Abstract
This chapter steps you through setup of Microsoft Mail. With Microsoft Mail service, you can exchange email with other people in your organization who have Microsoft Mail addresses, post information in shared folders, and — if your postoffice is connected to a gateway — exchange email with people on other mail systems or even send faxes.
Microsoft Mail is Microsoft’s older e-mail product family. It comes in a full server version and in a “workgroup postoffice” version included with Windows 95 and Windows NT.
With the Microsoft Mail service, you can
Exchange e-mail with other people in your organization who have Microsoft Mail addresses.
If your postoffice is connected to a gateway, exchange e-mail with people on other mail systems or even send faxes. (A gateway is a way of connecting a Microsoft Mail Server to other types of mail systems, such as an Internet mail server or Novell NetWare mail.)
Post information in shared folders for other members of your postoffice to see (but not including Outlook appointments or contacts).
REQUIREMENTS
To use the Microsoft Mail service for Outlook, you must have
a Microsoft Mail postoffice to connect to (you need to know the network path to the postoffice)
an account in that postoffice and the password for that account
The postoffice can be a full postoffice created with Microsoft Mail Server, or it can be a workgroup postoffice created either by the Mail program that comes with Windows for Workgroups or Windows NT 3.x, or by the Microsoft Mail Postoffice applet in the Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 Control Panel.
If you’ve never used Microsoft Mail on your network, you can create your own postoffice and add user accounts. But to do this, you must install Exchange or Windows Messaging with the Microsoft Mail service before installing Microsoft Outlook. Otherwise, you will not find the Microsoft Mail Postoffice applet in the Control Panel.
BASIC SETUP
Depending on how Outlook was set up on your machine, you may already have Microsoft Mail in your default profile. But, assuming you don’t, let’s walk through the two different methods of adding it: via the setup wizard and by manually adding the service. See Chapter 3 if you need a refresher on how to add a service to an Outlook profile.
The advantage of using the wizard is that it lets you pick your name from the list of people with accounts on the postoffice; you don’t have to know your actual mailbox name. The advantage of configuring manually is that you get the chance to establish all the settings at once. If you tend to veer from the defaults (see Table 5.1 later in this chapter), then manual configuration is probably your best bet. Manual configuration is also the most efficient method if you’re setting up Microsoft Mail on a laptop or on any system that isn’t currently connected to the network where the postoffice resides. We discuss both setup methods after taking a quick look at some preparation you need if you’re upgrading to Outlook from an older version of Microsoft Mail.
If You’ve Used Microsoft Mail Before
Before you set up Microsoft Mail, make sure that your old messages are available for Outlook to import. These old messages are stored in an .mmf file, either on the postoffice or on your local drive. Locally stored messages are usually in a file called Msmail.mmf in your Windows folder. If the messages are on the server, you need to use the old Microsoft Mail program to move or copy them so Outlook can import them.
To copy the old messages, follow these steps before you install Outlook:
Start Microsoft Mail and log on to your account.
In Microsoft Mail, choose File, Export Folder.
Specify a name for your export file, then click OK.
In the Export Folders dialog box, choose Select All Folders.
Click Copy to copy all the folders and your Personal Address Book to the export file. Click the Close button when finished.
Choose File, Exit and Sign Out to close Mail.
Alternatively, if you prefer to move the message file from the server to another location,
Run Microsoft Mail and log on to your account.
Choose Mail, Options.
From the Options dialog box, click the Server button.
Choose Local and, in the File box, specify a path to the .mmf file; this path can be either on a local drive or at another server location.
Click OK twice to return to the main Mail window.
Choose File, Exit and Sign Out to close Mail.
To import the .mmf file after you install Outlook, see “Importing from Microsoft Mail” in Chapter 16.
Using the Setup Wizard
Now that you have access to any earlier Microsoft Mail .mmf files, you can proceed to add Microsoft Mail to your profile. As noted earlier in this chapter, there are two ways to do this — using the Inbox Setup Wizard or manually.
