What to ask your ISP if you're having issues sending, receiving, or configuring Mail
Summary
Are you having issues sending, receiving, or configuring Mail? If so, ask your Internet service provider (or email provider) the following questions to verify that your account is set up correctly in Mail. You can print (or copy and paste to a text document) and keep this "cheat sheet" to record your email provider's settings for future reference. This sheet can make it easier for you when configuring Mail in Mac OS X or on iPhone or iPod touch, or when contacting your provider.
Products Affected
Mac OS X 10.6, Mac OS X v10.1, Mac OS X v10.2, Mac OS X v10.3, Mac OS X v10.4, Mac OS X v10.5, iPhone
My Email account settings
| General settings | ||
| Questions | Answers | Notes |
| Full name: | Your name as you would like it to appear on messages you send, such as Tom Clark. | |
| My email address: | @ . | Such as tomclark@example.com. |
| My email provider: | The name of your ISP or email provider such as Yahoo, Gmail, Comcast, AOL, etc. | |
| Incoming mail server settings | ||
| Questions | Answers | Notes |
| Account type: | POP [ ] IMAP [ ] Exchange IMAP [ ] Exchange 2007 EWS [ ] (see below) |
|
| Incoming mail server hostname: | Such as mail.example.com | |
| Username: | ||
| Password: | ||
| Incoming server port number: | ||
| Incoming server authentication method: | Password [ ] MD5 [ ] NTLM [ ] Kerberos [ ] | |
| Incoming mail server supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)? | Yes [ ] No [ ] | |
| Outgoing mail server settings | ||
| Questions | Answers | Notes |
| Outgoing server hostname: | Such as smtp.example.com | |
| Outgoing server port: | 25 [ ] 465 [ ] 587 [ ] Other: | |
| The outgoing mail server supports Secure Sockets Layer (SSL): | Yes [ ] No [ ] | |
| Outgoing server authentication type: | Password [ ] MD5 [ ] NTLM [ ] Kerberos [ ] | |
| Outgoing server requires a username and password: | Yes [ ] No [ ] | If yes:
|
| Can these settings be used from any Internet connection? | Yes [ ] No [ ] | If you use your ISP’s own email service (instead of a third-party such as Gmail), sometimes it may not work if you use another Internet access point, such as a cafe with wireless Internet. Check with your email provider that the settings they give you will work on other networks. |
Microsoft Exchange 2007 (EWS)-specific questions
For Exchange 2007 (EWS), if auto configuration is not enabled on the server, or if you are not sure, you should ask or know the answers these specific questions:
- What is my Account Name?
- What is my password?
- What is the Client Access Server (CAS) name? (Used for the incoming server field.)
- Which ports are used for internal and external servers?
- Which authentication types are used?
- Is VPN network access required?
For information about using an Exchange 2007 account in Mail in Mac OS X v10.6, see this article.
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