Setting Up Your Email Software for POP Accounts

What is a POP email account?

A POP email account is kind of an electronic post office box. Just like a real life PO Box where you have a box at the post office that collects your postal mail, a POP account is mailbox that is setup on a mail server that collects all the email sent to your email address (you@yourdomain.com).

Instead of driving to the post office and getting your mail out of your PO box, you use an email software like Outlook or Outlook Express to login to your email box (using a username and password) to get your mail out of your box.

For info on establishing a POP account see our Email page.

Setting Up your Software to check Your email

If you have a POP account on a TACWeb Mail Server, you just need to set a few things in your email software (i.e.: Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora) to start accessing your email and sending email.

1. Set the Incoming Mail Server.

2. Set the User Name (Account Name)

3. Set the Outgoing Mail Server (same as incoming)

4. Check the "My Server requires Authentication" button

Every software and every computer is a little different, but basically the same. In Outlook Express it's done by going to the "Tools" pull down menu and selecting "Accounts". Click on the "Mail" tab at the top of the screen to show your email account(s). Click the "Add" or "New" button to create a new account.

Or to edit an existing account Double-click on your mail account, or highlight the account in the list and click "change" or "Edit".

Below are the settings summarized which you need to enter.

Both the incoming and outgoing mail server names are "mail.shopnetmall.com". That is the name of our mail server that you are logging into.

Your user name or account name is the same as your email address except using a percent sign (%) instead of the at sign (@). So if your email address is you@yourdomain.com your user name is you%yourdomain.com.

When entering in your password as well as all the server settings, always use lower case letters (NO CAPS) and no spaces or special characters. It's up to you whether you check the box that says "remember my password".

Mail Server Settings:
Incoming (POP) Mail Server:	mail.shopnetmall.com
Outgoing (SMTP) Mail Server:	mail.shopnetmall.com
User Name (Account Name):	you%yourdomain.com (yes, that's a percent sign)
Password:	xxx1234 (all lower case)

Outgoing Mail Server Authentication:
Also please be sure that you check the box down by the Outgoing Server info that says "My server requires authentication". (Do not check the one that says "Secure Authentication", only check the one that says just "My Server requires authentication"). If not already highlighted, you set the authentication to "Use same settings as my Incoming Mail Server".

What is Authentication?

Authentication means that the server needs a username and password to send mail out for someone. This is a precaution most every Internet Service Provider started employing over the past few years to try to stop "spammers" (bulk junk email) from using their mail server to send out email. By requiring Authentication, the server will only accept outgoing mail for our clients with accounts.

A note about MSN and possibly other dial-up ISPs.

MSN restricts their port 25 traffic (SMTP Outgoing mail) to only their own customers' use. This is the port that SMTP outgoing mail travels on. So to when setting up your email settings, enter TACWeb's mail.shopnetmall.com as the incoming mail server, but enter MSN's mail server (something like mail.msn.com) for the outgoing mail server name. You can get MSN's outgoing mail server info from their tech support, and/or it was probably provided to you when you signed up with them. Also check with them for their "Authentication" settings.

A note about America Online users.

AOL blocks their Port 25 traffic. This is the port that SMTP outgoing mail travels on. So if you use AOL as your Internet Access, you can setup Outlook or other program to get your mail, but you cannot send mail.