It is essential that email settings are correct when sending mail. Installing the Freeserve software should automatically set up an email account for you.
To check that the details for an existing email account are correct follow the steps below.
1. Select 'Tools', then 'Accounts' from the Outlook Express menu bar.
2. Highlight the appropriate account (which will ususally be lsited as 'pop.freeserve.net') by clicking on it with your mouse, then select 'Properties'.
3. From the Properties box, click on the 'General' tab at the top. Make sure that the name, organisation, e-mail address, and reply to address that you want to appear on your e-mails is correct. The account is usually labelled 'pop.freeserve.net', but this is not important.
4. Now click on the 'Server' tab at the top.
- The outgoing mail server (SMTP) should be set to smtp.freeserve.net
- The incoming mail server (POP) should be set to pop.freeserve.net
- In the 'Incoming Mail Server' section, 'Logon using' should be selected, and you should enter your username and password in the boxes provided.
Your username and password were chosen when you set up your account with Freeserve.
As a guide, if your e-mail address was, for example, 'myname@myaddress.freeserve.co.uk', your username would be 'myaddress.freeserve.co.uk'.
Your password is case sensitive, so you must enter it exactly as it was entered when you set up your account. For instance, 'MyPaSswoRd' is not the same as 'mypassword'.
- 'Logon using Secure Password Authentication' should not be selected.
- In the 'Outgoing mail' section, the 'My server requires authentication' option should not be selected.
5. Now click on the 'Connection' tab at the top.
Select 'Connect using my phone line', then select your Freeserve connection from the menu underneath. This will ensure that Outlook Express will automatically dialup the correct connection.
B. Adding a new mail account.
1. Bring up your "Accounts" details.
Do this by clicking once on the "Tools" menu, and select "Accounts".
You'll see a box looking like this. Click on the tab marked "Mail".
The friendly name of your original e-mail account will now be visible.
2. Add a new address
Click on the "Add" button.
Select "Mail".
Enter a name in the box to identify the user of the new mail account. e.g. Emma Smith.
Enter the e-mail address for the new user e.g. emma@smith.freeserve.co.uk.
The first part of this address can be any combination of four to twenty-four letters and numbers (no spaces or punctuation).
The second part of the address (after the @ symbol) must use your account's normal internet address (i.e smith.freeserve.co.uk).
Remember. For each Freeserve account, you can change only the part of the email address before the @ symbol. Everything after the @ symbol must stay the same - including any numbers that were included in your original address.
Enter the e-mail server names.
In the "Incoming mail" box, enter "pop.freeserve.net".
In the "Outgoing mail" box, enter "smtp.freeserve.net".
Enter the POP account logon details
In the "POP account name" box, enter the full name of the new address (in this example, emma@smith.freeserve.co.uk).
In the "Password" box, enter your normal password (created when you first signed up to Freeserve).
Enter a name to identify this account on your computer. e.g. Emma.
Select "Connect using my phone line".
Select to "Use an existing dial-up connection".
Your Freeserve connection will be shown in the box underneath.
Your new e-mail account is now created.
C. Reading and sending mail.
1. Checking for new e-mail
To read your e-mail you need to log in to Freeserve and check to see if you have new mail.
If you've set up more than one address you can simultaneously check all e-mail addresses for new mail by clicking on the "Send and Receive" button on the main toolbar.
If you want to check only one of your e-mail addresses, click once on "Tools" on the main menu and then select "Send and Receive". A second menu will appear allowing you to chose which account to check.
2. Reading e-mail
New mail messages will appear in the right hand window. To read a message, double click on it.
All new mail will be placed automatically into the "Inbox".
You may find it useful to set up new folders within your inbox for each mail address. Do this using the "File" menu - select "Folder", then "New Folder".
You can "Drag and Drop" your messages into whichever folder you like.
3. Sending e-mail
Type a message
Open a "New Message" by clicking on the "Compose Message" button on the main Outlook Express toolbar.
You can also bring up a "New Message" by clicking on the "Compose Message" button on the main Outlook Express toolbar.
Type your e-mail message into the large text area. Remember to provide a correctly formatted e-mail address i.e. something like user@address.co.uk. You also need to type in a short subject heading for the message.
If you want to attach a file to the message to send alongside it, click on the paper clip icon. This will bring up a select file menu and you can then choose your attachment.
Send it.
When you're ready to send your message, click on the "File" menu and select "Send Message Using". A further menu will appear allowing you to select which address to send the message from. The message will now bear the correct identification and reply-to address.
Your message has now been sent. A list of the e-mails you have sent will appear on the right hand side if you click on the "Sent Items" icon.
D. Check your news settings.
Using Newsgroups in Outlook Express
1. Set up your news account
To use newsgroups, you need to set up a Freeserve News account in Outlook Express:
Click on the 'Tools' menu and select 'Accounts'.
Now click on the 'News' tab.
Click on the 'Add' button on the right-hand side and select 'News'.
You will have to fill in a series of boxes and press 'OK' to each one.
For your name and e-mail address, enter your name and your Freeserve e-mail address. These will identify you if you post messages to the newsgroups.
For News (NNTP) server, enter 'news.freeserve.net'
Enter a friendly name (say, 'Freeserve News').
And finally select to connect using a phoneline and select your Freeserve connection from the next box.
You should now be able to access Freeserve newsgroups.
2. Read newsgroups
To read news, first download the list of Freeserve newsgroups:
Make sure you are connected to Freeserve, then click on the 'Tools' menu in Outlook Express.
Select 'Newsgroups' - this will start Outlook Express downloading the list of newsgroups.
You can now select which groups to display.
Those groups specific to Freeserve are freeserve.announce, freeserve.help, freeserve.discuss, freeserve.systems and freeserve.test. However, there are more than 20,000 other groups for you to use.
To read a newsgroup, first subscribe by highlighting the group you're interested in and pressing 'Subscribe'.
Press 'OK' to return to Outlook Express and you will see the groups you've subscribed to on the left hand side.
Click on a newsgroup to download the titles of the articles in that group.
You can then read each article by clicking on it in the right hand pane.
If you wish to modify your subscritpions, simply return to 'Newsgroups' from the 'Tools' menu.
