to Outlook.com. If you haven’t yet done so, use this guide to get started!

We strongly recommend testing your account with our secure webmail system prior to configuring in any other  mail application. If you can’t login there, then you’ll probably need to reset your password. If you can successfully login to our secure webmail, then you’re all set to proceed!

Set up your account

Start by logging in to your preferred Outlook.com account. Choose the cog icon  in the upper right corner, then click “Options” from the drop down menu (near the bottom).

• On the left side under the “Managing your account” section, choose “Your Email Accounts”.
• Select the button that says “Add a send-and-receive account”
• It will now prompt you for your email address and password. Leave the fields blank for now and click the “Advanced options” link.
• Enter your name and email address

Incoming (POP3) server information

• Server Address: enter your server name. This is shown in the Client Centre after you click “Manage” beside your hosting plan. It will be something like ginger.websavers.ca or basil.websavers.ca.
• Port: 995 
• Ensure that “Requires a secure connection (SSL)” is checked.
• It is not recommended that you “Leave a copy of messages on the server” as the emails will collect endlessly within your website hosting account until the mailbox is full, at which point new messages will be bounced. Since you’re not logging in directly to the account often (if at all), you’ll never know this is occurring until it is too late, as you will not be seeing the quota steadily being filled up. If you decide to leave this option checked, make sure that you do regular manual maintenance.
• Username: enter your full email address here
• Password: enter your password as you configured it in Plesk

Outgoing (SMTP) server information

• Ensure that “Send email using your provider’s server (recipient will not see your Outlook.com address)” is selected.
• Server Address: enter your server name. This is shown in the Client Centre after you click “Manage” beside your hosting plan. It will be something like ginger.websavers.ca or basil.websavers.ca.
• Port: 587
• Ensure that “Requires a secure connection (SSL/TLS)” and “Use the same username and password to send and receive email” are both checked.

Click the Next Button

Folder to save emails

The next options is “When mail is received via test@habitatmoncton.com, where do you want it saved?” This is entirely up to you, but make sure that if you don’t choose “An existing folder: Inbox” that you’re aware of the location where messages will be going (as they won’t be in your standard inbox).

Click the Save button then choose Go to your Inbox to exit the settings.

Troubleshooting

I cannot find my emails

If you do not see any emails that should be showing, be sure you’re looking in the right folder. The final option during the set-up procedure asked you if you wanted to save emails to the Inbox or some other folder. Make sure that you’re looking in the folder you specified during set-up.

Delayed messages

Outlook.com will wait an unspecified interval (up to an hour typically) to retrieve messages. This is not configurable by us; if you don’t like the length of the interval, you’ll need to request a feature from Microsoft to have the option to change it.

If you cannot survive with delayed emails, then I’m afraid you’ll need to stop using Outlook.com to retrieve messages and use either webmail directly or set up a mail application on your devices that directly connects via IMAP to your hosting server without using another webmail middle-man. (ie: no Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo mail). Thankfully we’ve got a number of great guides to help with this!