Chapter 3: Managing Email Accounts

The biggest issue facing today’s society is data security. This is mainly because our information is available to everyone, and it is important that we select an email host that can provide the security and services that we require.

In this chapter, we will discuss what you need to look for in a host and what Outlook provides for you. Then, we will discuss setting up your domain name, the best practices for selecting it, and how to connect it to your email ID within Outlook.

In this chapter, we are going to discuss the following topics:

• Why have multiple email accounts?
• Selecting an email host
• Email protocols
• Setting up email accounts
• Changing a mail server
• Domain names

Knowing the different email platforms that are available to you and how to set them up in Outlook is an important topic to address, and you will gain that insight in this chapter. You can set up one account or multiple accounts using the automatic and manual settings provided. You can use these techniques on multiple devices as well, such as computers, tablets, and various mobile devices. Understanding these terms will make account installation simpler for you.

Why have multiple email accounts?

Reading email is the first morning activity for many people and has increasingly become an important method of business communication. Email is fast, inexpensive, easily accessible, and has become an efficient and effective way to communicate.

There are several reasons why a person would want to have multiple email accounts. To separate your online presence, I would encourage you to set up several email accounts according to the activities that you encounter in your sending and receiving of emails. Some of these categories can be the following:

• Personal
• Business
• Temporary or “throwaway”
• Social networking
• Journals and newsletters
• Adverts
• Occasional sign-ups at events

This list could go on and on for every individual person. Before you jump in and start creating these various accounts, I would recommend taking inventory of the emails you currently receive and then looking at the current activity that you have in each of your accounts.

The main purpose of creating multiple email accounts is to streamline the various types of communications you have consistently. It can get very overwhelming to keep up with incoming emails and reply to them in a timely manner. Having multiple email accounts can help you to stay ahead of this task or, as I like to refer to it, stay ahead of the game. In Chapter 16, Managing Your Day System, I will provide you with some ways to manage your accounts.

Selecting an email host

Email is crucial to businesses in today’s fast-paced environment. No matter how much you may want to get away from this, it is here to stay, which makes choosing a host very important. The email host that you select will handle the technical details of day-to-day operations, such as allowing you to send emails from your own domain, spam filtering, phishing scams, storing files, or it may provide a whole suite of tools, such as, in the case of Outlook, calendars, contact management, and to-do lists.

Note

A simple way of defining an email host would be to say that email hosting is a service where a hosting provider, such as Microsoft, Yahoo, or Gmail, rents out email servers to its users to allow them to send and receive emails over networks.

There are three main ways to host your email:

• Self-hosted: You must have your own servers, which give you more control and the ability to customize. The disadvantages would be the added cost to build and maintain a server and the challenge of having your emails marked as spam.
• Shared web hosting: This is where your data is shared on a dedicated hosting server that shares multiple sites. This is cheaper than the alternatives and is sometimes free. This is also a great way to get your site up and running fast and affordable. The disadvantages would be that your site shares server CPU resources and, depending on spikes from those other sites, your pages might load slowly or not at all.
• Third-party hosting: Use this when you need to run your business with more features than your web host provides.

Most businesses are steering away from running in-house email servers due to the lower costs associated with third-party hosting. Third-party hosting such as Outlook and Microsoft 365 now can manage the large number of accounts needed in large corporations and schools while still offering the latest security protocols, not to mention the simplicity of connectivity and distribution to end users.

Here are the questions to ask when looking for an email host:

• What is your delivery rate? The delivery rate is the percentage of time that you can expect your emails to get delivered to your intended recipient on time. You want that rate to be 98% or higher. If your provider is working with Microsoft, Google, or Yahoo, your chances of this rate being high are good.
• How is the customer service? This service is a part of your marketing team, so it is critical that you have immediate access to customer support to address any issues right away.
• Do they have a 24/7 service line?
• What is your security policy?
• How is your data secured and what is your backup policy?

Knowing the answers to the previous questions will help you feel confident that if something goes wrong, you can get help quickly from the host provider.

Don’t confuse an email host with an email service provider (ESP). As indicated, the email host is what allows you to send and receive email across all networks. The ESP is a provider that allows users to send email campaigns to a list of email users/subscribers. As email marketing becomes more and more popular, more email service providers are entering the market. To date, Outlook does not provide those services.

