UWFox :: Instructional Technology :: Student Email Account

How to Configure Outlook 2003 for Home Use

Description of the purpose of this document:

Exchange 2003, in combination with Outlook 2003, brings a powerful feature that you can use from your home machine. Many of you have probably used Outlook Web Access (http://owa.uwc.edu/) to check your mail from home. This is a powerful tool although the interface can be a bit hard to navigate and it lacks some of the features of the full version of Outlook. There is a way that you can setup Outlook on your home machine so that you can email just like you were on campus. This includes the use of Public Folders, your contacts, tasks, the Global Address List (GAL) and everything else that would normally be available to you on your campus workstation. This document will outline how to configure your Outlook 2003 client to connect to your Exchange server from home.

Before you get started (assumptions):

You are using Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

You have Outlook 2003 installed on your computer. It is also recommended that you go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx to update your installation of Microsoft Office.

Note: If you do not have Outlook 2003, you can obtain the Office 2003 suite from http://wiscsoftware.wisc.edu/wisc_fs/school.asp?institution=1046 for a fee. Please go to http://wiscsoftware.wisc.edu/wisc_fs/incFiles/WAH_accept.doc for more information on the terms of the license agreement.

Internet access is available (broadband recommended).

1) Open the Control Panel by going to Start -> Control Panel

2) If your Control Panel looks like the one shown below, switch to classic view. To do this, click "Switch to Classic View" in the upper left.

3) Within the Control Panel, double click on the "Mail" icon.

4) Next, click on the "Show Profiles" button.

5) Click the "Add" button to add a new account.

6) Enter a profile name of your choice in the "Profile Name" field and click "Ok."

7) Select the "Add new email account" radio button and click "Next."

8) Click on the button next to "Microsoft Exchange Server" and click "Next."

9) Enter the name of your campus Exchange server in the "Microsoft Exchange Server" box. This will take the form of xxxex2.uwc.edu where xxx is your campus prefix. As an example, the picture below shows admex2.uwc.edu for user jdoe from the central office. When you are finished, click on "More Settings."

10) At this point, the program may pause and give an error stating that Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. If it does, click "OK" on the dialog box. On the next screen, click "Cancel." You may also be prompted for a username and password. If so, enter the email address and password you use to login to your work computer.

11) In the next window, click on the "Advanced" tab and make sure that "Use Cached Exchange Mode" is checked.

12) On the "Security" tab, click on the box next to "Encrypt data between Microsoft Office Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server."

13) On the "Connection" tab, click on the box next to "Connect to my Exchange mailbox using HTTP." Then click on the "Exchange Proxy Settings…" button.

14) On this screen, type owa.uwc.edu in the "Use this URL…" dialog box. Then ensure that the "Connect using SSL only," "On fast networks…," and "On slow networks…" buttons are checked. Click "OK."

15) Click "OK."

16) Click "Next."

17) Click "Finish."

18) Click "OK." If everything went well your account should now be configured properly.

19) Open Outlook 2003. You will be prompted for your username and password. Again, use your email address as the username and the password that you use to login to your work computer. Once you authenticate, Outlook will open. At first, you will see nothing in your mailbox. This is because Outlook has to download a copy of your mailbox to your home computer. Depending on the size of your mailbox and the speed of your Internet connection, this could take some time. However, once the initial download is complete, Outlook will only download new items every time you open the program. You can see what Outlook is doing by looking at the information in the lower right corner of the Outlook window. You can also use that area to see if Outlook is having any problems. Once the download is complete, the status bar will tell you that all your folders have been updated.