Mac Mail Setup Guide
Mac Mail is the email client which ships with all Mac OSX operating systems.
Prerequisites
In order to configure a POP email account you need to have established the following settings, specific to your account:
- Email Address
- Account Type
- Incoming Server Address
- Outgoing Server Address
- Outgoing Server Authentication (if any)
- User Name
- Password
Walkthrough
When you first open Mac Mail the 'Welcome to Mail' dialog opens. This dialog takes the minimum set of details and will attempt to configure your account based on that information. This is not suitable 100% of the time and for the purpose of this guide we will click 'Quit' and have the application open without configuring an account.
Once the application opens, select 'Mail' from the menu at the top of the screen. In the menu for 'Mail' select the 'Preferences' option.
In the 'Preferences' dialog select the 'Accounts' icon. On this page you can click the plus icon in the lower left corner to add a new account. On the 'Account Information' tab, select the account type (protocol) for the service you are configuring. In this case it is a POP3 account so go ahead and select POP3.
The description is for internal use and should distinguish this account from any others you may setup now or in future.
The 'Email Address' field should contain the email address you would like to use when replying to email via Mac Mail.
The 'Full Name' will be visible to people when they receive a message from you so it is wise to fill this in with your full name.
The next section is all about your incoming mail server. Enter the address of your incoming mail server and the username and password it will be expecting. The username is commonly then entire email address but this should be verified with the service provider.
Next up is the outgoing server details...
From the outgoing mail server drop down list, select 'Add Server'.
The 'SMTP Server Options' dialog is fairly straight forward, all it requires is the address of the server, the port and any authentication information. The standard port number for SMTP is 25 so this is filled in by default. Occasionally you might need to supply an alternate port if your internet service provider is blocking access to that port. Unless otherwise stated by your email service provider, SMTP authentication is commonly done using password authentication. Supply the username and password for your outgoing server and click 'OK'.
Your email account is now configured. Close the 'Preferences' dialog, you may be asked to save the changes, agree to that and it is ready to use.
