Setting up Microsoft Exchange for Internet Mail

This document explains how to set up Microsoft Exchange to access your Internet mail on ComBase's system. There are two pieces of software required to access Internet mail: the Microsoft Exchange program itself (or MSX), and the Internet Mail service for Exchange.

Installing Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft Exchange comes as a standard part of Windows 95. You will need your Windows 95 CD-ROM or floppy disks in order to install the program. comes as a standard part of Windows 95. You will need your Windows 95 CD-ROM or floppy disks in order to install the program. comes as a standard part of Windows 95. You will need your Windows 95 CD-ROM or floppy disks in order to install the program.

To install the software, press the Start Button, select Settings and then select Control Panel. Double-click on the Add/Remove Programs icon. Click the Windows Setup tab. You will see a list of the different components of Windows 95. Double-click on the words Microsoft Exchange (make sure you are double-clicking on the words, not the check-box.) You will see another list with two options. Click inside the check-box for the first option only, Microsoft Exchange. (Do not install Microsoft Mail unless your machine is on a network and you want to run a Workgroups Post Office local mail system in addition to mail on the Internet.) Press the OK button, and then press the OK button on the first window. You will be asked for your Windows 95 CD or floppies- insert whichever disk(s) it asks for.

After installing the software, Windows will ask you to configure the software. It will ask whether or not you have used Microsoft Exchange before. Select No and press the Next button. It will then ask you about configuring information services- select Manually configure information services and press Next. It will then ask for a profile name, with MS Exchange Settings as the default. You may change this if you wish, or simply use this name for your profile (the list of services you will be using with MSX.) Press the Next button.

You will now see the Profile Properties window. Since you've just installed MSX, this will probably be empty. You need to add the following items: Personal Address Book and Personal Folders.

Press the Add button. You will see a list of the available services. Click on Personal Address Book and press the OK button. You will see a screen of options- how you want the address book sorted (by first name or last name) and the actual filename for the address book file. Select how you want it sorted, and press the OK button.

Press the Add button again. Click on Personal Folders and press the OK button. It will ask you for a filename for your .pst file. You can use any name you want (that ends with .pst) but the most common name, especially for single-user systems, is mailbox.pst. Enter the filename you want to use in the File name box and press the Open button. You can now set the name of the folder collection, whether or not you want the folders to be encrypted, and you can also set a password for the folder collection if you wish. Press the OK button when you're through setting the options.

Press the OK button. You will now be asked whether or not you want MSX to start automatically when you start Windows. Press Next when you have selected your choice.

You can now press the Finish button. Windows will finish setting up the menus and icons for MSX. When it's done, close Control Panel and continue on to the next section.

Adding the Internet Mail service to MSX

Click the Inbox icon with the RIGHT mouse button, and select Properties from the menu that appears. You will see the list of installed services in your profile. Press the Add button. You should see Internet Mail on the list of available services. Select Internet Mail and press the OK button.

You will now see the screen with the settings for Internet Mail. Enter the following information. Make sure to use the TAB key (instead of ENTER) to move from one field to the next.

Full name: Your real name. This will be used to identify you on any mail messages you send.
E-mail address: Your e-mail address is your user_name@combase.com.
Internet Mail server: mail.combase.com
Account name: Your user_name, with nothing after it
Password: Enter your password. Watch your fingers as you type the password, since the characters will show up on the screen as *'s. Also, make sure you're not typing your password with capital letters by mistake-look at your Caps Lock light and make sure it's off.

Press the Message Format... button. Make sure the box for MIME is checked. Press the Character Set... button. Select US ASCII from the list and press OK. Press OK on the Message Format window as well.

Click on the Connection tab. Make sure that Connect using the network is selected, and that Work off-line (at the bottom) is NOT checked. Press the OK button. You should now see Internet Mail as an entry in your profile. Press the OK button to close the Profile Properties window.

Note: Connect using the network causes MSX to call the standard Windows 95 interface for dialing into the Internet, rather than trying to force the modem to dial by itself. In some cases, MSX has started the modem dialing procedure while a connection was already active, and this setting prevents that situation from happening.

Using MSX to read and write E-mail

To use MSX, double-click on the Inbox icon. The first time you run MSX, it will ask you to choose a profile to use. Press the Options>> button and turn on the check box for Set as default profile. From that point on, MSX will always use the selected profile by default. Press the OK button.

You will see the MSX screen come up. At the same time, MSX will try to connect to the mail server, so if you're not connected to the Internet, you will see your dialer window come up as well. If this happens, press Cancel for now.

Before creating any outgoing email messages, make sure you've got Internet Mail as the first service in the addressing order. Pull down the Tools menu and select Options. Select the Delivery tab. At the bottom of the window, you will see a list of the message-handling services in your profile. Internet Mail should be the first service in the list. If it isn't, then select it by clicking once on the words Internet Mail and then pressing the up-arrow button to the right of the list until it is the first. Press the OK button to save the new order and close the window.

To check for any incoming email, pull down the Tools menu and select either Deliver Now or Deliver Now Using... and Internet Mail. If you have mail waiting on the server, MSX will download it into your computer. As the messages are downloaded, they are removed from the server. Also, any unsent Internet Mail messages in your outbox will be sent at this time.

You can double-click on a message to read it. There are toolbar icons and menu commands available for composing new messages, replying to mail, deleting old messages, and so forth. There is also an extensive help file available within the program by pressing the F1 key.

One thing that is very helpful is to pull down the View menu and turn on Folders. This allows you to see the different folders in your folder collection, and makes it easier to create new folders to hold email to and from different people, or dealing with different subjects, or however you want to organize them. You can also create folders within folders- you could have a business folder with folders inside it that deal with different issues, and a personal folder that contains folders of personal mail with different people.

Before creating any outgoing email messages, make sure you've got Internet Mail as the first service in the addressing order. Pull down the Tools menu and select Options. Select the Delivery tab. At the bottom of the window, you will see a list of the message-handling services in your profile. Internet Mail should be the first service in the list. If it isn't, then select it by clicking once on the words Internet Mail and then pressing the up-arrow button to the right of the list until it is the first. Press the OK button to save the new order and close the window.