The setup wizard is available only when you create a new profile through the Mail and Fax applet in the Control Panel.
To add a profile using the setup wizard, follow these steps:
Run the Mail and Fax applet in the Control Panel.
Click the Show Profiles button.
Choose Add.
In the first screen of the setup wizard, choose Use the Following Information Services and check the ones you want, in this case being sure to include Microsoft Mail.
Click Next to continue, and give the profile a name on the next screen of the wizard, then click Next again to begin configuring Microsoft Mail and any other services you selected.
Here are the steps in the wizard that are specific to Microsoft Mail:
The wizard asks the path to your postoffice (Figure 5.1). This path is likely to be \\Servername\wgpo0000 or something similar if the postoffice is on a workstation or an NT server. You may be able to locate the path by browsing the LAN through Network Neighborhood, but it’s probably quicker just to ask the system administrator. Click Next to continue.
If you’ve entered the postoffice path correctly and the wizard can connect to it, the system displays a list of Microsoft Mail users (Figure 5.2). Pick your name, then click Next to continue.
If you see the list of users but your name isn’t there, you don’t have an account on the postoffice and therefore will not be able to set up Microsoft Mail. Click the Cancel button and make sure you get an account before you try to configure Microsoft Mail again.
If you get the message “Could not connect to the postoffice that you specified,” follow the wizard’s instructions for correcting the postoffice path or, if the path is correct but the postoffice is currently unavailable, click Next to continue. Also click Next if you always work remotely.
If you picked your name from the postoffice list, you’ll see Figure 5.3. Enter your password, then click Next to continue.
If you couldn’t connect to the postoffice in step 2, you will be prompted in the dialog box in Figure 5.4 to enter both your Mailbox and Password. Enter the name of your mail account and its password. The system administrator should be able to give you that information if you don’t have it already. Click Next to continue.
Manually Configuring Services
If you add Microsoft Mail to an existing profile, you configure the mail services through the Microsoft Mail properties dialog box, which consists of eight tabs of settings. You also use the properties dialog box if you create a new profile but choose “Manually configure information services” when the Inbox Setup Wizard launches.
When adding Microsoft Mail manually to an existing or new profile, follow these steps in the properties dialog box to configure the minimum required settings. We discuss other settings under “Options” later in this chapter.
On the Connection tab (Figure 5.5), “Enter the path to your postoffice,” as described in step 1 in the previous section.
Switch to the Logon tab (Figure 5.6) and enter your mailbox or account name and the password for the account.
If your machine sometimes or always dials in to the network to get mail, and if you’re connecting remotely, then continue with the next section. Otherwise, you have completed all the required settings for Microsoft Mail. Click the OK button to save the configuration for this service. You may want to review the other settings listed under “Options” later in this chapter.
If You Are Connecting Remotely
To establish your Microsoft Mail connection for remote use, switch to the Dial-Up Networking tab on the Microsoft Mail properties dialog box (Figure 5.7). You must designate the DUN connectoid or phonebook entry you want to use for Microsoft Mail connections. (See Chapter 2 for details about setting up DUN.) Make your selection from the list shown under “Use the following Dial-Up Networking connection.”
You also have the option of creating a new connection. Click the Add Entry button to proceed. When you’ve selected the DUN connection, click the OK button to save the configuration for the Microsoft Mail service.
OPTIONS
Like all Outlook services, Microsoft Mail includes an extensive properties dialog box with multiple tabs for a variety of options. Table 5.1 lists these settings and their default values; some you’ve already seen because they’re included in the basic settings discussed above. We look at the other settings on the Microsoft Mail properties dialog box in this section.
The next few sections highlight some of the changes you’re most likely to want to make to these default settings.
Startup Connection
Return to the Connection tab on the Microsoft Mail properties dialog box (Figure 5.5) and look at the setting under “Select how this service should connect at startup.” If this machine is always connected to the LAN, choose “Local area network (LAN).” If this machine sometimes travels, your best choice is “Automatically sense LAN or Remote.” If this machine is always on the road, choose “Remote using a modem and Dial-Up Networking.”