Email protocols

A protocol in computer science is a set of procedures and rules for transmitting data between electronic devices, such as computers. Without a set of protocols or rules, the sending and receiving computers would not be able to communicate if they were transmitting data differently.

Protocols that run your emails through the host are typically grouped into three categories, Exchange, IMAP, and POP3. Before you can install a new email account on your computer, you must know which of these three platforms you intend to use. It’s also important to understand the differences between these platforms before choosing your desired method. The three protocols that we will discuss here, used for setting up an email account, will be POP3, IMAP/SMTP, and Exchange.

POP3

POP3 is used only for downloading emails from a server. POP stands for Post Office Protocol, and the number is the version. With POP3, you can choose to either delete the copy of the email on a server or retain it. The default is to delete the copy, which means the downloaded emails will only be on the device that you downloaded them to.

Once emails are downloaded, any changes made on the device, such as marking emails as read/unread and deletions, are not communicated back to a server. This means that each device that has the downloaded copy has its own standalone copy of those emails. This protocol does not work well in collaboration with others. The following figure illustrates the steps used in the retrieval process:

Figure 3.1 – The POP3 retrieval process

The advantages of POP3 are as follows:

• Only an internet connection is required when sending and receiving emails, which means lower bandwidth is needed.
• Some people also choose this method because they believe that since no emails are stored on a server, the data is safe from hackers.

We also have a few disadvantages with POP3:

• It is incompatible with some webmail software.
• If a hardware failure happens on the device of the download, then all the past emails will be lost.

IMAP/SMTPP

IMAP stands for Internet Access Message Protocol, and it mainly deals with managing and retrieving email messages from the receiving server. IMAP works together with SMTP, which stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol and is the standard for sending outgoing emails. Together, these two protocols receive the emails with IMAP and send the emails via SMTP.

When manually setting up an IMAP/SMTP account, you will need to provide imap.domain.com for the incoming server and smtp.domain.com for the outgoing server. The following figure illustrates the IMAP/SMTP relationship with the server:

Figure 3.2 – The IMAP/SMTP process

This protocol is used when you are retrieving and sending email from multiple devices, such as a desktop at home or work, a laptop, a tablet, or a mobile phone. With IMAP/SMTP, all changes will be copied between all devices, so if you delete an email from your tablet, it will be deleted across all the other devices. An internet connection is required to access your emails using this method, and because the emails are retained on a server, limited space is required on all your devices.

A disadvantage to this protocol is that because emails are stored on a server, storage limitations can be an issue. Once your inbox is full, emails will get rejected.

Note

One important note is to not mix POP3 and IMAP.

Microsoft Exchange

Exchange is a Microsoft protocol and offers all the same functions as you would get in IMAP. It also has added features to synchronize tasks, contacts, and calendars and view them on multiple devices. If you rely heavily on collaboration among your coworkers and often work remotely, then you will benefit from using Exchange. There are no negative effects of using Exchange instead of IMAP.

The organization that provides you with a work or school email account is generally on a Microsoft Exchange server or on Microsoft 365, which uses the Microsoft Exchange server to provide you with an email account. Google also incorporates Exchange into their Gmail app for Android and with their Google calendars and meeting rooms. Large organizations can benefit from Exchange because it can support an extremely large number of users.

Setting up email accounts in Outlook

Setting up an email account can, at first, seem like an overwhelming event or task. It, however, does not have to be difficult, and Outlook has a wizard to walk you through the process step by step for most setups. If you find yourself switching between different platforms to read your emails, then you will find this to be a very efficient process.

Email account setup – automatic

Let us now understand how to setup the email account.

1. Click on File | + Add Account (this will open automatically if you have not set up an account yet):

Figure 3.3 – Add Account

2. A box will appear asking for your email address. You can type in the address and Outlook will automatically connect you, using Microsoft Exchange with your Microsoft 365 account. Otherwise, enter your email address and click on Connect.

Figure 3.4 – Outlook email setup

The next page will give you options for setting up different types of email. The options are as follows:

1. Office 365
2. Outlook.com
3. Exchange
4. Google
5. POP
6. IMAP
7. Exchange 2013 or earlier

If you choose the first option, Office 365, Outlook will take a moment to automatically complete the process of adding the account. This is a big advantage of having a Microsoft 365 account. This will likely take a few moments to process, and you will see a We’re getting things ready message on the screen. Prior to this, you will also be prompted to enter a password for the account.

