Many people use several different email addresses for different purposes. I have one for work, one for personal, and another for special projects. Setting up Outlook to send and receive from several addresses can be a challenge. Here are some instructions for setting up multiple POP3 email accounts so that you can send from each with the correct reply-to address.

(I'm using Outlook 2002. If you are using a different version, the process might be a little different for you, but probably not so different that these instructions won't help.)

  1. Create a separate folder for each of your email addresses. (Right-click where you want the new folder to appear and select "New folder.")
  2. On the Tools menu, select E-mail Accounts.
  3. Select "Add a new e-mail account."
  4. Select "POP3."
  5. Enter your name, e-mail address, incoming server, outgoing server, user name, and password.
  6. Click on "More Settings ..."
  7. On the General tab, enter a descriptive name in the Mail Account field, something that makes sense to you. Enter the organization, if applicable, and the Reply E-mail, which should be the same as the E-mail Address on the previous screen.
  8. On the Outgoing Server tab, select the checkbox next to "My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication" and enter the appropriate information. You probably just need to select the first radio button, "Use same settings as my incoming mail server." This is important if you want your email recipients to get the right address when they reply to your messages! If Outlook can't connect to one outgoing server, it will try another one, and it won't tell you that it did it. Then your reply-to address will be wrong on the outgoing email. At best, that could be confusing if you send from one address and receive replies at another. Worse, it could be embarrassing if you didn't want to give out that other address
  9. Click OK then Next.
  10. Be sure to test your account settings.
  11. When you send a new email, select the appropriate email account from the "Accounts" button on the toolbar to tell Outlook which account settings to use. If you don't, the email will be sent through the default email account. The From field will have no effect on the Reply To address or the outgoing server used to send your email. You must select the account to use for sending if you want the Reply To address to be correct.

Some Internet service providers, like AT&T/SBC, require you to use their outgoing mail servers no matter what your email address is. If your address is through some other domain, it needs to be authorized and verified. That's a whole other ball game. If you need help setting that up, let me know. I'll come to your home or office and have you connected and working in no time.

Last Updated ( Friday, 18 December 2009 11:22 )