Getting your business email working inside Outlook shouldn’t take more than a few minutes once you know the right server settings. We get this question a lot from clients who’ve just moved their domain to us, so here’s the exact process our support team walks people through.
Grab your settings first
Every mailbox we host uses the same hostname pattern. Before you open Outlook, note down these values (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain):
- Username: your full email address, e.g.
info@yourdomain.com - Incoming server (IMAP):
mail.yourdomain.com— port 993, SSL/TLS - Incoming server (POP3):
mail.yourdomain.com— port 995, SSL/TLS - Outgoing server (SMTP):
mail.yourdomain.com— port 465, SSL/TLS - Password: the one you set when you created the mailbox in cPanel
If mail.yourdomain.com throws a certificate warning, use your server hostname instead (you’ll find it in your welcome email, usually something like server2.hostnasi.com). That certificate always matches.
Should you pick IMAP or POP3?
Nine times out of ten, choose IMAP. It keeps your mail on the server and syncs the same folders across your laptop, phone and webmail. POP3 downloads everything to one device and (by default) removes it from the server, which is only worth it if you’re tight on hosting disk space.
Adding the account in Outlook
- Open Outlook and go to File → Add Account.
- Type your full email address and click Advanced options, then tick Let me set up my account manually.
- Choose IMAP as the account type.
- Enter the incoming and outgoing server details from above. Make sure the encryption method is set to SSL/TLS on both.
- Enter your password and click Connect.
Outlook will test the connection and, once both green ticks appear, your mail starts flowing in.
When it won’t connect
The most common culprit is the outgoing (SMTP) settings. Outlook sometimes leaves My outgoing server requires authentication unticked — turn it on and set it to use the same login as your incoming server. If you’re still stuck, temporarily switch the incoming port to 143 (IMAP, STARTTLS) to confirm the mailbox itself works, then troubleshoot the SSL layer.
Still no joy? Open a ticket from your Hostnasi client area and we’ll check the mailbox from the server side. Nine times out of ten it’s a typo in the password or a firewall on the office network blocking port 465.
