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How to Connect to an Exchange Mailbox by Using POP3 or IMAP4

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic provides information about how to configure a Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol version 4rev1 (IMAP4) client application to connect to an Exchange mailbox. To enable your Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 users to connect to their mailboxes by using Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol version 4rev1 (IMAP4), you must correctly configure the Exchange server environment. Additionally, each of your clients must correctly configure their client application to connect to the server that is running Microsoft Exchange by using POP3 or IMAP4.

For information about how to verify that your Exchange environment is configured to support POP3 or IMAP4 connectivity, see Verify that Your Exchange Environment is Configured to Support POP3 and IMAP4.

Before You Begin

Because Exchange 2007 supports POP3 and IMAP4, your users can use various POP3 and IMAP4 applications to connect to Exchange 2007. These applications include Outlook, Windows Mail, Microsoft Outlook Express, Entourage for MAC and third-party clients such as Mozilla Thunderbird, and Eudora. The following procedure provides the steps that you should follow to configure client access to an Exchange mailbox when you use Outlook Express.

Note

Each client application provides slightly different user interface options to configure the connection to an Exchange 2007 server. Because the steps in this example will be different if you are using an application other then Outlook Express, use the logic of this example to connect to your mailbox. For information about how to configure a different POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail application, see the Help for the respective application.

Procedure

Follow these steps to configure access to an Exchange 2007 mailbox from a POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail application.

Set up Outlook Express for POP3 or IMAP4 access

  1. Open Outlook Express. The Internet Connection Wizard will run the first time that you open Outlook Express. Or, you can run the Internet Connection Wizard by clicking the Tools menu and then clicking Accounts.

  2. On the Select Account Type page, click Add, select E-mail Account, and then click Next.

  3. On the Your Name page, enter your full name in the Display name box.

  4. On the Internet E-mail Address page, enter your e-mail address in the E-mail address box.

  5. In the E-mail Server Names page of the Internet Connection Wizard, select POP3 or IMAP to match the protocol that you want to use to connect to your Exchange mailbox.

  6. Under Incoming mail (POP3, or IMAP or HTTP) server, enter the name fully qualified domain name of the Client Access server.

  7. Under Outgoing e-mail server (SMTP) name, enter the name fully qualified domain name of the Client Access server.

  8. On the Internet Mail Logon page, enter your e-mail user name and password. If you want Outlook Express to remember your password, select the check box next to Remember password. If you want to use secure password authentication, verify that the Log on using Secure Password Authentication (SPA) check box is selected. After you have performed these tasks, click Next.

  9. (Optional) To configure Outlook Express to leave a copy of the message on the server after it downloads a message to the client application, do the following:

    1. In the Internet Accounts dialog box, click the account that you just created, and then click Properties.

    2. On the Advanced tab, under Delivery, select the Leave a copy of messages on server check box, and then click OK.

  10. (Optional) If your POP3 or IMAP4 server requires a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection, do the following:

    1. In the Internet Accounts dialog box, click the account that you just created, and then click Properties.

    2. On the Advanced tab, under Outgoing mail (SMTP) and Incoming mail (POP3 or IMAP4), select the This server requires a secure connection (SSL) check boxes, and then click OK.

  11. Click Close.

For More Information

For more information about what to consider when you deploy POP3 and IMAP4 connectivity, see "Planning Considerations for POP3 and IMAP4" in Planning for Client Access Servers.

For information about how to manage POP3 and IMAP 4 connectivity, see each topic under the parent topic, Managing POP3 and IMAP4.

For information about how to verify that your Exchange environment is configured to support POP3 or IMAP4 connectivity, see Verify that Your Exchange Environment is Configured to Support POP3 and IMAP4.