Settings for connecting your company mailbox
One page with the details every mail program asks for — and a plain explanation of what those boxes actually mean.
There are two ways to reach your company mailbox. Either through a browser, where nothing needs configuring, or through a mail program on your computer or phone — Outlook, Mail on the iPhone, Thunderbird and so on. That second route asks for a handful of details, and they're all on this page. They're the same for every program; only where you type them differs.
The easy way — mail in your browser
Open webmail.yourcompany.com (swap in your own domain) and sign in with your full email address and password. Nothing to configure, works on a computer and a phone alike, and it's the fastest way to get to your mail right now.
Two ways a program can fetch your mail
Mail programs will ask whether you want IMAP or POP3. It sounds technical, but the difference is simple — it's a question of whether messages stay on the server or get downloaded onto your device.
| IMAP | POP3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Where messages are kept | they stay on the server | downloaded to the device |
| When you open your mail on another device | you see the same thing — read and deleted alike | the messages may not be there |
| If you lose the device | your mail is safe on the server | your mail goes with it |
| When to pick it | almost always | only in rare cases |
The details the program wants
These are the boxes a mail program asks for when you set it up by hand. “Incoming mail” means where messages are read from; “outgoing” is the route they're sent out through.
| What it's for | Server address | Port | Security |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incoming mail — IMAP | imap.hostcreators.sk | 993 | SSL/TLS |
| Incoming mail — POP3 | pop3.hostcreators.sk | 995 | SSL/TLS |
| Outgoing mail — SMTP | smtp.hostcreators.sk | 465 | SSL/TLS |
A port is just the number of the door the program uses to reach the server — copy it exactly as it appears in the table. SSL/TLS security means the connection is encrypted; some programs label the very same option simply “SSL”.
Username and password
- Enter your full email address as the username —
you@yourcompany.com, not justyou. This is the single most common mistake. - The password is the one belonging to the mailbox. It is not your computer password, nor any control-panel password.
- The same username and password go into both the incoming and the outgoing settings.
- If you see a box along the lines of “outgoing server requires authentication”, it has to be ticked.
143, 110 and 25 in the settings. Those run without encryption — don't use them. Your password and the contents of your messages could be read by anyone along the way. Always leave SSL/TLS switched on and use the ports from the table above.I can't decide. What should I set?
IMAP, port 993, SSL/TLS security. That suits nearly everyone and works in every mail program.
I can receive mail but I can't send it.
Almost always this is authentication being switched off on the outgoing server. Find the option in your outgoing mail settings saying the server requires a login and turn it on — it uses the same username and password as receiving.
The program says the connection isn't secure.
Check that SSL/TLS is on for both incoming and outgoing mail and that the port numbers match the table exactly. This message shows up when something is set to an unencrypted connection.
I set it up and the program keeps asking for the password.
Almost certainly the username box holds only part of the address. Change it to the full email address, including everything after the @, and enter the password again.