Outlook 12 to Ease Client-Side Account Configuration

kcnychief

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Man, this is exciting stuff :)

POP & IMAP Accounts. While the account configuration details are often confusing for regular users, they’re pretty predictable for experts. For example, if your email address (given to you by your ISP) is john_doe@isp.com, then there’s a good chance that your POP3 server is something like mail.isp.com and your SMTP server is probably something like smtp.isp.com.

With Outlook 12, the customer needs to just type in his or her name, email address, and password. Outlook then tries several predictable combinations of server addresses, SPA, and server ports (995, 993, and 587 for secure connections, 110, 143, and 25 for unsecure connections) until it finds a configuration that works. It tries the combinations in a prioritized order, so for most ISPs the correct combination is often detected very quickly.
But what if an ISP uses a non-standard (or hard to predict) configuration? For example, some ISPs use different ports, even for POP3 or IMAP accounts, for largely historical reasons.

These ISPs can deploy a XML file in a predictable location on their server (e.g. isp.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml, among other places) that includes information about the correct configuration settings for POP3 and IMAP accounts on that domain. Outlook downloads the XML file and uses it to automatically configure the customer’s account. We figure out where to look based on the email address.

Before Outlook 12 ships, the format for the XML configuration file will be available for ISPs everywhere.

http://blogs.msdn.com/willkennedy/archive/2005/11/16/493628.aspx
 
I dont like the new interface for the new office and Im not fussy bout this. My ISP email servers are pophm.sympatico.ca (pophotmail) and smtphm.sympatico (smtphotmail).

Are there any screenshots of outlook 12? I will probably stick with office 2003.
 
Admiral Michael said:
I dont like the new interface for the new office and Im not fussy bout this. My ISP email servers are pophm.sympatico.ca (pophotmail) and smtphm.sympatico (smtphotmail).

Are there any screenshots of outlook 12? I will probably stick with office 2003.
I think many people (including myself) felt that way when we first saw screenshots of Office "12" last year. And yes, it'll take a little while to get familiar with the new UI, but after using Beta 1 for a couple of months, the changes are for the better, in my opinion. The contextual ribbons will literally show you features that you never knew existed. :D

If you have a MSDN subscription, or if a public beta becomes available at some point, I'd really recommend trying it out for a few weeks. It's the first version of Office that I'm actually excited about. The only reason I personally upgraded to Office 2003 was for Outlook, which is so much better than the XP version. Office 2007, on the other hand, includes major improvements to every application in the suite. :)
 
NetRyder said:
If you have a MSDN subscription, or if a public beta becomes available at some point, I'd really recommend trying it out for a few weeks. It's the first version of Office that I'm actually excited about.

I wish I had one.

NetRyder said:
The only reason I personally upgraded to Office 2003 was for Outlook, which is so much better than the XP version. Office 2007, on the other hand, includes major improvements to every application in the suite. :)

I agree, OutlookXP isnt as nice as Outlook 2003.
 
Um, I assume you mean that Outlook 2003 is BETTER than Outlook XP?
 
You must get excited very easily ;P

But kudos to the Office team. Seems like we'll actually be getting some major new features this time around.
 
Grandmaster said:
You must get excited very easily ;P
I said it's the first version of Office that I'm excited about. ;)

Why? Because I can actually see how it can make tasks that I perform often easier and faster. We had to use some pretty advanced Excel functionality extensively for one of the Physics labs that I took, and when I use Excel 12, I realize that it could have cut down the amount of work I had to do by a significant chunk. That's pretty damn cool. They've done some great stuff with pivot tables too. There was a Channel9 video about that a few days ago.

And of course, Outlook has literally been my life-line for many years now, so any improvements to it are always welcome with open arms here. :D
 
I am looking forward to this .. Then with them making Windows Mail simular to outlook without all the stuff you will never use; I will probably use it over outlook. The rest of the office suite looks nice though ...
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
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