If you’ve spent any time on the Internet, you’ll probably have multiple email addresses , including one or more webmail addresses, like Microsoft Live or Hotmail. Until recently, these webmail accounts could only be viewed and managed online through an Internet browser like Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Fortunately, in recent years many providers like Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and other webmail providers have added POP/SMTP support, allowing users to view their webmail in Microsoft Outlook and other email clients, allowing them to perform advanced e-mail management on their mail accounts, accessing their mail while being offline, keeping all their e-mails on one spot, and creating backups of their emails offline.

This guide will show you how to configure Microsoft Outlook to include your Microsoft Live Hotmail email account. It will show you how to download Microsoft Office Outlook Connector For Windows Live Hotmail, and how to properly configure it.

Prerequisite to use Microsoft Office Outlook Connector is either Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. Microsoft Office Outlook Connector works with Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102218231033.aspx

This guide will also show you how to configure Outlook for other webmail providers, like Yahoo! Mail and Google’s Gmail. As Gmail uses SSL and specific port numbers, this guide will show you how to change your Microsoft Outlook configuration settings, and how to test whether you’ve set up everything correctly.

This guide will describe how to configure Outlook for Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo! mail, and Google Gmail. Other web email providers can be configured similarly to these three main webmail providers. The guide applies to these webmail providers too, provided you can find out which POP and SMTP mailservers are they require.

After you’ve followed this guide, you’ll have integrated your hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! and other webmail accounts (provided they also support POP/SMTP) in one location, providing you with a single location to keep track of your incoming e-mails, and allow easy e-mail management, including applying advanced rules and alerts, sharing contacts between e-mail accounts, and making sure you don’t miss out on that one important email, arriving at that obscure e-mail account you hardly ever check.

If you plan to incorporate one or more Microsoft Live hotmail accounts in Microsoft Outlook, you’ll need to download and install Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.

1. The current version (Version 2.1 at the time of writing, March 2010) of Outlook Connector can be obtained from the Microsoft website (www.microsoft.com, current version downloadable here).
2. At the download page, click the “Download” button next to “OutlookConnector.exe” This will download the appropriate file, and save it on your computer’s hard disk.
3. Locate “OutlookConnector.exe” on your computer, and doubleclick the program to start the installation.
4. Follow the installation instructions on screen to complete the installation.

• Note: Depending on your Operation System, webbrowser and settings, you might see a safety prompt. Select ‘continue’ or ‘Allow’ to continue the installation.

Before you can actually use Microsoft Outlook with Live Hotmail, you need to configure Outlook.

1. When you start up Microsoft Outlook, you will be asked to configure Outlook Connector.
2. Provide your E-mail address and password
3. Provide the name you want to use when sending e-mail. This name will be visible to others, when they receive e-mails from you.
4. Press ‘OK’

Once you’ve provided the right credentials, you’ll continue to the main screen of Microsoft Outlook. Your Hotmail account will now be visible in the Naviation pane, with the main folder name <yourname>@hotmail.com. You can now use this mailbox like any other mailbox, including email management, applying rules and alerts, etc.

• Please note that Microsoft Outlook Connector uses a Human Interaction Proof (HIP) challenge when sending e-mail from your hotmail account. This is introduced to ensure Outlook Connector is not used for mass spam e-mail sending.

If you want to add an additional e-mail account, please follow these steps:

1. On the Outlook Connector menu, select “Add a New Account”.
2. You will now see the same window from step 2, allowing you to provide the credentials for the new e-mail account. Provide the e-mail account name, password and name
3. Press “Ok”, and the new account will appear in your Outlook pane, next to your previous account.

• You may need to synchronize or restart Microsoft Outlook to see the e-mail contents of your newly configured account.

Next to Microsoft Hotmail, you can also include a gmail webmail account to Microsoft Outlook. For this, Outlook Connector is not needed. However, Gmail uses some non-standard configuration settings. In order to get gmail working with Outlook, you’ll need to make some adjustments to your Outlook settings.

1. First of all, enable POP3 support on your gmail account. Log in to your gmail account via your web browser
2. Click ‘Settings’ at the top of the gmail page
3. Go to the “Mail Settings” window, and click “Forwarding and POP”.
4. At the “POP Download” section, select “Enable POP for all mail” Alternatively, you can select “Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on”.
5. Click “Save Settings”

Next, we’re going to configure Microsoft Outlook

1. Open Microsoft Outlook, Select “Tools”and “E-mail Accounts”.
2. Select “Add a new e-mail account”, and click “Next”.
3. Select “POP3”, and “Next”.
4. Fill out “User Information” with your full name and gmail address (<yourname>@gmail.com)
5. Fill out “Server Information”with POP3: pop.gmail.com and SMTP:smtp.Gmail.com.
6. Fill out “Logon Information” with your gmail account (including @gmail.com), and your password.
7. Go to “More Settings”, and select the “General” tab. At “Mail Account”, type “Gmail”.
8. At “Outgoing Server”, select “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication”
9. Also, select “Use same settings as my incoming mail server.”
10. Select “Advanced”, and select “This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)” for both incoming and outgoing server.
11. Change “Outgoing server (SMTP)” to “465”.
12. Change “Incoming server (POP3)” to “995” if needed.
13. Click “Ok”.

Your account should now be set up correctly. You can check by clicking “Test Account Settings” http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011488981033.aspx

Yahoo! email accounts are easier to include to Microsoft Outlook, as Yahoo! doesn't require SSL or alternate ports to be set. Also, Yahoo! doesn't require Outlook Connector to be installed. In order to install Yahoo! Mail in Outlook, follow these steps:

1. Open Microsoft Outlook, Select “Tools”and “E-mail Accounts”.
2. Select “Add a new e-mail account”, and click “Next”.
3. Select “POP3”, and “Next”.
4. Fill out “User Information” with your full name and Yahoo mail address
5. Filling out the “Server Information” may be a bit tricky, as Yahoo! Mail has many pop servers. You can deduct the POP3 and SMTP servers from your email account. For the POP3 server, replace <your name> with “pop.mail.” eg myname@yahoo.com becomes “pop.mail.yahoo.com” For the SMTP server, replace <your name> with “smtp.mail.” eg myname@yahoo.com becomes “smtp.mail.yahoo.com”
6. Fill out “Logon Information” with your full Yahoo email address, and your password.
7. Select “More Settings”, “General” and “Mail Account”. Select “Yahoo! Mail”
8. Select “Outgoing Server” and check “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication”
9. Select “Use same settings as my incoming mail server” and press “OK.”, “Next” and “Finish”.http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011133141033.aspx