Figure 3.5 – Auto setup

3. Once complete, the next page will give you an option to set up Outlook on your mobile phone, too. If you wish to add this to your mobile phone, check the box. Outlook will start the synchronization process, which can take some time.

With this, you will have Outlook email installed on your devices.

Email account setup – manual

There are times when you must manually set up an account because Outlook cannot detect the setting that you need for an automated setup. This would be the case if you are setting up an account outside of the Exchange network.

The steps to complete this manual setup are as follows:

1. Click on File | New Account.
2. Enter the email address for the account you want to set up.
3. Click on the drop-down arrow for Advanced options.
4. Click on the box to select Let me set up my account manually, as shown in the following figure:

Figure 3.6 – Manual account setup

5. Click Connect. Next, select the type of account you are setting up and enter the appropriate settings.

Figure 3.7 – Advanced setup accounts

6. Once you click to select the email type, the Account Settings box will show. You will need to locate the settings necessary for the type of account you are setting up. In this example, I am setting up a POP account for a Yahoo email address.

Figure 3.8 – POP account settings

7. Enter a password for the email account you are setting up.

Figure 3.9 – POP Account Settings – Password

8. Select the Connect button. Outlook will display the We’re getting things ready message and set up the email account for you, providing your settings are given correctly.

Figure 3.10 – POP account added

9. Once complete, you will get a dialogue box indicating that the account is successfully added, and you can add another account or click the Set up Outlook Mobile on my phone, too option.
10. Click Done to complete the setup. Close the Account Settings box.

Your email account will now be displayed in the navigation bar on the left side of the email window.

Figure 3.11 – Email added to the navigation bar

Note

Some apps, such as Microsoft 365, require a separate, one-time password to sign in. Go to the settings in your email program, such as Yahoo, to generate this password. Once it's generated, you will use that one-time password to sign in through the Account Settings password box, not the password to open the Yahoo email.

Deleting an email account from the navigation pane

1. To delete an email account from the navigation pane in the email view, right-click on the name of the email account you want to remove and select Remove “[email protected]” (containing your equivalent name).

Figure 3.12 – Removing an email account

2. Click Yes, noting the warning that the account content will be deleted.

Figure 3.13 – Deleting an account

Modifying email account settings

Changing your email settings is easy inside Outlook; just follow these steps to access these settings:

1. Select File | Account Information.
2. Click the drop-down selection to choose the account you want to change.

Figure 3.14 – Changing the account dropdown

3. Select Account Settings.

Figure 3.15 – The Account Settings dropdown

4. Select from the list the settings that you want to change:
   1. Account Settings… – Add or remove accounts and server settings.
   2. Account Name and Sync Settings – Update the name of the account and synchronize x days’ worth of emails.
   3. Server Settings – Change login information, password settings, the server name, the port, and authentication settings.

Figure 3.16 – IMAP Account Settings

4. Change Profile – Switch to a new profile.
5. Manage Profiles – Change, add, and remove profile settings.

5. Once you’ve made the changes, select Next | Done.

Changing a mail server

You have the option to send email from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or other accounts. You will need to know your provider’s POP3, IMAP, and SMTP settings, as defined previously in this chapter. The following is a list of those settings for Microsoft’s providers:

Table 3.1 – Server settings for Microsoft providers

*For providers not listed, you must reference your provider’s information on their website or contact them to have them provide this information to you.

Multiple email accounts in Outlook

Have you had an event or meeting occasionally missed because of email overload? Managing several email accounts can be overwhelming. If you learn how to manage your email, this won’t happen again.

Once you have added all your desired email accounts to Outlook, you can switch between them through the navigation pane on the left side of the Outlook window. This is a convenient way to scroll down and look at each email account in one location.

Figure 3.17 – The navigation pane to view different accounts

By setting up your individual email accounts and managing them in one location, you won’t have to switch back and forth between your multiple accounts. You won’t have to worry about forwarding your emails to another account or linking accounts together. You won’t have to find an app. With this method, you can easily manage them in one location inside Outlook.

