Configuring Microsoft Outlook for Imap connectivity can require different settings options depending on the server configuration.

For WrenMaxwell hosted servers the configuration settings follow the industry standard settings for email configuration. The details can be found in the Port Settings page.

This article is focussed on different server configurations that may exist where the server has different access requirements due to firewalls or routing requirements.

The following is a step-by-step guide for Secure Imap and Secure SMTP connections to the same server. You will need to substitute your specific server and user account settings for the examples.

• server name will be in the format mail.domainname.tld
• user account will be the name you use to login to your server or network accounts
• the password will correspond to your user account.

If you are not sure of the username / password then try to login to your network and confirm that it works before you start on this exercise.

The following guide is based on Windows 7 connecting to a private office server. The server has been configured for secure imap and smtp on the default industry ports. A self-issued SSL certificate is used.

From your Start Menu open the Control Panel

Enter 'mail' into the search box in the upper right corner which will display the Mail (32 bit) icon in the main pane

Select the Mail (32 bit) icon

Select Show Profiles and you should see a list of the Outlook Profiles that exist for your account on the computer. Usually the only one is the default 'Outlook' profile.

At this stage you can elect to modify the Properties of the existing profile and add a second account into your existing Outlook Profile, or as this guide will do, it adds a new Profile specific to the server and account that we want to use.

Click on Ok which will save the profile and open up the Add New Account panel

On this screen the password should be your network password which will match with the network login, not the email address. Here Outlook assumes that the email address is directly linked with the network password which it may not be. In order to avoid issues and warning messages, select the 'Manually configure server settings or additional server types' option. The other options will be greyed out as a result. Then click Next.

Outlook will then prompt for the Service type to be chosen.

Generally it is just the top option for 'Internet Email'. The other options are not referenced in this guide.  Select Next.

In the Add New Account panel enter your name and the email address that this account will use. In the Account Type select the drop-down and choose IMAP.

Enter the mail server hostname as a fully qualified domain name (as with all tech things the acronym FQDN may be seen for this)

Your usename and password will be required at this stage. Do not press Next. To modify the default Outlook settings choose More Settings.

The More Settings option opens another panel with 6 tabs. Select the Outgoing Server tab, Check the 'My outgoing SMTP server requires authentication' option, and note that the 'Use same settings as my incoming mail server' option is selected. You would only change this if your outbound email was to use a different account. In this case it will not and the same server will be used.

Next select the Advanced Tab

The ports that need to be used are 993 for IMAP and 465 for SMTP. These are the default ports for secure mail communications. Changing the ports appears simple enough, enter 993 for the 'Incoming Server (IMAP)' and enter 465 for the 'Outgoing Server (SMTP)'. 

Next choose SSL for the 'Use the following type of encrypted connection' for both IMAP and SMTP.  Now there is a snag here with Outlook and when the SSL selection is made the port number reverts to 25. So change that again to 465.

For the moment you can ignore the Sent Items tab as it is not enabled until the account is saved and confirmed. We will come back to this.

At this point the 'Test Account Settings by clicking the Next button' is checked and that is what you can do. However the screen will return here on completion and you will need to uncheck it to complete the process.

When a server has a self-issed certificate it will commonly be highlighted as inconsistent. You can view the certificate to confirm that it is the correct server, even though Outlook is suggesting it might be wrong, it should be ok.

If you do View the Certificate, there is the option to 'Install the Certificate' and if the certificate is correct then it will install and save you from being prompted. However, if the server name is different from the hostname on the certificate, which can be commonly found, then each time you open Outlook you will be prompted that 'The target principal name is incorrect'. It depends on the server configuration.

Click Yes to continue and use the nominated server.

And Success !  the login is correct and completed. Just a few clean up items to do now, as the next screen will show there is an error. If you are quick enough you could click Stop and cancel the next screen safely.

This email test will frequently fail as the sample data that Outlook uses is flawed and does not have a Date included in it. As a result this message is shown. You can safely ignore it and click on Close.

The last piece of the puzzle is to check that you are saving your Sent Items and Deleted Items back to the server and not locally. The whole purpose of IMAP is to allow you to access your email records from multiple devices.

Now that we are back at this screen, select the More Settings option one more time. In the Sent Items tab you can select the correct folder on the server that you want to use for your Sent Items

Depending on the server you may have multiple options for a Sent Items folder as Outlook and other application call the folders by different names. Select the one that best suits your needs.

Repeat the same exercise with the Deleted Items folder tab and then click OK.

And for the last time back at this screen, un-check the Testing Account Settings option and click on Next. Then click Finish to complete the Outlook Wizard.

Now you can open Outlook and check in on your new email Profile and account.