The Offline setting is of limited usefulness, because you can’t send or receive mail when Offline is selected. Use this setting only in a profile where you do not need to connect to the mail server at all. To deliver any mail that you compose while working offline in this fashion, you need to change the startup connection setting to one of the other choices, quit Outlook, then restart Outlook.
Password
Password settings are on the Logon tab (Figure 5.6). To change the password on your Microsoft Mail account, use the Change Mailbox Password button. (You can also change your password from within Outlook by choosing Tools, Microsoft Mail Tools, Change Mailbox Password.) If you want Outlook to enter your password automatically, check the “When logging on, automatically enter password” box. This saves your password in the password cache for your Windows user profile.
Delivery
You can turn off delivery of incoming and outgoing messages by clearing the appropriate checkboxes on the Delivery tab shown in Figure 5.8. This might be useful, for example, if you want all outgoing messages held for delivery at one time or if you don’t want to be distracted by incoming messages while you are working on an urgent project.
If you are connecting to a full Microsoft Mail server, rather than to a workgroup postoffice, you can use the Address Types button to enable or disable delivery to types of mail recipients other than Microsoft Mail. The types listed (Figure 5.9) will depend on the mail gateways connected to your mail server.
For example, if your postoffice has an Internet gateway but you prefer to use Outlook’s separate Internet E-mail service, you can clear the SMTP checkbox to prevent Internet-bound messages from going through the Microsoft Mail service.
For full Microsoft Mail server connections, you may also want to check the “Display Global Address List only” box at the bottom of the Delivery tab (Figure 5.8). This can speed up things if people in your organization are scattered among a number of different postoffices, each with its own address list.
In the “Check for new mail every ...” box on the Delivery tab, set the interval at which you want Outlook to check the postoffice for new mail. Outlook also sends messages when it checks. This setting applies only if you have not checked the Use Remote Mail box on the LAN Configuration tab.
To be notified immediately when new messages arrive at the postoffice, check the Immediate Notification box. You need to have NetBIOS enabled in your network settings. The server where the postoffice is located must also support NetBIOS. See your system administrator to find out whether this setting is appropriate.
LAN Configuration
There are only three settings to consider if you operate Outlook directly connected to a LAN. These settings appear on the LAN Configuration tab, shown in Figure 5.10.
Perhaps the most important of these settings is Use Remote Mail. Choose this if you want to delete messages from the server only on command, rather than automatically once Outlook has retrieved them. For more about this issue, see “Retaining Messages on the Server” later in this chapter.
If your LAN is slow or the postoffice is large, you may want to check the “Use local copy” box on the LAN Configuration tab. This keeps a copy of the postoffice address list on your local system. To refresh the list, occasionally choose Tools, Microsoft Mail Tools, Download Address Lists while you’re working in Outlook.
The third setting, “Use external delivery agent,” is relevant only if you’re connecting to a full Microsoft Mail Server postoffice (this setting is also mainly for slow networks). See your system administrator to find out whether this setting is appropriate for you.
Log
By default, Outlook keeps a log of your Microsoft Mail sessions, using the location specified on the Log tab (Figure 5.11). To view the log from Outlook, choose Tools, Microsoft Mail Tools, View Session Log.
Remote User Settings
The settings for connecting remotely to the Microsoft Mail postoffice are complex enough to cover three tabs. The Remote Configuration tab includes the same settings as the LAN Configuration tab discussed above. The Remote Session tab determines when you connect and disconnect. Finally, the Dial-Up Networking tab governs how you connect.
One thing to consider as you work with these settings is whether you want to use Remote Mail to get your messages by selecting the ones to retrieve from a list of headers. This is an alternative to getting all your messages at once, either on demand or through a scheduled mail download. For a complete discussion of the difference between these methods, see Chapter 12.
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