Domain names

What is a domain name? A domain name is like your digital street address. A domain, however, is a web address consisting of a website name and a domain name extension. The name is your choice if it is available and not registered to someone else. The extension is a few letters that identify the type of domain. The domain extension is like your zip code, and it gives a little more information about your website. Extensions used to be somewhat limited, but more and more extensions are now available.

Figure 3.18 – A domain name

Once you have purchased your own custom domain name from a domain name registrar, you can add it to Microsoft 365. You must have a Microsoft 365 subscription, which is not available in the trial version of Outlook. Once connected and verified, you will be able to have the domain accept email through your Microsoft 365 account. You can purchase your domain name through several providers by using https://www.godaddy.com/; the procedures to connect your accounts will be simplified through the Microsoft 365 interface.

Anyone can buy a domain name through a domain name registrar. However, you can’t buy just any domain – only names that are not registered by another person or business. Domain name registration is typically done on a yearly basis. However, you can prepay for up to 10 years if you want to guarantee that you will have a name for at least 10 years.

With over a billion websites registered to date, it’s important to find the right one for your business brand. The following are my recommendations for choosing a domain name:

• Use .com whenever possible.
• Keep it short, unique, and brandable.
• Make it easy to spell and pronounce.
• Avoid double letters.
• Use domain generators for ideas.
• Act quickly before it is taken.
• Avoid using hyphens.

The following are some examples of the top extensions:

• .com – The most popular, indicating a for-profit business.
• .net – A popular alternative to .com. Keep in mind that some people will associate this with technology.
• .org – Created for a not-for-profit or information-driven business.
• .co – This was originally designated as a country code for Columbia but has since become a popular option for global domains. It is now used to designate a company, corporation, or commercial venture.
• .us – This is reserved for business operations prominently in the United States.
• .gov – Government agencies.
• .edu – Educational institutions.
• .info – Short for information.

Adding a custom domain

Adding a custom domain to your Microsoft 365 account will not only give you email with your domain but also let your users sign into Microsoft 365 services such as Exchange Online, Office 365, SharePoint Online, and Skype, using a personalized email address that matches your domain.

When you initially sign up for your Microsoft 365 subscription, Microsoft assigns your account or tenant with a default domain name. It will be a name that you choose and will look like name.microsoft.com. If you are in business, you will most likely use your domain for this name.

To add a custom domain, sign in to your Microsoft 365 account and ensure that you are signed in as the administrator of the account because only they have permission to add a custom domain:

1. You will have the administrator icon, as shown in the following figure, if you are signed in to your administrator account. You may need to click on the all apps option to see an expanded list of the applications, where you will also find the admin icon, as shown here:

Figure 3.19 – The admin icon

2. Once you click on the admin icon, the admin center will open.
3. Click on Setup.

Figure 3.20 – The admin center Setup icon

4. Scroll down to Sign-in and security, where you will see a list of tasks that have not been completed yet.

Figure 3.21 – Sign-in and security

5. Click on the Get your custom domain set up task. You’ll have some information here on what happens when you add a custom domain to your account and specifically on how users sign on with your domain. Click Get Started, and the next screen will ask you to enter your domain name. (purchased previously).

Figure 3.22 – Add a domain

If you are using a GoDaddy.com domain name registrar, the next screen will automatically detect whether you will see the screen asking you to verify your domain with your host/registrar. If you are using GoDaddy, simply select that option, and it will prompt you to sign in to your GoDaddy account with a username and password. Click the Connect button to authorize Microsoft to enable the services. Microsoft can add the DNS records if your domain name was purchased from one of the following registrars:

• IONOS
• EuroDNS
• Cloudflare
• GoDaddy
• WordPress.com
• Plesk
• Media Temple

If you are not using one of these registrars, you can continue by selecting the option you want to use to verify your domain. This step is necessary to ensure that you do own your domain. It is a security measure put in place to secure who is setting the domain up for sending and receiving email.

Figure 3.23 – Verifying your domain

I am using a third party for this setup, so I am going to select Add a TXT record to the domain’s DNS records. Click on the Learn more about DNS record link to learn more about this option from Microsoft. Once you are done, click on Continue.

Figure 3.24 – Verifying the domain

6. Verify with a TXT or MX record. There is a link in the Verify you own this domain box for step-by-step instructions.
7. Now, send the information provided by Microsoft 365 to your third-party host. My host is Nerds by Night, and they will perform these steps for my account. It is not unusual for this provider to complete these steps for you, and you need to provide them with the information that was supplied in the Verify you own this domain dialog box.

