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Configuring a Directory Service Account

A directory service enables you to find information about people or services. By default, Outlook Express provides Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) access to Active Directory (for searching on a domain-based LAN) as well as a few default Internet directory services. Active Directory is the directory service used by Windows domains starting with Windows 2000. You can learn more about Active Directory in “Finding Domain Resources,” page 336. If you are not a member of a Windows domain, the Active Directory option is simply not used. If you click the arrow next to the Find button on the Outlook Express toolbar and select People, Outlook Express opens the Find People dialog box. In this dialog box, you can enter the name or other information about a person you’re searching for and use the Look In box to ask Outlook Express to use either Active Directory (to find people on the local domain) or an Internet directory service.

You can add additional directory services by clicking Add, Directory Service on the Directory Service tab of Internet Accounts. Provide the desired directory service name and any necessary logon information.

tip Limiting Internet Searches

By default, Outlook Express returns up to 100 matches for your Internet search. You configure each search engine to limit itself to more or fewer matches by selecting the directory service on the Directory Service tab of Internet Accounts, clicking Properties, selecting the Advanced tab, and then specifying a maximum value in the Maximum Number Of Matches To Return box.

Outlook Express can also use the directory services listed in the Internet Accounts dialog box to match names you type in the To box of your e-mails to their corresponding e-mail addresses when those people aren’t included in your address book. By default, Outlook Express only searches Active Directory (and then only if you’re part of a Windows domain), but you can select one or more of the Internet directory services. Open the Properties dialog box of each Internet directory service, and select Check Names Against This Server When Sending Mail on the General tab. Then, in the Internet Accounts dialog box, click Set Order and specify in what order you want the directory services to be searched. In general, add the e-mail addresses of those you correspond with regularly to your address book because Internet searches for e-mail addresses can be time-consuming.

Once you have your accounts configured, you then need to get connected. By default, Outlook Express connects to the Internet using the preferences that you’ve specified in Internet Explorer. In other words, Outlook Express uses the options you have configured on the Connections tab of Internet Options, such as dialing a connection when a network connection isn’t present or using various proxy settings. See “Managing Connectivity,” page 137, for more information. Using Outlook Express with Internet Explorer is easy because you only have to determine the Internet connection you want

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Importing and Exporting Account Information to Save Time

In the interest of saving time, Outlook Express provides an easy way to export and import accounts. For example, if you manage a workgroup of 10 Windows XP computers, you can configure a mail account and a news account, and specify a directory services account on one of the computers. Assuming you want to use the same accounts on each computer, open Internet Accounts on the first computer, select each account you’ve set up, and click Export. Each account is saved as an Internet Account File type with a .iaf file extension. You can then use the Import button in the Internet Accounts dialog boxes of the other nine computers to quickly import the accounts to those machines. Otherwise, without a domain-based network, you’ll have to set up the accounts on each computer individually, and you’ll waste time entering redundant information.

to use once in Internet Explorer in order for both programs to work. If you want to access the Connections tab that appears in Internet Explorer from within Outlook Express, choose Tools, Options, select the Connection tab, and then click the Change button. Although Outlook Express defaults to using the connections specified in Internet Explorer, you can override these settings on a per account basis by specifying different connection options on the Connection tab of each mail and news account’s properties dialog box in Outlook Express. If you don’t see the connection you need in any of these dialog boxes, you’ll need to set one up. To do that, see “Creating New Internet Connections,” page 103.

To connect to your provider and send and receive your mail in one step, click the Send/ Recv button on the Outlook Express toolbar. If the Dial-Up Connection dialog box appears, you can choose to connect automatically from that point on by selecting Connect Automatically (you also have to select Save Password because Outlook Express will need to know the password to make the automatic connection).

If you are having problems connecting with your ISP, check Table 7-1 for common connectivity problems and solutions.

