Guide Email

How to set up your email in Outlook

The exact settings and steps for adding a domain mailbox to Outlook on desktop, with IMAP recommended over POP3.

iFastHosting Support Team Updated 26 August 2026 6 min read Beginner

Outlook can auto-detect settings for a handful of large email providers, but a mailbox on your own domain is not one of them. It connects just as reliably once you switch to manual setup and enter the server details your control panel gives you — it just needs those details typed correctly.

Before you open Outlook

Create the mailbox in your control panel first if you have not already, and keep the tab open — you will need the incoming and outgoing server names and ports it shows you. See setting up email on your domain if the mailbox does not exist yet.

Use your own server names, not an example

Server hostnames differ between hosting accounts. Copy the ones your control panel shows for your specific mailbox rather than a value you find in a forum post or an older guide — a plausible-looking wrong hostname produces a connection failure that looks identical to a typo.

Adding the account

Open account settings
In Outlook, go to File > Add Account (or Info > Account Settings > New in older versions).
Type the email address
Enter the full address and let Outlook attempt to detect it. It will almost certainly fail or offer the wrong protocol for a domain mailbox — that is expected.
Switch to advanced or manual setup
Look for an option along the lines of "Let me set up my account manually" or "Advanced options" before Outlook finishes its automatic attempt.
Choose IMAP
IMAP keeps mail on the server and in sync across every device that connects to the mailbox. Avoid POP3 unless you have a specific reason to use it — see IMAP or POP3 for why.
Enter the server settings
Fill in the incoming and outgoing server names from your control panel, with the ports below, then enter the mailbox address and password when prompted.

The settings Outlook will ask for

Field	Value
Account type	IMAP
Incoming server	Shown in your control panel
Incoming port	993, with encryption set to SSL/TLS
Outgoing server	Shown in your control panel
Outgoing port	587 with STARTTLS, or 465 with SSL/TLS
Username	The full email address
Password	The mailbox password
Outgoing server authentication	Must be enabled — the outgoing server requires login the same as the incoming one

The outgoing authentication tick box is the one people miss

Outlook's advanced settings have a separate tab for the outgoing server, with its own "requires authentication" option. If it is left off, incoming mail works fine but sending fails — which is a confusing combination for something that looks like one setting.

If Outlook rejects the settings

Confirm you selected IMAP, not POP3 or Exchange, at the start of manual setup — the wrong protocol cannot be fixed by editing ports afterwards; you have to remove the account and start again.
Match the port to the encryption method. Port 993 needs SSL/TLS; port 587 needs STARTTLS. Mismatching these is the most common reason a test connection fails.
Check for a typo in the server name. A single wrong character produces "server not found" rather than an obvious spelling error.
Re-enter the password by typing it rather than pasting, in case trailing spaces were copied along with it.

If the account still will not authenticate after checking all of that, fixing authentication failed errors covers the remaining causes, including account lockouts and expired passwords.

Setting up Outlook on more than one computer

Because IMAP keeps mail on the server, adding the same account to a second computer, or to Outlook on the web, shows the identical inbox — nothing needs exporting or copying between them. Repeat the steps above on each device using the same server settings and password.

Outlook on Mac

The screens look different but ask for exactly the same information: address, IMAP, server names, ports and password. The manual setup option is usually reached from the same "Add Account" screen.

Once the mailbox is receiving mail reliably, it is worth putting SPF, DKIM and DMARC in place on the domain so mail sent from Outlook is less likely to be treated as suspicious by the people you send it to.

Adding a second account to the same Outlook profile

Outlook lets one profile hold several accounts side by side, each shown as its own set of folders in the left-hand navigation pane. Repeat the File > Add Account steps above for each additional mailbox — Outlook does not need the first account removed first, and switching between them is simply a case of scrolling the folder list or picking the account from a dropdown when composing a new message.

Set a default "Send from" account if you manage several

With more than one account added, Outlook lets you choose which one is used by default when starting a new message, under the account settings. Composing from the correct address by default avoids the easy mistake of replying to a work enquiry from a personal mailbox added to the same profile.

What changes if the mailbox is moved to a new host later

An existing Outlook account keeps working using its original server settings even if the domain's website moves elsewhere, since website hosting and mail hosting are controlled by separate DNS records. If the mailbox itself is ever migrated to a different mail host, though, Outlook needs the new incoming and outgoing server names entered — the address and password may stay the same, but the account has to be updated, or removed and re-added, to point at the new servers. See migrating mailboxes to a new host if this applies to you.

Slow or delayed sync

If new mail is arriving on your phone or in webmail well before it shows up in Outlook, check the account's send/receive settings — Outlook can be configured to check on a longer interval than an app defaults to, particularly on a shared or older computer where checking less frequently was set deliberately to reduce load. Right-clicking the account and choosing to send and receive manually confirms whether mail is there and simply waiting for the next scheduled check.