The information you need to have available is as follows:

• TXT name: @
• TXT value: MS=ms######## (a unique ID from the admin center)
• TTL: 3600

The following figure demonstrates the steps necessary for this to happen:

Figure 3.25 – The DNS process

These steps are as follows:

1. The administrator will request and purchase a domain from the domain name registrar.
2. If the name is available, the administrator will purchase the domain from the registrar.
3. The administrator will add the domain to the Microsoft 365 admin portal.
4. Microsoft 365 will provide the administrator with the following values:
   • The txt value, which is used to prove ownership of your domain that you have purchased from a domain provider. Office 365 will give you a txt value that you or your host will need to add as a txt record on your domain/host provider website. Once added, that value will be replicated globally on the internet and your domain will be verified.
   • The mx value, also called a mail exchange record, which is used to receive emails from external domains. This will allow your host to send your emails to Microsoft 365.
   • The cname value, which is used by the Autodiscover service. Outlook and Free/Busy are a couple of services that rely on this.
5. The administrator will provide these values to the registrar to be published on your registrar provider’s website.
6. The value is replicated by Microsoft 365 and confirms that the domain is owned by the administrator.

Once these steps are complete, you can click on Verify, and the records show as complete in Microsoft 365 portal. You can set up a user account for email and begin sending and receiving emails using the new domain email ID.

Figure 3.26 – Domain setup is complete

Note

Up to 5,000 domains can be added to one subscription of a Microsoft 365 business account. You cannot add a domain that you are already using in another cloud service.

Summary

Many people struggle with keeping their personal and business emails together. Reducing the places where you read messages is a benefit of using Outlook. In this chapter, we discussed the benefits of using multiple email accounts within Outlook. We discussed the difference between Exchange, POP3, and IMAP/STMP accounts. We then discussed the advantages of using a domain with your email account to make your business look more professional. Outlook makes all these tasks easy and helps organize your day and save you time.

In the next chapter, we will discuss how to manage all the emails that you receive throughout the day, and we will teach you different ways to organize your personal environment inside Outlook by setting your option preferences, using color to identify important emails quickly, using flags, categories, and Quick Steps. These are some of the must-know tools for incorporating best practices into your day-to-day routine using Outlook.

Questions

1. What is the difference between Outlook and Exchange?
2. Are Gmail, Outlook, and AOL ESPs?
3. How many email accounts can I have in my Microsoft 365 account?
4. What is Outlook 365?
5. What is an Outlook profile?

Answers

1. Outlook is a software application that can be installed on your computer, tablet, and mobile devices. Its uses are to communicate and synchronize with Exchange. Exchange is the software that provides an integrated system for your email, calendaring, messaging, and tasks. The two applications, Outlook and Exchange, must work together to run Outlook. With Exchange Server, you or your IT support company maintain the server and have full control of the infrastructure, whereas with Office 365, you do not have control of it, and it is maintained by Microsoft in the cloud.
2. The simple answer is no. Despite providing access to your email, they are not email marketers and do not allow you to use email contact lists and send campaigns to subscribers. An example of this type of provider would be Mailchimp or Constant Contact, and there are several others to choose from.
3. In one Outlook account, you can add up to 20 different email accounts. These accounts do not have to be Outlook accounts; they can be Gmail, Yahoo, and various others.
4. Outlook 365 does not exist. It was rebranded as Microsoft 365 on April 21, 2020, with the same productivity suite of services still being offered, which includes Outlook. The reason for the rebranding was the inclusion of additional software beyond the core Office software such as cloud-based productivity tools and features with artificial intelligence.
5. Profiles in Outlook are created when you set up Outlook. Most people don’t realize that you can have multiple profiles and only use one profile. It is convenient to set up separate profiles to help organize your emails – for example, you can have one profile for work and another for home. If you have several people using the same computer, you can set up a separate profile for each user. To set up profiles, go to Control Panel | Mail | Show Profiles | Add….

Further reading

• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/exchange/email
• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/overview-of-outlook-e-mail-profiles-9073a8ac-c3d6-421d-b5b9-fcedff7642fc