Geek Squad's email server settings guide

Adding your email account to your new device should be a fairly straightforward process, whether you're doing it for your PC, tablet or mobile phone. Enter the details, watch it set up, and then wait for the email to arrive. Sounds simple enough, right?

Sadly though, this isn't always the way things work out. Quite often you will find that the account doesn't configure on its own, but instead asks you to start entering settings with odd-sounding names like mail server, port numbers and encryption type, most of which you've probably never even heard of!

In order to get your email account up and running, you'll need to know some information before you start:

• ​Who is your email provider?
• What type of account does my provider support - POP3, IMAP or Exchange?
• What are the server settings I need?
• What do the error messages mean?
• What if email arrives, but it doesn't send?

We will look at each of these things in turn. There are links at the bottom of each section to return here if you need to.

Who is your email provider?

The first thing you will need to know is who provides your email account. If your account is provided by your ISP , then it's their name you need. If your mail provider's name matches the domain part of your email address , then again that is the name you're looking for.

If your email is a hosted account, perhaps because you has your own domain name, then you need to know who hosts the email service in order to get the right settings for your account.

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What type of account does my email provider support?

The next thing you will need to know is the type of email account you have: POP3, IMAP or Exchange. Each of these account types has their own way of working, and if you want to use your email account on more than one device then they all need to be set up in the same way, to avoid losing any of your data or getting inconsistencies between devices.

Let's have a look at the different account types:

• POP is a simple method of delivering a local copy of mail from the server to a device. Once that local copy is downloaded, there is no further interaction with the mailbox, and whatever happens to that email from then on happens only on that device. 
• IMAP is a much more sophisticated method of controlling mail, which feeds information back to the server about the status of your devices every time your mail app syncs . Any movement of emails into different folders, or any deletions, etc., are fed back to the server, which in turn updates each device as it checks for new mail. This means that whatever device you look at your mail on, the view is always the same, with same mail in the same folders - ideal if you use lots of devices!
• Exchange mail is widely used by businesses and education providers who have a large enough client base to run their own email system. These are bespoke systems designed to the company's specifications, and won't have publicly accessible server information. If your account is Exchange, I would recommend contacting your email provider's IT department for assistance.

Exchange aside then, for the majority of email providers it is simply a choice of POP3 or IMAP. A lot of the older ISP-based accounts still use POP, while most of the more recently set up providers use IMAP. Some email accounts, however, can be set up as either type. If your account is one of these, you will need to check how it is set up on any other devices you use. You will need to set it up the same way on your new device as you have on all your other devices. If you don't do this, you could run into problems seeing all of your mail, or items moving or disappearing without obvious reason.

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List of Email server settings

The links below lead to server settings for all the common email providers in the UK. The account type is shown in each table, and where it is possible to set up an account using either, it will be shown as POP3/IMAP. If either type may be used, alternative settings may be shown within the table for each account type. If there is only one setting, it is the same for both types of account. You should only enter one set of data, and use the same setting consistently - if there are several fields with choices for your provider, either use all IMAP or all POP choices, depending on how you want the account to be set up.

Click on the first letter of your email provider's name to jump to the correct section.

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aol.co.uk

aol.com

blueyonder.co.uk

btconnect.com

btinternet.com, btopenworld.com

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clara.co.uk

Demon

eclipse.co.uk

fast.co.uk

Fasthosts

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freeserve.co.uk, fsbusiness.co.uk, fslife.co.uk, fsnet.co.uk, fsworld.co.uk

gmail.com

hotmail.com, hotmail.co.uk

lineone.net

live.com, live.co.uk

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me.com

ntlworld.com

o2.co.uk

orangehome.co.uk

onetel.com

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onetel.net

dial.pipex.com

dsl.pipex.com

plus.net

sky.com

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supanet.com

surfanytime.co.uk

talktalk.net

tesco.net

tiscali.co.uk

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virgin.net

wanadoo.co.uk

yahoo.com

yahoo.co.uk

zen.co.uk

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123Reg

1and1

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What do the error messages mean?

Some guidance can be taken from any error messages you might see during the set up.

If you see an authentication error, that usually means that the username format is wrong, or the wrong password has been entered. Check the password is correct by logging into your email account through a webpage, if possible.

If you see an error telling you the server is not responding, double-check the port number you entered, username/password authentication settings and the type of security, as these are the most common reasons for this type of error.

Email receives, but doesn't send

This is one of the most annoying problems you may encounter with email, and often happens on mobile phones and tablets. This can be due to a wide variety of causes, but the two most common reasons account for the vast majority of problems. In order to make sense of that, it is important to know how email works. 

Incoming and outgoing mail work in different ways. This is broadly comparable to posting a letter, in that the postman brings mail to your house and posts it through the door , but you can't hand him a letter you want to send - you have to find a postbox . From start to finish, your letter is handled and controlled by the Royal Mail, but each part works independently. With email, when you want to receive mail, your device contacts the incoming mail server, and downloads the new mail. To send mail, it sends it out through your internet provider's outgoing mail server.

It’s the sending out of mail that causes most of the problems. Some providers may require you to prove who you are before they will send your mail out. This is done by providing your email username and password, and is called authentication. You shoulfd re-check the outgoing mail server settings, tapping on any buttons to take you into advanced settings to look at the following items :

• Is there a check box asking whether you wish to use authentication? If there is, tick it.
• Are there spaces for your username and password in the outgoing settings? If there is, try entering your details and see if that works.
• Are you being asked whether you want to use the same settings as your incoming server? If so, then select this option, as it means using authentication.

Sending mail from a mobile device

If you are trying to use email on a mobile device, you may come across a further hurdle placed there by your mobile network. While you are using 4G, 3G, or GPRS data, your mobile phone provider IS your internet provider, as you are connecting via their SIM card.

This means that you may need to use your mobile phone provider’s outgoing mail server to send your mail, instead of the one listed above. Listed below are the generic outgoing servers for the main UK mobile networks, which you can try in place of the existing outgoing server settings. All the servers below use port 587, and do not use SSL security.

• O2 - smtp.o2.co.uk
• EE - smtp.orange.net
• Orange - smtp.orange.net
• T-Mobile - smtp.t-email.co.uk
• Three - smtp-mbb.three.co.uk
• Vodafone - No dedicated server, use email provider settings 

Summary

Hopefully your mail will now be working. If not, then you can seek support from your email provider's help pages, or telephone support or online chat if they offer these services. If all else fails, our dedicated Agents are available 24/7 via our support services webpage.