Set up AOL email on Outlook Express

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I wanted to know how to set up my AOL email account in Outlook Express? Is this a simple thing to do? I know a few people who have this arrangement and was wondering if you can provide instructions for a beginner like me. Thanks.
Cynthia

There are two ways to set up an AOL account on Outlook Express. You can use either IMAP or POP3; yes, both these email protocols are enabled on all free AOL email accounts. Once the setup is successful, Outlook Express connects to the server and downloads all messages. The emails will then be stored on your computer and accessible even without an active Internet connection.

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IMAP or POP to set up AOL on Outlook Express?

Since there are two ways to download AOL email, which one should you use? It depends entirely on how you plan to use the account. There is a big, though subtle, difference between IMAP and POP3.

IMAP lets you synchronize an email account with all computers and devices that access it. Thus, the online server and all your local computers will have the identical list of emails. The same is true for mobile devices – refer AOL email on the iPhone.

With POP3 you have the advantage of “saving” a copy of the email on the server. Since AOL now offers unlimited storage space, you can let the message lie on the server… never know when you may need it, right?

IMAP set up of AOL email on Outlook Express

Below are instructions to set up AOL email on Outlook Express using the IMAP protocol which would take you less than a couple of minutes. Don’t be intimated by the number of images in the slideshow… I just wanted to show you each step.

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  1. Start Outlook Express and if no account has been set up, you’ll probably see a window that looks like slide 1.
  2. Click “Tools” and select “Accounts” [Slide 2].
  3. In the Internet Accounts pop-up window, click the “Add” button and choose “Mail” [Slide 3].
  4. Enter your name and move to the next screen [Slide 4].
  5. Type the full AOL email address and click “Next” [Slide 5].
  6. Select IMAP option from the “My incoming mail server is a” drop down [Slide 6].
  7. Enter the IMAP settings of AOL email [Slide 7].
    Incoming: imap.aol.com
    Outgoing: smtp.aol.com
  8. Provide the AOL login ID in the “Account name” field – this is the part before the @ sign in the email address. Also type in the password [Slide 8].
  9. Click “Finish” in the next screen [Slide 9].
  10. You’ll come back to the Internet Accounts window but this time it has the newly set up AOL email account [Slide 10].
  11. Select this account and hit the “Properties” button [Slide 11] which displays another pop-up.
  12. Under the General tab, enter the name of your organization (optional) and the “Reply to” address [Slides 11 and 12].
  13. Move to the “Servers” tab and check “My server requires authentication” [Slide 13].
  14. On the “Advanced” tab, enter 587 as the outgoing mail (SMTP) port and check the “This server requires a secure connection (SSL)” for incoming mail (IMAP) [Slide 14]. Click “Apply” followed by “OK“.
  15. Now close the Internet Accounts window [Slide 15].
  16. The AOL email account has successfully been set up in Outlook Express. The program will now ask for permission to download folders from the server [Slide 16]. Click “Yes“.
  17. The folders and messages from the AOL server will start arriving on your computer [Slide 17]. Click ”
    OK” in the “Show/Hide IMAP folders” pop-up [Slide 18] to view your AOL email account in Outlook Express [Slide 19].
Answers AOL Outlook Express