Table 7-1. Common Connectivity Problems and Solutions

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This Account When Receiving Mail Or Synchronizing. Because it takes time to access each mail account when you’re receiving mail, you might choose to enable this option for your most active e-mail accounts, but to leave it cleared for those that only occasionally receive mail. This way, you can click the Send/Recv button and retrieve mail from all the active accounts without wasting time looking for mail on seldom used accounts. When you do want to check mail on the less active accounts, click the arrow next to the Send/Recv button, and then click the account you want to check for mail. Also, when you have more than one mail account, you can select the main one on the Mail tab of the Internet Accounts dialog box, and then click Set Default. This account will then be the one used by default when you create a new e-mail message. The message’s From field will be filled with your e-mail address from the default account; when you send the message, the message will be sent out through the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server specified for this account.

Because Outlook Express 6 enables you to manage Internet mail as well as send and receive it, you can work with all of your e-mail accounts in the Folders list displayed in the left pane of Outlook Express and shown in Figure 7-6. If you don’t see the Folders list, choose View, Layout, select the Folders List option, and click OK. The Folders list contains a folder structure for each e-mail or news account you have configured. If you are using HTTP mail, you can synchronize the account with the HTTP mail server by selecting the account in the Folders list and clicking the Synchronize Account button in the right pane.

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Using Mail and News While Offline

A great feature of Outlook Express, especially when working with HTTP mail accounts like Hotmail, is offline support. Typically, you must be connected to the Internet to work with HTTP mail—not so with Outlook Express. You can review your mail, delete mail you don’t want to keep, prepare new e-mail messages, and compose answers to those you’ve already retrieved while you’re offline, such as when using your laptop on an airplane. Then, when you have access to an Internet connection again, just synchronize the account with the HTTP server. Replies and new mail messages are sent out, new mail is downloaded, and messages you deleted on your laptop are deleted on the HTTP server. You can read and process the HTTP mail at any time because it is downloaded to your folders. This feature makes HTTP function like a typical POP3 e-mail account, and that is great news if you are not connected to the Internet all of the time. Newsgroups can be used in a similar fashion. You can download the headers for groups you subscribe to, and then while working offline, you can review the headers and select those you want to retrieve the messages for. When your Internet connection is available again, Outlook Express will retrieve the marked messages. If you want, you can go offline again and read them even when the Internet connection isn’t available.

Chapter 7: Using Outlook Express Advanced Features

By default, Outlook Express creates an identity called Main Identity for e-mail and for the address book. This identity cannot be deleted, but you can change its name to another name such as your own (choose File, Identities, Manage Identities; select Main Identity, click Properties, and enter a new name in the Type Your Name box), and you can add other identities and switch between them. Identities can be password protected, but this does not guarantee that someone will not be able to see your e-mail or contacts list.

If you want to ensure privacy, make sure each person uses a password to protect his or her identity folder where the e-mail is stored. Each identity has a separate subfolder with a long numerical name in this default path: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities, where username is the name of the Windows XP user account under which all identities use the computer. You can browse to this path using Windows Explorer, and then browse the numerical subfolders of Identities to actually get to your data. The data is stored in files with .dbx extensions, as shown in Figure 7-7, but it can be copied and read. The point is that password protection helps, but if you are serious about privacy, you might consider password protecting your folder or even using folder encryption to secure the data. Or, use different Windows XP user accounts instead of Outlook Express identities.

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●Check For New Messages Every. If you want Outlook Express to automatically check for messages, select this option, and enter a time interval. By default, messages are checked every 30 minutes. You can also select Send And Receive Messages At Startup to check for messages as soon as you open Outlook Express. Also, select an option under If My Computer Is Not Connected At This Time so Outlook Express will know whether or not you want it to attempt to make a connection when it’s time to check your mail. These settings determine whether Outlook Express automatically attempts to connect and retrieve mail on a periodic basis. This can be beneficial when you’re set up at home or at your office, but can be annoying when you’re using a portable laptop, and the computer repeatedly attempts to dial a connection when there is no phone line connected to the computer.

Figure 7-9. Configure message download options and features on the

General tab.

Read Tab

The Read tab, shown in Figure 7-10 on the next page, provides these important options for reading mail and news messages:

●Mark Message Read After Displaying For … Seconds. E-mail messages that have not been read appear in a bold type. However, if you are using the Preview pane, the message is marked as read after you preview it for five seconds. This might work well for you, but if you receive a lot of e-mail, you might want the messages to not appear as read until you have actually opened them in the message window. In this case, clear the check box.

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